What our G37's gray cabin lacked in finishes, it made up for in materials quality. Padded surfaces run all the way down to foot level, with soft-touch areas in all the places your knees, elbows or hands will touch. There's even a cushioned cover over the cupholders. Optional maple wood trim replaces last year's African rosewood; it picks up fingerprints easily but, absent those, looks darker and richer than before. New this year are chrome runners along the gearshift — an upscale touch. Luxury aside, it's nice to see Infiniti kept some essential conveniences: The overhead console includes a sunglasses holder, and the sun visors have full extensions that meet the B-pillars. Despite their inclusion on cars half the price, those two features go missing on too many luxury competitors.

Most controls are high-quality, but one of our standing complaints remains: Buttons for the central dashboard screen, where the optional navigation system resides, are perched high up on the dash, out of easy reach. It's a shame, seeing as Infiniti has one of the better navigation setups on the market, with both touch-screen and physical controls for zooming in and out, scrolling the map and jumping to different menus. Updated for 2010, the display sports improved graphics and additional capabilities: weather reports, restaurant ratings and Bluetooth streaming audio. It had a few routing issues, however, which we detail in a navigation evaluation on KickingTires.

Leather seats are standard. The Sport Package adds sport seats with larger, power-adjustable side and cushion bolsters. Even with the bolsters relaxed all the way, many drivers will find the seats narrow and constrictive, particularly at their bottom cushions. What's more, I'm 5-foot-11 and could have used another inch or so of rearward seat travel so my legs could extend fully.

The backseat has enough knee room for adults, but the seat is too close to the floor, resulting in raised knees, and taller passengers will find headroom limited. That's par for the class; backseats are usually cramped in this segment. The trunk, on the other hand, is fairly large. At 13.5 cubic feet, it beats the 3 Series, Lexus IS and C-Class by half a cubic foot or more. Alas, Infiniti doesn't offer a folding rear seat to accommodate larger cargo, as BMW and Mercedes do. A small pass-through for skis is standard. (The G37 coupe has a single-piece folding rear seatback but only 7.4 cubic feet of trunk volume; the convertible has no folding seatback but, with the top up, 10.3 cubic feet.)