Fuel prices are on the rise again, and so maybe you're thinking it's time to downsize your mid-size performance-luxury car. Perhaps something like a Honda Fit. Since you like to make a statement, you're also looking at the Nissan Cube. The turbocharged Nissan Juke has a bunch more power, so maybe that teensy compact crossover is on the shopping list, too.

Ugh, but downgrading to an entry-level car is just so difficult. Perhaps the MINI Cooper is the way to go-or even better, the John Cooper Works version. It has performance, fuel economy, and a premium sticker. And, like all of the other cars listed, it gets around 30 mpg in the EPA combined testing.

Or you could just buy the new 2012 Infiniti M35h and not downgrade anything. You'll save just as much fuel. That's right, at an EPA-estimated 27 mpg city, 32 mpg highway (29 mpg combined), the Infiniti M35h does just as well as the Honda Fit (30 mpg), the Nissan Cube (28 mpg), the Nissan Juke (29 mpg), and the JCW Mini Cooper (28 mpg.)

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF POWER

The Infiniti M35h also has lots of things those little cars don't: 360 horsepower, for one. A big, roomy back seat, for another. One of the prettiest and most elegant interiors in the business, for a third. But let's get back to those 360 horses.

The M35's gasoline engine is a 3.5-liter VQ-series V-6 producing 302 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. For greater efficiency, it runs on the Atkinson cycle, and it does without the VVEL infinitely variable valve-lift system on the M sedan's other engines. It's backed up by a 50-kW (67-hp) electric motor that produces 199 lb-ft of torque.

Sandwiched between the engine and the seven-speed automatic transmission, the motor eliminates the need for a torque converter. It's powered by a 345-volt, 96-cell battery pack. Using lithium-ion instead of nickel-metal hydride batteries, the 1.4-kWh battery pack weighs only 99 lb.

2012 infiniti M35h hybrid front three quarters static

UNCHANGED LOOKS

From the outside, the only indication that this M is a hybrid is from its badges. There are no extra aero aids (although underbody cladding and higher tire pressure reduce the coefficient of drag from 0.27 to 0.26), there are no goofy spoilers, and the tires are the same wide Michelin Primacy MXM4s from the M37 -- no skinny, rock-hard, handling-averse low-rolling-resistance tires.

There's not much of a visual difference from behind the wheel, either. It's the same gorgeous cabin that's draped in leather and wood. A charge/assist meter has appeared in the instrument cluster where the coolant temperature gauge once was, and there are some additional lights and displays -- but you won't see an LCD panel with a tree growing leaves while you pretend you're saving the planet in your hybrid.

UNCHANGED DRIVING

The driving experience, too, is largely unchanged, except for the subtleties. First, the M35h is fast -- very fast. To our backsides, it's even quicker than the 330-hp M37 (which makes sense, given its slightly more favorable power-to-weight ratio) despite using the considerably longer final-drive ratio from the V-8-powered M56. Speaking of the 420-hp M56: thanks to the electric motor's massive torque, the M35h squirts off the line more quickly than it does. We suspect that, in an all-out drag race, the V-8 would eventually pull ahead, but the hybrid M feels just as powerful around town.

As usual, Nissan's VQ isn't the smoothest V-6, but the engine's grit is largely filtered out in the M and is more sonorous than the 3.7-liter variant in the M37. Its mechanical engine noise is well matched to that sweet VQ exhaust song that still makes pedestrians turn around and look.

MORE WEIGHT IN THE RIGHT SPOT