Model years › Infiniti Q50

2014 Infiniti Q50

Complaints about this year name steering far more often than the model's other years — 40% of them, about 12× the usual rate of 3.2%.

First year of a new generation. The Infiniti Q50 was redesigned for 2014. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• steering — 40.2% of this year's complaints, against 6.5% across the model's other years (6.2×).
• wheel — 26% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the model's other years (5.4×).
• adaptive — 18.3% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the model's other years (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: adaptive, adaptive steering, steering system, direct.

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

Also unusual this year

• steering wheel — 22% of complaints, 18× usual
• started — 14% of complaints, 36× usual
• power steering — 11% of complaints, 28× usual

What owners wrote

WHILED DRIVING, THE STEERING WHEEL SEIZED AND BECAME DIFFICULT TO TURN. AS A RESULT, THE STEERING WHEEL WAS TURNED WITH EXCESSIVE FORCED. THE POWER STEERING ASSIST WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED INDICATING STEERING CHASSIS SYSTEM CONTROL ERROR. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKE…

THE CONTACT WAS DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 25 MPH WHEN THE POWER STEERING ASSIST FAILED, CAUSING THE STEERING WHEEL TO SEIZE AND BECOME UNALIGNED. THE POWER STEERING AND TRACTION CONTROL WARNING LIGHTS DID NOT ILLUMINATE UNTIL AFTER THE FAILURE OCCURRED. THE VEHICL…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 16V430000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
• 16V244000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 14V138000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
• 13V588000 STEERING
• 24V470000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.

Own a 2014 Infiniti Q50? What happened to yours?

Loading comments…

How this was worked out

Every year of the Infiniti Q50 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

Every year of the Infiniti Q50 →