HOW different dare you be? That must have been the question posed many times as the designers of today's test car got to work in their Japanese think tank.

They already well knew the strength of the opposition in the sector where they wanted their car to succeed, populated by badges like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

And they knew those upper crust Germans (and tiddler Jaguar too) wouldn't easily slacken their grip on a part of the market where prestige allowed them to make generous profits.

So the Q70 - rival to a BMW 5 Series or Jaguar XF, to name but two - tries to walk the line between playing catch up and taking the lead, not knowing if it's heading in the right direction.

Infiniti must be delighted that so many owners think the Q70 is surging strongly along the right road. A pity, then, that there are so few of them; Aston Martin outsold the entire Infiniti range in the UK last year, with 864 cars registered to Infiniti's tiny 746.

If it's a case of acorns and oak trees, Infiniti is certainly playing the long game.

So how does the Q70 take on its mighty enemies? First by looking different, inside and out. Slinky curves push the car near the edge of overdone perhaps, but absolutely could not have come from a German drawing board.

For a significant number of Infiniti owners, that will be a major bonus. At least their cars won't be lost in a sea of German execs in the company car park.

Then there's value for money to consider. If you've ever drooled over a higher end German executive car you'll know all about optional extras. Sometimes it seems as though the wheels and engine come as standard but all the goodies are expensive extras.

Not so on the Q70. Yes, the model tested here is the range topper but there are three - yes, just three - options: metallic paint (£680), electric glass sunroof (£950) and a Bose sound system (£650). That's enough to make an Audi buyer weep.

Standard kit, on the other hand, runs from active cruise control and cameras that show you all around the car as you reverse park to seats that cool as well as warm and a heated steering wheel that treats your fingers like sausages in the pan.

Then there's this Q70's secret weapon hidden under the bonnet, where a silky smooth V6 petrol engine combines with a silent electric motor to produce performance Porsche would have envied a decade or so ago.

It turns this finely built, leather laden, wood veneered and spacious five seater into a bit of a road burner, at least when the road ahead is straight. It prefers a more decorous approach to the corners.

Then the magic bit of being different appears; driven with a little restraint this big, heavy car showed 39mpg on its trip computer. That is highly respectable and would challenge the baby of the Q70 range (the 2.2-litre diesel, from £32,650) in an economy run.

That frugality means there is a big battery on board; putting it behind the rear seats mean they won't fold down and the boot is small, losing out to the diesel model and much tiddlier than a 5 Series BMW.