Thanks to a grainy camera phone picture that surfaced on the internet last night, it's a pretty safe assumption that Infiniti's upcoming premium small car will be a coupe — possibly even spawning a cabriolet. But that got us thinking, what platform will they build it on?
If you remember back to earlier this decade, Infiniti produced the G20 — essentially a spruced-up Nissan Primera. So we know that Infiniti doesn't have any issues with badge engineering Nissan vehicles. However, Infiniti has moved away from front-wheel drive — it has since axed the G20 and I35 — so there is nothing really in Nissan's current lineup that could make the move to the Infiniti marque.
However, Nissan is reportedly preparing a rear-wheel drive 240SX replacement in the coming years. After you put your thinking cap on, it would seem to make perfect sense that the next-generation 240SX platform would be the perfect architecture to underpin Infiniti's upcoming small coupe.
Power for the 240SX replacement will be supplied by a range of four-cylinder engines, with outputs in the 220 horsepower range. While a six-cylinder could be under consideration for the Infiniti-badged version, it would seem more likely that a more powerful turbocharged version of the 240SX' powerplant would be used. Not only would the smaller engine save on fuel consumption, but it would save on weight and thereby improve overall performance. With the advancements made on the GT-R project, it wouldn't be unreasonable to see a 2.0L four making 300 horsepower — especially since Infiniti wouldn't want to be out gunned by the 300 horsepower BMW 135i.
Another tidbit about the cars stood out to us. Both will reportedly be on the market by 2010. This seems just too much like a coincident for us.
And with costs always under consideration by automakers, it doesn't make fiscal sense to be developing to different but very similar platforms. All questions should be soon answer as it is believed that a concept version of the Infiniti will surface by year's end.
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