Climbing into the Infiniti QX56 is like stepping back in time — say the 1990s when gigantic upscale SUVs were a novelty, invoking shock and awe. All those acres of wood grain finishes and leather seat coverings slathered across gigantic cabins — who had ever seen anything like it?
And don’t forget all that V-8 power. Sitting high up in the command seating, you felt like the captain of a land yacht, capable of sinking any lesser vehicle that crossed your course.
Those were the years of sizable Suburbans, hulking Hummers, and econo-size Expeditions. You saw them wherever oversized personalities parked their oversized vehicles, at polo matches, yacht basins, and your finer restaurants.
Today, of course, we know better. We don’t need three-ton tanks for grocery shopping or picking the kids up. There are smarter alternatives, like crossover vehicles and, God forbid, minivans. Traditional, full-size SUVs now are best reserved for specialized applications like towing a trailer or crossing the Sahara.
Now comes the 2011 Infiniti QX56 — about as nice a vehicle you will find in this shrinking segment, if the styling suits you (about which more later). Unlike the previous-generation QX, which was built in the U.S. on the same platform as the Nissan Titan pickup, this one is built in Japan and based on the Patrol, Nissan’s answer to the Range Rover.
All hints of a remote truck relationship have been banished. The QX56 is quiet and refined and drives about as well as anything weighing nearly three tons can. There is a fair amount of bouncing and jouncing off-road, but it is all handled without upset.
In fact this beast feels remarkably light on its feet, and its 5.6-liter V-8 hustles it to 60 miles an hour in a surprising 6.8 seconds, allowing you to forget for a while you are driving something the size of a Manhattan studio apartment.
Naturally, all this bulk compromises fuel economy. On the EPA driving cycle, the two-wheel-drive version is rated at 16 miles per gallon. I averaged 17 mpg and change on the country roads of Litchifield County, Connecticut.
My Liquid Platinum tester carried a base sticker price of $56,000 with a boatload of standard equipment, including a seven-speed automatic transmission, 20” aluminum wheels, and navigation system with real time traffic information — lots of goodies for the price.
Now a word about the design — a subjective matter to be sure. The previous QX56 looked like an extra in a Transformers movie, all angles and lines with an especially obnoxious C-pillar.
For 2011, the prominent roof pillar has been moved to the rear (in the manner of a Scion Xb), but it doesn’t help. The QX has a bulbous nose that W.C. Fields would recognize. Combined with a bobbed rear end, it distorts the vehicle’s proportions.
Worse, all the sharp angles have been rounded off in such a way as to make the QX look like it melted in the sun. It keeps reminding me of Salvador Dali’s limp watches in “The Persistence of Memory.” The QX would fit right into his surrealist landscape.
Infiniti SUVs frequently travel on their own design road — FX35/45 anyone? Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn believes that when a vehicle is late arriving to a segment, as the QX56 is, it can’t look the same as all the others.
That’s not a problem for the QX56. Whether that is a good thing in a sharply shifting market where giant SUVs are falling out of favor is an open question.