• Stylish cabin design
• Cramped driver’s seat
• InTouch infotainment not brilliant

There’s no denying it’s a nice place to be. There are switches and fixtures borrowed directly from the A-Class, but Infiniti has gone great guns to individualise the Q30’s cabin and it shows.

We thought the sculpting of the dash looked stylish, and the materials it’s finished in are plush too. Look closely and you’ll spot a few cheaper-looking plastics creeping through, but we’re nit-picking here. There isn’t another car in the sector that doesn’t suffer in this respect.

And actually, the build quality of the Q30’s cabin looks great too. It feels solid when you shut the door; all the panel gaps are even, and in the main the switchgear is of a good quality.

Taller drivers may struggle

One slight criticism here is that the size of some seats and steering wheels mean some taller drivers may find they’re bashing their thighs when trying to corner. It’s something you’ll get used to, but equally something we’re not too fond of.

InTouch multimedia system trumped by Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz

We didn’t like the Intouch infotainment system much either – its smartphone-esque swipe operation is neat, but it was still slow to respond to inputs and often required a second ‘tap’ to get it to perform the required function. It’s the seven-inch screen that seems to be the problem, simply not picking up and processing inputs quickly enough.

Other firms do this better, including some in the very same Renault-Nissan Alliance, so we can’t understand why it’s a problem.

• Well-insulated, solid cabin
• Slick suspension smoothers bumps
• 2.1-litre diesel is noisiest engine

This is where the Q30 begins to make a fantastic case for itself. Its seats are great, the cabin is eerily quiet and the chassis has obviously been tuned with comfort in mind.

Comfortable ride

Its ride quality is ham-strung slightly by the requirement in this class of car for huge alloy wheels and low-profile tyres, which doesn’t leave a lot of cushioning, but that’s why Infiniti has taken the unusual step of raising the ride height to engineer in more suspension travel.

This mean that while it still feels a little firm, imperfections in the road are soaked up well and the car’s body control is still excellent thanks to rebound springs – which counteract much of the additional bodyroll you’d expect from a car with a taller stance.

Noisy 2.1 Infiniti Q30 diesel

We didn’t think the noise cancellation system – which sends inverse frequencies through the car’s speakers to counteract some of the unattractive clatter of the 2.1 diesel – had a dramatic effect on Infiniti Q30 comfort levels, but since we haven’t tried it without this system either it’s not clear just how loud said engine really is. We suspect very, based on our experiences in other vehicles.