Quality is synonymous with Japanese cars, and when it comes to Acura, Infiniti, and Lexus, customers can count on soft leather, real wood trim, impossibly smooth controls, lush materials, and beautiful detailing. But in this test, we were disappointed in the Acura RL, which had some cheap-looking interior trim and possessed assembly quality more on a par with a decade-old GM product than the best Honda has to offer. Based on our three test cars, the Lexus and Infiniti featured the best quality of the trio.

3rd Place – Acura RL
Our sample 2005 Acura RL did not exhibit impressive build quality, and this is troubling because several recent Acura and Honda test cars have displayed a disturbing trend toward haphazard panel fit, both inside and out.

On this particular RL, we found a tweaked front fascia, the cheesy plastic windshield base trim wiggling in its moorings, variance in the fit of the chrome side glass surrounds at the mirrors and B-pillars, doors than didn’t fit uniformly, and a trunk lid that was skewed to the left. Inside, the 12-volt power point was sticking shut, the glovebox door that didn’t fit flush with the dashboard, the dash and door panels didn’t line up properly, there were rough edges on the some of the interior trim, and the navigation screen that featured inconsistent fit.

As for interior materials, the Acura RL has shiny piano-black vent bezels on the dash that glitter in the sunlight. They look cheap, and create significant visual disharmony on par with the jarring titanium plastic trim bits on the steering wheel. The RL also has a suede-like headliner that looks too fuzzy, and plastics that feature a lovely matte finish but feel too slippery to the touch. And while the leather is pleasing and the wood trim is rich in appearance, our favorite bits were the substantial metal dials for the stereo and navigation systems.

But in a luxury car costing $50,000, you need more than nice knobs to keep buyers happy.

2nd Place – Lexus GS 300 AWD
Lexus, like Acura, is not a brand associated with sloppy workmanship, but we found some exterior build issues that were not expected of what is essentially a $50,000 Toyota. The front end of our GS 300 AWD featured a hood that was not on straight, a grille that didn’t sit flush with the left inboard light, and minor variances in both headlight and front fascia fit. Otherwise, the Lexus showed few flaws on the outside. Inside, we discovered that it’s easy to pull the headliner off at the sunroof, that the left-end dash cap was loose, and that several vent bezels featured flushness of fit issues.

Materials quality was typical of Lexus, though one staff member severely downgraded the GS 300 AWD for offenses such as a cheap and squeaky rearview mirror “that feels like junk,” displeasing fuzzy suede-like material on the headliner and roof pillars, wood and metallic trim that looked fake instead of real, and inexpensive looking plastics – including “a plain black gauge insert that just looks cheap.” These observations were in direct contrast to another editor, who summed up the Lexus’ interior as “first-rate” and noted the “lustrous Rosewood trim, tasteful chrome accents, rubbery matte-finish plastics, and buttery soft leather.” Go figure.

We did all agree, however, that the suede headliner needs to go, replaced by a fine mesh cloth like that found in an Audi.

1st Place – Infiniti M35x
The Infiniti M35x’s interior blew us away. It looks luxurious, modern, and high-tech with a strip of matte-finish wood trim and metallic accents dividing a two-tone color scheme that in our test car was open and inviting. Infiniti’s use of real metal and subtle chrome accents was deemed “just right,” and we liked both the perforated leather upholstery and that almost every touch point was covered in soft-touch material. But only one of us liked the woven headliner. One staffer claimed it reminded him of the hose-it-off cloth upholstery in a Nissan Xterra SUV, while another editor was reminded of those plush, knit 1970’s polo shirts.

Build quality was better than the Acura and equal to the Lexus. Inside, we noted vent bezels that didn’t fit flush to the dash in a consistent fashion, a slightly crooked glovebox door, haphazard lower dash panel fit, and variance of fit between the center stack controls and the wood trim on either side of them. Outside, the trunk was tweaked to the right, the driver’s door featured an inconsistent gap where it met the left rear door, and the chrome greenhouse trim on the driver’s side could have been installed with more care.

In the end, the point spread between the Infiniti and Lexus was slight, both besting the Acura by a long shot.