More About Infiniti's Window Design Theme

Infiniti is one of those brands I pay little attention to.   Their cars cost more than I'm willing to spend on transportation.  I also don't want to spend a similar amount for a Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Audi, Cadillac or other expensive cars.  But the latter for a variety of historical reasons have earned greater mind-share space then Infiniti.  Infiniti simply doesn't strike me as having much of a distinctive history even though the brand is nearly 30 years old.

I wrote about Infiniti's developing C-pillar brand identification theme here.  But for the reason suggested in the first paragraph, I didn't pursue the matter until I finally noticed the aft styling of an Infiniti SUV that passed me as I was driving over one of Seattle's Lake Washington floating (on concrete pontoons) bridges.  Then I realized what drove the seemingly odd design.  Better late than never, as they say.

Details in the captions below.

Gallery

2014 Infiniti Q50 sedan
The structural C-pillar is actually a normal dog-leg reversal such as can be seen on BMWs.  It's the chrome strip that features the extra kink that comprises the brand identification theme.  It's decorative and a bit fussy seen on this sedan body.

2017 Infiniti Q60
On this coupé body, the kink can be found on the C-pillar, though the chrome strip exaggerates it.  Again, it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the greenhouse.

2014 Infiniti QX60
Here we find a hint as to the logic of the kink.

2017 Infiniti QX30
But the logic is more evident here, on the sort of car I noticed driving over the floating bridge.  If you click to enlarge the image you will see the following details better.  First, note that the structural back window -- the non- blacked out part of the glass area -- is not nearly as wide as the window implied by the glass and its side-trim.  The trim flanking the backlight converges to a rounded point.  That point is echoed by the kinked trim on the C-pillar (that has no structural kink).  It's all a matter of decoration, but the relationship just mentioned "justifies" the pillar kink that has no such justification on the sedan and coupé shown above.

2013 Infiniti Q30 Concept
This theme was previewed on the concept car shown here, a thinly disguised QX30.  Had I been more aware of this concept car and paid greater attention to production Infinitis, I would have understood the logic of the kink sooner.

2013 Infiniti Q30 Concept
Another view.  It seems that many brand identification decorations don't remain on production cars for very many models years.  A new styling director or senior manager might wish to impose a new theme that suits them.  Might this happen for Infinity?

2018 Infiniti Q Inspiration Concept
This is a recent concept car revealed at the Detroit show in January.  Probably a pushmobile, as it might be fully electrically powered or else have hybrid characteristics of some sort.  Note the absence of a C-pillar kink.

2018 Infiniti Q Inspiration Concept
A more normal perspective of the Inspiration's rear quarter design.  Some background can be found here and, especially, here.