If there was ever a time to truly test the M35h's ability to sip fuel and run on electricity alone, this night certainly wasn't it. Temperatures plummeted, gale-force winds (30-40 mph) rocked southern Michigan, and for reasons completely unrelated to weather, my wife and I were running late for a hockey game located 53 miles away by freeway. Instead, this scenario allowed me to experience the other facet of the M35h's personality: power. This car moves at a fairly good clip when the drive selector is placed on "normal," but it's surprisingly potent once moved to "sport." That may not be too surprising when you view the net horsepower figure (360 hp), but you can't help be a bit startled when the car quickly jumps off the line. In this mode, the M35h feels more like the muscular M56 than a fuel-stingy, tree-hugging hybrid. Trying to keep the car in EV mode, even in "Eco" mode, can grow a bit tiring - no matter how finessed your right foot may be, any attempt to slowly increase your speed usually results in the reawakening of the V-6. I love this latest iteration of M; the curvaceous exterior, incredibly posh interior, and refined road manners are addicting, regardless of the powertrain selected. The hybrid certainly is an interesting choice: while more expensive than a six-cylinder M37 ($53,700 vs $47,700), it is considerably more powerful, and both less expensive and more fuel-efficient than the eight-cylinder M56. Apart from 60 horsepower and the availability of all-wheel-drive, you don't lose much by choosing the M35h over the M56.

The decision to purchase a minivan is a pragmatic one. Drive a minivan and you admit to the world that you have children and a Costco membership, and that you want one vehicle that can transport your offspring and multi-packs of toilet paper.

Nissan paved the way for mass-market electric cars with the Leaf hatchback, and now luxury division Infiniti will launch a more powerful and more refined electric sedan based on the Leaf. Shown in concept form at the 2012 New York auto show, the Infiniti LE closely foreshadows a production electric car.

Everything Infiniti has done in the past decade would have you believe the Japanese luxury brand is pursuing Germany's sportiest automobiles. The compact G and mid-size M target BMW's legendary sports sedans. The FX50 is aimed squarely at the Porsche Cayenne. The new IPL trim is the first step toward a full-bore performance sub-brand like Mercedes-Benz's AMG.

The latest car to be leaked ahead of its Geneva Motor Show debut is the Infiniti Emerg-E concept. The electric sports car was previously revealed by leaked renderings (shown in the gallery below) released online two weeks ago.

With the unrelenting news reports about the lingering recession, it would be easy to think that expensive, full-size luxury SUVs are becoming extinct. Although it's true that some of the casual buyers who wandered into this segment during boom times have moved on to less pricey, more modest vehicles, there are still plenty of people with means who need a large vehicle to move their families and their trailers but don't want to sacrifice comfort and all-weather capability while doing so. Infiniti, betting that this profitable segment won't completely disappear, redesigned the QX56 for 2011 to meet the luxury and utility needs of these coveted customers.

For 2012, Infiniti only made minor changes to the QX56's equipment packages and I don't blame them for it. It would be no easy task to make substantial improvements to the QX, which is as capable, luxurious, and well built as any SUV in its class. While its not necessarily unattractive, the QX's exterior is the only area that could possibly use refining. The design is undeniably distinctive but instead of helping to camouflage the Infiniti's immense proportions it actually emphasizes them, giving the QX a slightly awkward look.

Infiniti already offers a variety of people movers with its two-row EX and FX crossovers and three-row QX56. Now, it is looking to take a bite out of the luxury three-row crossover pie that appeals to so many families with the 2013 Infiniti JX35.

Seeing as Infiniti used last year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to roll out its performance-focused branding and the new 2011 G37 IPL Coupe, perhaps it's fitting that the company chose this year's show to announce an IPL-tuned convertible will officially join the lineup for the 2013 model year.

Slotted below the sporty FX in size and price, the EX35 is built on the same basic architecture. As such, it offers a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive -- most crossovers are front- or all-wheel drive. The Infiniti's chassis makes for responsive handling; helping matters is the fact that the EX35 is not overly tall. Ride quality is also pretty good. Unlike the larger FX, here the only engine option is a V-6. That V-6 is Infiniti's 3.5-liter, which is one of the more capable sixes around (with 297 hp) but not exactly the most refined. It's mated to a seven-speed automatic transmission, which replaced a five-speed unit in the EX35 last year. This four-door hatchback doesn't have third-row seating and maxes out at five passengers -- or, more realistically, four. There is no room for a third seat, and the back seat is pretty cramped, with legroom in particularly short supply. Cargo space behind the rear seats is modest but is easily expanded now that the EX35 is available with a power-folding feature for the second-row seats. Technology-wise, one of our favorite features on the EX35 (and a few other Infinitis), is the Around View Monitor, which upstages a regular rearview camera by letting the driver see his or her car's surroundings from all sides. The full panoply of electronic driver aids is also available. Unlike its larger sibling, the EX35's interior is not highly styled, but it is very nicely finished, as you'd expect from an Infiniti.

