When reviewing a car, any car, it is not wise to take possession of the keys with any preconceived ideas.
While, for example, I am probably never going to be in the market for a seven-seater people carrier, if I am given one to review, I have to keep an open mind. This means I will review it on its merits and ask myself who the car is aimed at and whether it successfully fills a niche in the market.
When I was offered the chance to get behind the wheel of an Infiniti G37 saloon, I had very few preconceived ideas. In fact, I had none. I pretty much did zero research about the car, I just took possession of it when it arrived on the back of a truck at the office. And I'm glad that I did - as soon as I saw the G37, I liked it and I had a feeling we'd get along well.
Infiniti is the prestige brand for Nissan, similar in intent and pricing to Lexus, Toyota's prestige brand, but I kept any "It's just a Nissan and a Nissan is just a Datsun" cynicism at bay.
It was sleek and black, a four-door with a hint of coupe and a hint of Bentley in the shape, both pluses in my book. The chrome slats of the grille looked elegant. It was a much prettier car than I was expecting. The two-door coupe incarnation of this model has a touch more sex appeal and looks more menacing, but the four-door styling was classy indeed.
Gently, the car was lowered off the truck and I was handed the brochure and the keys. Once inside, I was surrounded by elegant leather, including leather trim on the paddle shifters, which was a nice touch. The car feels high-end. Infiniti have created a proper luxury car that turns heads and makes passengers say "Ooh, nice car!" as soon as you glide into their drive to pick them up.
But the truly pleasant surprise occurred when I fired her up with the push-button starter and put my foot down. My first drive of the G37 was just a trip around the corner to find a parking space but even in that brief encounter, I felt a fantastically torquey rush - 366Nm to be precise - and as I flicked it around a corner and realised it was a rear-wheel drive. Which is always so much more fun than front-wheel drive. The rev counter easily flew up over the 5,000 mark and it soon became apparent that this was not just a sober executive car, or a car that should be used merely in fleets of overpriced hotel taxis.
There was a cheeky hint of over-steer as I took the first corner - not enough for me to be a public menace but enough to set the heart racing - and on subsequent drives, even doing a U-turn at the lights was enough to cause the traction control to kick in. This created a controlled thrill - I had the rush of a bit of oversteer but never did I feel like I was going to fly off the road.
The seven-speed transmission was also pleasing, aside from the metal on top of the gear shifter that gets mighty hot in the summer sun. The automatic mode offered pretty seamless gear changes that were comparable to the seven-speed box offered in a Mercedes.
Like many of these cars with a sequential manual option, this is a bit of a gimmick with preset ratios so you can't always put it into the gear you want, even though this is the point of giving a car a manual option. Still, for open road driving, the choice of a spot of paddle shifting or sequential shifting on the floor makes this car a worthy competitor to the likes of the Audi A8 or the Mercedes E-Class, but at a more affordable price.
But what really impressed me, not to mention excited the male passengers, were the reversing camera and parking sensors. It made the nerve-racking headache of Abu Dhabi parking easy. The car has a pretty long wheelbase and it can be hard to gauge where the front of the car ends because of the sloping shape, so the sensors, which were sensible, rather than hyper-sensitive, helped enormously. Even when someone did the time-honoured Abu Dhabi trick of parking right up the middle of road seemingly inches from the back of the car, the reverse camera lets you know exactly how much room you had to move with lines on the screen to indicate where the car was headed.
But does this car do what it is meant to do? Just as the seven- seater people carrier gives precedence to comfort rather than sex appeal, the G37 does very well as a classy executive car with a cheeky dose of potency under the bonnet.
It won't look out of place in the recessionary executive car park - far less flashy than the boss turning up to work in something new, shiny and German, but still with plenty of elegance. On the weekend, even the boring boss might want to play on the open roads, the wind in his hair via the sunroof. And during the week, there's no chance he'll back into one of his underling's Corollas in the car park at work.
glewis@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73’)
Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties
Man of the Match: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal)
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The 12
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
OPTA'S PREDICTED TABLE
1. Liverpool 101 points
2. Manchester City 80
3. Leicester 67
4. Chelsea 63
5. Manchester United 61
6. Tottenham 58
7. Wolves 56
8. Arsenal 56
9. Sheffield United 55
10. Everton 50
11. Burnley 49
12. Crystal Palace 49
13. Newcastle 46
14. Southampton 44
15. West Ham 39
16. Brighton 37
17. Watford 36
18. Bournemouth 36
19. Aston Villa 32
20. Norwich City 29
Spare
Profile
Company name: Spare
Started: March 2018
Co-founders: Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Investment: Own savings. Going for first round of fund-raising in March 2019
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
FIGHT%20CARD
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFeatherweight%204%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EYousuf%20Ali%20(2-0-0)%20(win-loss-draw)%20v%20Alex%20Semugenyi%20(0-1-0)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWelterweight%206%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EBenyamin%20Moradzadeh%20(0-0-0)%20v%20Rohit%20Chaudhary%20(4-0-2)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EHeavyweight%204%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EYoussef%20Karrar%20(1-0-0)%20v%20Muhammad%20Muzeei%20(0-0-0)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWelterweight%206%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EMarwan%20Mohamad%20Madboly%20(2-0-0)%20v%20Sheldon%20Schultz%20(4-4-0)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESuper%20featherweight%208%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EBishara%20Sabbar%20(6-0-0)%20v%20Mohammed%20Azahar%20(8-5-1)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECruiseweight%208%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EMohammed%20Bekdash%20(25-0-0)%20v%20Musa%20N%E2%80%99tege%20(8-4-0)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESuper%20flyweight%2010%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ESultan%20Al%20Nuaimi%20(9-0-0)%20v%20Jemsi%20Kibazange%20(18-6-2)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELightweight%2010%20rounds%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EBader%20Samreen%20(8-0-0)%20v%20Jose%20Paez%20Gonzales%20(16-2-2-)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Don't get fined
The UAE FTA requires following to be kept:
- Records of all supplies and imports of goods and services
- All tax invoices and tax credit notes
- Alternative documents related to receiving goods or services
- All tax invoices and tax credit notes
- Alternative documents issued
- Records of goods and services that have been disposed of or used for matters not related to business
'Gold'
Director:Anthony Hayes
Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes
Rating:3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
