I drove past the BMW garage in Oxford yesterday. It was the start of a new year yet not even a long line of 50 benchmark cars from Munich could entice me to make a second glance.

The reason? Well, it could have been 200 BMWs but the problem with branding these days is every model from BMW, Audi or Mercedes looks quite similar from the front end. How dull.

And what does that say about the people who drive these cars? Unimaginative, crowd-following motorists who don’t have enough imagination to look elsewhere?

Enter this week’s test car. Is the Infiniti Q70 saloon enough of a good car to warrant attention? It’s looking at me on the driveway now. The Q70 certainly looks different but I’m already starting to have my doubts…