I live in the Caribbean, and our roads have tons of potholes. These potholes aren't deep, but there's lots of them.

Many people are buying small SUVs, but they are just so ordinary. I understand that the SUVs are more popular because there's more clearance between the road and the frame.

I saw an '09 G37 sedan with 42k miles for $11k with all maintenance done at Infiniti, and I'd consider it if it weren't for the roads we have here.

I guess my question is: assuming the potholes aren't deep enough that they would hit the chassis, is there such a big difference in suspension between a G37 and a small SUV?

Thanks

 

Oh hell yes. The vast majority of SUVs (the smaller ones, anyway) use MacPherson strut front suspension and a variety of simple or complex suspensions in the rear. The G37 has IRS front and rear with the rear being somewhat complex but at the same time fairly simple.

If you want handling, get the G. Everyone everywhere has to deal with potholes, so that's kind of a non-issue. That said, SUVs will handle poor roads better than the G because of ground clearance and tall tires but have suspension settings designed to keep soccer moms from spinning backwards off the road, i.e. quite boring with lots of understeer.

 

FWIW: last summer we were heading west out of the JD Rockefeller parkway to find some free camping for the night. We got behind a G37x on the dirt road that was filled of pot holes, ruts, and washboard. The driver of that car was impressive and at no time was I road raging at them to GTFO out of my way. Once we dipped into the NF the road for worse and the driver pulled over.

Her skill was high and the car was obviously manageable enough to take a dirt road at 35mph for the better part of 10mi.