The Infiniti FX is a sports car trapped in a small truck's body. Even when Infiniti did a complete overhaul of the crossover awhile back, it didn't dare touch the car's dynamic ability. Sure, it's not your traditional SUV -- no low gear for off-roading, not a lot of rear-seat room, and limited storage capacity under its handsome hatch. But if you want to carve apexes and look good doing so, the FX might just be the best sport-utility vehicle out there. The FX35 and the FX50 have two different powerplants. The FX50 gets a high-strung -- but still highly polished -- 390-hp, 5.0-liter V-8. In the FX35, a 303-hp, 3.5-liter 24-valve V-6 does duty. It's less mellifluous but still strong. Both engines are paired with a standard seven-speed automatic transmission with available shift paddles (made of solid magnesium). All-wheel drive comes standard on the FX50 and is optional on the FX35, where rear-wheel drive is standard. Both models have double-wishbone front and multilink rear suspensions, and large four-wheel disc brakes. The driver-oriented cockpit with intuitive controls is one of Infiniti's best efforts, and that's saying something. The interior is richly appointed, and the available sport seats have good lateral support to hold you in place during hard cornering. Naturally, plenty of advanced audio, navigation, and technology is available as well. It may be one of the least practical SUVs on the market, but the FX is certainly an entertaining one.

The Infiniti G is one of the most driver-focused vehicles in the entry-luxury segment. The rear-wheel-drive chassis is entertaining, the steering has not been dumbed down to make parking easier, the engines are responsive, and a manual transmission is available. True, there is no ultra-high-performance model, a la BMW M3, but the recently launched Infiniti Performance Line (IPL) coupe is an initial step in that direction. The lineup has been further fleshed out on the low end with the G25 sedan, which uses a smaller version of Infiniti's six but compensates with a significantly smaller price tag than the mainstay G37. As we've mentioned with regard to other Infinitis in which the V-6 appears, it's not the smoothest six out there, but the 3.7-liter version at least does a bang-up job of motivating the compactly proportioned G37. Buyers can choose between a six-speed manual transmission and a seven-speed automatic transmission. The G37 is available as a handsome sedan, a snug four-place coupe, or a hardtop convertible. The convertible's climate-control and audio systems can be optimized for driving top up or down, but this is still probably our least favorite of the G body styles. The retractable hardtop can squeak and creak on all but the smoothest roads, and when the top is lowered, it effectively takes up all the trunk space. Nonetheless, the retractable hardtop remains the preferred way to go for open cars in this class, as BMW and Lexus both use them, too.

Simply put, we're fans of the M. All-new last year, it is a huge improvement over the previous iteration. Both the M37 and the M56 have bigger engines than their predecessors, the M35 and the M45. The M37's 3.7-liter V-6 actually has five more hp than the V-8 in the old M45, for a total of 330 hp. The top-of-the-line M56 now features a 5.6-liter V-8 that pumps out 420 hp and 417 lb-ft of torque, a massive gain of 95 hp and 81 lb-ft over the previous V-8. Even better? The M56, even with its enormous power gains, gets an extra 4 mpg on the highway versus the M45. But for truly impressive fuel economy numbers, look to the recently added M35h hybrid, which can drive on electric power alone at speeds up to 62 mph. That's some impressive technology, but we aren't enamored of all the available high-tech features on this car. We're fine with lane-departure warning, but the M also offers lane-departure prevention (the car steers itself back into its lane), which can be annoyingly intrusive. There's also available four-wheel steering that makes for slightly less predictable response than you get without it. Other advanced features work well, like Infiniti's easy-to-use navigation system and its helpful Around View monitor. The M cabin is lavishly trimmed with materials that befit a luxury car, but back-seat space is snug. We're willing to compromise rear-seat space a bit here, however, for the dramatic proportions and styling, which help this M stand out in a way that the previous version never did.

After a complete redesign in 2011, the QX56 remains basically untouched for 2012. A few options packages were rejiggered, but that's about it. Maybe that's not a bad thing, though. Built on a completely new platform, the 2011 QX56 experienced strong sales numbers and good reviews, and rightfully so. The new QX56 is better-looking and more rugged. It gets 14-percent-better gas mileage than the previous generation QX56 -- although fuel economy is still nothing to write home about. A vehicle that weighs nearly three tons needs a lot of power under the hood, and Infiniti's 5.6-liter V-8 smoothly pumps out 400 hp and 413 lb-ft of torque, dispensing it to the rear wheels or all four via a seven-speed automatic transmission. This SUV can easily move up to eight passengers in leather-lined luxury, and it tows up to 8500 pounds. The interior is a sybarite's delight, and yet it doesn't overwhelm the driver with highly complex controls. If you regularly travel with more than four passengers, you may want to get the second-row bench seat rather than the two captain's chairs (a third row is standard). The captain's chairs, and the center console between them, make it more difficult to convert the QX to max-cargo mode. The QX drives well for a big beast. The ride and the handling are much better now that the QX has been designed as an SUV rather than being built off a modified pickup-truck platform. It glides over bumps and transmits only the slightest nudge to riders in the cabin. In the QX56, the outside world barely intrudes.

