Infiniti’s Early Ads Wrote Checks That Its Cars Never Cashed

Jaguar recently set the Internet ablaze with their Copy Nothing advertising campaign. The public’s puzzlement (to put it mildly) recalls the pre-social media debut of the all-new Infiniti brand, which also made a splash with a series of questionable advertisements back in 1989. But the similarities end rather quickly, as Nissan likely had two mandates that allowed for the radical marketing exercise.

The first originates with Japan Inc., a mutually beneficial relationship between the Japanese government and private industry back in the 1980s. Nissan took the opportunity to heart, creating Project 901, an effort to produce world-beating performance in a manner similar to Ford’s Total Performance campaign in the 1960s. But it clearly went further, making international icons of technology like the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R and curious American experiments like the 1988 Nissan Maxima with an available sonar suspension.

Suspensions listening via sonar is one thing, but many of us experienced Project 901 firsthand at North American Infiniti showrooms, as the Infiniti G20 (Nissan Primera) had a complicated multi-link front suspension that Car and Driver noted was “so inordinately pitchable and tossable that you’d swear the same guys designed the underbits on, say, the Nissan 300ZX.” For the mid-level M30, Nissan curiously skipped over the high-tech Project 901 bits that were present on its JDM sibling, the Leopard: Missing were the aforementioned sonar suspension, digital gauges, and HICAS four-wheel steering. They didn’t skimp, however, on the flagship Q45 sedan, which we’ll discuss in further detail.

Before that, though, let’s discuss the second mandate that I believe encouraged Infiniti to make a big advertising play as it entered the American market. Thanks to export restraints of the era, a low volume, high-margin luxury car made more financial sense than cheaper, lower margin exports. Why import cheaper Nissans from Japan when you can make more money selling luxurious Infinitis that use Nissan engineering under their skin?

With Project 901’s blessings and Japanese export restrictions in full effect, Nissan formed a group with the mission of building the Infiniti brand in 1985, and it “would challenge the prevailing American and European luxury brands with more human-centric design.”

No matter how car nerds appreciate the engineering efforts within Project 901, the innovations wouldn’t be enough to resonate with your average luxury car buyer—a special advertising campaign was needed to introduce the brand. But curiously, the commercials didn’t even seek to leverage the thoughtful innovations of Nissan’s Project 901 to their advantage. Instead, they chose a more, ahem, spiritual route.

Little did we know that such “human centricity” from Infiniti’s founders included a multimedia campaign with some of the most bizarre commercials to air on network television in 1989. Let’s watch a few more, and then see if they actually did their job.

While we previously mentioned that the vague language and scenes from nature didn’t stop enthusiasts from wanting Infiniti’s flagship Q45 back in 1990, the intention was to target well-heeled Americans with cloudy, interpretational values in a luxury automobile. And if that sounds like a nebulous marketing strategy with no guardrails for misuse, well, that’s what you’ll see in the commercials presented here.

The voiceover suggests a zen-like Japanese dry garden quality to whatever the hell this Infiniti brand is going to sell. The script in the above commercial suggests there’s a market for those who have “made it” in life, but aren’t already married to the notion of buying a BMW or a Benz.

But as much as we enthusiasts would like to dump on things we don’t like, Infinti’s gambit actually worked. Yes, really.

By December 1989, more than 60,000 people saw these ads and called 1-800-826-6500 to “find out the location of the nearest Infiniti showroom.” This figure was taken from an article written in the business section of the New York Times, a story packed with nuggets of wisdom.

But maybe the NYT is just shilling for Nissan with a puff piece to compensate for disappointing commercials? Not likely, as the aforementioned toll free number became valuable enough for Nissan to use it elsewhere. And it still exists today: Go ahead, call 1-800-826-6500 right now, because it routes you to Nissan’s customer service hotline.

The commercial above continues the theme generated by this $60M campaign, as the voice tells us this will be a driver’s car without citing any attributes. The tease worked, as the NYT reported that the first month of sales (across 50 dealerships) Infiniti dealerships were “inundated by thousands of people eager to see the mysterious new luxury car.” The NYT reporting was accurate, at least from my personal experience with this brand in its infancy.

I vividly remember the “inundation” on one particular Saturday afternoon, as my parents (and their two car-crazy sons, naturally) were visibly excited to visit the local Infiniti dealer on Houston’s infamous Katy Freeway, wait 20-plus minutes in a posh showroom to test drive the Q45, and be absolutely blown away by its performance over our 1983 Lincoln Continental. (The fully depreciated Lincoln eventually became Project Valentino, but the bar was raised for all in the Mehta family that afternoon in 1990.)

The buildup to Infiniti’s official launch got a little more serious with this spot, as actors were employed to speak in vague terms about the appeal of someone who makes exclusive homes in Japan. The analogy here is that Infiniti makes bespoke creations in a landscape littered with Fleetwoods and S-classes, and they offer support after the sale that the established automakers cannot match. (As we will see later, the reality didn’t meet this expectation.)

