We’ve just reviewed the new QX60 , Driving ’s online editor, Renita Naraine, giving us a fair evaluation of how well Infiniti’s latest luxury SUV serves as minivan . If that’s what you’re looking for, it sounds like the new QX serves up quite a cornucopia of people-moving goodness.
But what if you don’t have three rug rats and a Labrador to haul around? What if, like most luxury SUV intenders, you’re just another selfish boomer looking to lord your immensity over the proletariat? Does the new QX have the chops to display your obvious affluence to those less fortunate?
I think it does. Oh, the Infiniti badge, despite much work by parent company Nissan, still doesn’t have the star billing of, say, Mercedes’ three-point star or BMW’s spinning propellor, but even the most brand agnostic or motorists are aware that an Infiniti is supposed to be a cut above. Nonetheless, everything the company makes has to, shades of Rodney Dangerfield, work a little harder to get some respect. Here’s how the QX makes its much-needed bones:
It’s stunningly gorgeous
As I mentioned in my First Look at the new QX , when you’re the hanger-on in the luxury segment — at least comparted with those aforementioned German stalwarts — it really helps to make sure you have the prettiest face in the crowd.
The QX60 most certainly does. Languid and sultry from some angles, purposeful and powerful from others, this is the best sport utility silhouette yet from Nissan’s luxury brand. Where BMWs and Mercedes are starting to look interchangeable and Audis just plain, well, plain, the new QX60 is new, bold, and different. And no, those last three descriptors are not a quote from a press release, but my own evaluation. The Infiniti is the looker in the segment and the boldest statement yet that Nissan’s upscale brand is dumping the somnolent stylings of its past. Fetch it in either Grand Blue or Warm Titanium and it’s really slinky.
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
Who needs a turbocharger?
The trend, in case you haven’t noticed, is to supplant the mid-displacement V6s that have ruled this segment for the last decade with higher-tech, smaller piston turbocharged fours. In fact, Infiniti has a fine example of this breed, the VC-Turbo 2.0T that powers its QX50 that not only produces 268 horsepower, but also boasts an industry first variable compression ratio. And yet, the QX60 ‘soldiers on’ with Nissan’s long 3.5L V6.
But what a V6 it is. Smooth, torquey, and as reliable as the Canadian Shield, the QX’s 3.5L is proof positive that there’s a little life yet in the normal aspiration of internal combustion. Not only does it produce a more than adequate 295 horses, but Infiniti rates it for 10.9 L/100 km overall. We averaged 10.9, which is not only spot on Transport Canada’s rating but not that far removed from what I averaged in the high-tech — and smaller — QX50. Mated to the smooth-shifting nine-speed automatic — which replaces the unloved CVT of its predecessor — it made for a powertrain commensurate with the QX’s price point. V6s do have their place and Infiniti has found a perfect home for theirs.
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
It handles better than something this big should
Infiniti manages a pretty decent compromise between ride and handling with the QX60’s suspension calibration. The steering, for instance, is quite responsive with more feeling than one might normally expect from a large Asian luxury SUV. On the other hand, the suspension is soft enough to absorb the potholes of a rough Laurentian backroad. Oh, if you hustle it round a bend too quickly, it will roll a little like a tugboat on the high seas. But then, what the Hell are you doing trying to ‘track’ a luxury three-row SUV round hairpins? Suspension calibration is always a compromise and the Infiniti’s juggling of damper valves and spring rates is admirable, but not perfect.
I like the interior
There’s little about the QX’s interior I would change. Infiniti’s Zero Gravity seats live up to their billing and are extremely comfortable. There’s also lots of legroom in the 2 nd row of seats and, as Renita points out, both 2 nd and 3 rd accommodations are both kid-friendly and easily accessible. Somebody did their homework here.
Ditto for the décor. My tester was outfitted in Infiniti’s Saddle Brown — a not nearly as pretentious as some label for “tan” — leather and matte open-pore wood. Two 12.3-inch displays serve as infotainment touchscreen and gauge set. Pretty much every plastic bit is “soft touch,” and the leather bits even more sumptuous. It’s all, in a word, attractive, the promise of the exterior’s slinky silhouette carried over inside.
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
But I hate the technology
The QX’s interior strives for the avante garde. Unfortunately, it often only manages to be annoying. Nissan’s lane keeping systems, for instance, are the most grating save for Mercedes’. Yes, the warning sirens can be shut off, but they might actually be useful were they not so intrusive.
The QX60 also boasts a new camera-based rearview mirror, the benefit of which is the lack of blind spots from the rear pillars. I’ve liked such systems in the past, especially Cadillac’s which offers a panoramic view of the road behind — in high def, no less.
Not the QX’s. For one, the camera angle is too shallow, the screen cut off too abruptly to adequately see the car immediately behind you. For another, the display is more than a little muddy, not nearly the “4K” experience I was expecting. This was especially true at night when the view to the rear might as well been a scene from a horror movie so dark and muddled was the supposedly sharp images of the vehicles on my tail. Thankfully it is easily disabled, the old analogue mirror a welcome retrograde, blind spots and all.
2022 Infiniti QX60 Photo by Nadine Filion
Finally, Lord save us all from haptic switches. They are unreliable, not nearly as convenient as a real button and, frankly, they don’t feel that great. The QX uses a haptic toggle to switch radio stations and it’s the very height of inconvenience, worse even than those infuriating digital touchscreen arrows that are supposed to save us from the ‘burden’ of rotating a physical knob. I’m all in favour of modern technology but some of Infiniti’s is frustrating. I was driving the $64,995 “Sensory” AWD version but since the $59,495 “Luxe” is essentially the same car sans the aforementioned electronic mirror and a Head-up Display system, I think it’s the much better buy.
That said, the Infiniti remains an alluring alternative to the mainstream of the luxury segment. It’s astonishingly good looking and, as shallow as we’re all told good looks are, beauty, to (almost) quote the great Oscar Wilde, is its own form of genius. It’s also roomy, comfortable, more than modestly practical and, as Renita mentioned, is more than passable as family transport. If unlike me, you get along with its pixels and buttons, it should be near the top of the list for mid-sized three-row SUVs.
Keyword: 4 Things I like about the new 2022 Infiniti QX60