It isn't uncommon for Four Seasons test vehicles to begin their stay in the Automobile Magazine fleet with lots of enthusiasm and unrelenting demand. Somewhere over the next three seasons the newness fades and interest wanes. Maybe an editor or two even forgets we have a given vehicle in the fleet. But our 2011 Infiniti QX56 remained in demand until the final day of our test.

Last month we treated our 2011 Infiniti QX56 to a full detailing. Now that we've put nearly 30,000 hard miles on our big SUV, it's time to give the mechanical parts as much attention as the aesthetic elements received last month.

It's a challenge for anyone to keep up with the constantly changing roster of cars on dealership lots. For car lovers it's an even tougher task, because beyond knowing that a certain model exists, you need to know where it fits in the automotive firmament. That's why we've gathered every new model due by the first half of 2012 and categorized them, not alphabetically or by some government-defined size class, but by their relevance to buyers, enthusiasts, and the companies that build them. Some cars thrust automakers into new segments, while others drive just like last year's model. Some cars protect the sanctity of the manual transmission, while others advance performance with the latest technology. Some cars address rising fuel-economy standards, while others disguise obscene speed in stealthy sheetmetal. Here are the 85 new arrivals shaping the automotive world for 2012.

The bigger the vehicle, the harder it gets used during a Four Seasons test. Such is the case with our 2011 Infiniti QX56. In the past ten months, we've crammed our belongings into virtually every possible cubic inch of cargo space, towed heavy trailers, and generally treated the QX56 as the workhorse of our Four Seasons fleet. To make up for the abuse, we decided to treat the big Infiniti to the automotive equivalent of a day at the spa: a full detailing courtesy of 3M.

Infiniti's M sedan has finally come into its own with the current generation. Previous versions drove pretty well and had decent interiors, but were invisible on the street and in the marketplace. The current, curvaceous design is a head-turning standout. And Infiniti's interior designers have upped their game, creating a sumptuous new cabin. The car's chassis -- provided one sidesteps a few overly intrusive electronic aids -- has all the smoothness and poise a premium car should.

Last month we were feeling guilty because the QX wasn't being used to its fullest potential. It was mostly just being driven to and from the office, which meant we weren't allowing the QX the opportunity to play to its strengths hauling people, cargo, or trailers. But we put it back to work in July.

The staff’s level of interest in a Four Seasons test vehicle is cyclical and often predictable. As soon as a new vehicle arrives, we all fight for the keys and hope to put on a few miles while the car is still in showroom condition. Then our collective interest usually drops in the middle months of our test once the newness wears off. This partially explains why we only added 678 miles to our QX’s odometer in the last month.

It’s inevitable that a big SUV like our 2011 Infiniti QX56 4WD will be put to the test towing and hauling a variety of objects over the course of its year with us, and we’ve done quite a lot of both in the past month. In other words, we put this big luxury vehicle to work.

If you get behind the wheel of an Infiniti G37 IPL coupe expecting the sort of transformation that takes place between a BMW 335i and M3, you'll be severely disappointed. Infiniti is targeting the BMW 335is with its first IPL offering and thus keeping the price premium for the IPL badge pretty minimal. It's a good thing that the price increase is minimal because the performance increase is minimal, too. I don't think I would have guessed I was driving an IPL instead of a regular G37 coupe if I didn't know before I got behind the wheel. Perhaps a few laps on a road course would help demonstrate the IPL package's 18 extra hp and 6 additional lb-ft of torque, but the difference is negligible on a commute.

At board meetings, on test tracks, and in design studios, decisions are being made today that will influence what you drive tomorrow. Automakers are hard at work creating the next generation of automobiles -- cars that are faster, sexier, more efficient -- while trying to keep their development secret. Like you, we are nosy as hell. Unlike you, we have a vast network of snoops, gossips, and disgruntled former employees who have helped us uncover the information we present here. Our annual Sneak Preview feature contains the industry's future products -- as far out as 2019 -- that are worth saving your milk money for.

After six months and 17,723 miles, it's clear we've collectively spent a lot of time inside our 2011 Infiniti QX56. Since driving dynamics aren't exactly the highlight of the QX experience, our editors have been fixated on the big Infiniti's interior accouterments.