The 1990 Infiniti Q45’s famous grill-free face would eventually be unveiled at the end of these TV commercials, but for many, that might have only been at the Tier II and Tier III levels of advertising like we see in this Massachusetts-based Infiniti dealership.

David Koeppel, owner of an Infiniti dealership in Queens NY, told the NYT that his recently-opened showroom had more than 600 people visit to kick the tires on Nissan’s luxury brand, and that was “twice as many people as he had expected.” Perhaps these commercials promised a great future for the fledgling brand, as Koeppel gushed back in 1989:

”People were dying to see it. It’s like the opening of a hot new show that everyone is talking about.”

Apparently the transition from vague scenes in nature to actual products with the Infiniti emblem was a success on both coasts. The NYT noted would-be customers in Los Angeles were ready to learn more even when the dealership was still under construction. Customers met sales staff that parked Infiniti demonstrator units “in the repair shop or on side streets” to learn more.

The the accolades rolled in. The Q45 was a luxury sedan for performance-minded drivers who moved to the beat of a different drummer. If I was a marketing professor, I’d suggest Infiniti’s go-to market strategy was a study in contrasts. They sought to reinvent luxury without alienating people who would otherwise buy a BMW or a Benz. But that’s a nice way of saying Infiniti gave mixed messages at a time when a strong first impression is everything.

First you hear the cutting shrill of that trumpet, then a Lexus perched atop a steeply raked platform comes into focus. The black paint is so deep against sharp overhead lighting that the car itself is almost invisible aside from its silhouette. Then we see champagne glasses, a feature so iconic to the Lexus LS400 that they are now sold as a set with die-cast replicas of this brand-building vehicle.

Speaking purely from an advertising standpoint, the LS400’s “champagne glass moment” meant it was game over for Infiniti. But advertising was only one problem that affected Infiniti in its early days. As much as you may hate the commercials, the Q45 itself was a huge liability. And a tragic hero, if you will.

Our flagship protagonist was plagued with a pair of undeserved misfortunes, becoming a flawed product with a disinterested corporate parent. In a market that demanded perfection, this was a massive Achilles’ heel.

The two issues were at once simple and complicated: faulty timing chain guides and an active suspension with disdainful factory support. The latter was available on the Infiniti Q45a, a vehicle that also utilized Project 901’s HICAS four wheel steering system. The electronically monitored/adjusted hydraulic suspension was originally sampled by our very own Don Sherman back in the day, and he wasn’t convinced. Sherman disappointingly noted the Q45a’s tendency to favor understeer more than the base Q45, as the analog suspension cornered flatter depending on the driver’s throttle input.

But that was the least of the Q45a’s problems, as Nissan threw out the baby with the bathwater after the warranty expired. You can read one example of the five-figure problem here. After reading, it triggered a distant memory of a conversation with a family friend who owned a Q45a when it was a new car. His example had a suspension failure, and he experienced Nissan’s same non-committal attitude to performing a goodwill repair. He had a happier resolution, as the dealer bit the bullet and sold him the redesigned 1994 model at a steep discount. (My father chimed in at that point with our singular experience test driving a Q45, and suggested he was glad we weren’t able to buy one on the spot.)

Now let’s discuss to the timing chain guides in the Q45’s impressive 32-valve engine. Most motorists prefer the lower maintenance costs of an engine fitted with a permanent metal timing chain over a rubber timing belt (which Lexus used on the LS400), as the latter has a shorter lifespan. But that value proposition flies out the window when the guides fail. Problems arising from the poorly engineered guides varied, as owners experienced issues ranging from engine misfires to terminal engine failure. While many a Hagerty reader both understands the issue and is willing to perform the repair for such a fantastic vehicle, I reckon most folks buying these new from 1990-93 had no appetite to pay for a repair that involves an extensive amount of labor.

Considering how Nissan/Infiniti treated customers with suspension issues in their Q45as, odds are many Q45s with failed timing chain guides were left out in the cold when the warranty expired. And a goodwill repair was out of the question if you bought your Q as a used vehicle outside of the factory warranty, from a non-Nissan dealership. Owners would likely sell or trade in their Q45 for another car, likely never to set foot in an Infiniti dealership again.

There’s no wrong way to sell a car, but there’s clearly a wrong way to design one for a fledgling luxury brand. Those advertisements had potential, but the brand wasn’t built to meet those lofty promises made on TV. While Infiniti swept problems under the preverbal rug, Lexus earned a near-bulletproof reputation after recalling all 1990 LS400s early on for minor issues that could have easily been neglected.

Perhaps if Infiniti got the Q45 right from the get-go, we’d consider those 60,000 toll-free phone calls from this obscure advertising campaign as the start of something magical. Because it absolutely could have gone down that way.