Welcome back to our weekly review, we are bringing to you the 2019 Infiniti QX60 this week. This car was build in the USA at the Smyrna plant in Tennessee and has an MSRP of $55855 CND.
Fun Factor: 2
Can it Family: 7
Fuel-Friendly: 5
HWY-warrior: 6
Karaoke Friendly: 5
Baby friendly: 6
City Cruising: 5
The Infiniti QX60 left us perplexed on many levels, the outside design is starting to show its age and the interior design seem to bring us back to the early 2000’s. The center console renascences us to old-school scientific calculators then something from a premium brand. Don’t get me wrong, it comes standard with leather seats, and they are actually comfortable, it also has heated seats. However, nothing can hide that the car is based on the Nissan Pathfinder, not the driving dynamics, not the styling nor the cheap plastics everywhere.
The Infiniti has our lowest score with Driving fun & Family in the "driving fun" department currently, we were really debating if we should give it a 1 or a 2. Why would you ask, let's start with the driving dynamics, with heavy loads the QX60 torque steers due to its front wheel bias, the turning circle is nothing to be proud about either. The transmission feels inappropriate for the weight of this car, and it seriously felt under strain when driving uphill with 6 passengers, we wouldn't even think of towing in a mountainous area with such a fragile transmission. The car does pack a V6 with 295 hp and will bring you to 100km/h in 8.7 seconds with winter tires, Infiniti claims 8.3 seconds.
Can it family? Yes, it seats comfortably 4 adults and 2 kids, the 2nd-row middle seat is so small that it can fit a child. However, we’ve seen midsize cars with bigger middle seats. The installation of car seats is made simple, as the rear passenger doors open widely and the ISOFIX is not too hidden away. Installing more than 2 cars seats in the middle row will it make it extremely difficult to gain access to the 3rd, if you have to fix them we would suggest only one in the 2nd row and one in the 3rd row, strangely Infiniti only has one seat that can be secured behind the seat in the 3rd row.
As for the fuel consumption, we averaged 10.5L per 100km, for this size of car we were surprised by the low fuel consumption and understand why people would be attracted by the QX60. On the HWY we could get consumption as low as 8.5L per 100km while in the city we would average around 12.1L per 100km these figures are in line with what Infiniti advertises.
Is the QX60 an HWY workhorse? We would say the low fuel consumption would make it ideal to haul the family on HWY as long as you don't have to drive too many twisty roads, the body roll makes it unpleasant to drive and if you add to the fact the that the steering feels lose the enjoyment is extremely limited.
The Bose sound system is pleasant, we feel that it has been adjusted for contemporary music styles. As for the usability of the infotainment, we would like to sake our heads in dismay as the graphics are outdated and don't understand why Infiniti would use so many buttons that have similar functions, did they want to confuse everyone? The integrated maps are horrible yes horrible is the sweetest thing we can say, most streets that were built after 2012 seem to be entirely missing from the map and the layout could be easily compared with first-generation PlayStation. As for the search feature, it will make you regret even having a GPS in your car.
As for city driving, we found that the QX60 feels most at home, going to hockey practice, grocery shopping or picking up furniture at your favorite Swedish furniture store. Parking can be made more difficult thanks what feels like a cheap flip phone camera plus the 360-degree camera make it only worse thanks to the pixilated center screen, and if you mix snow or dirt, the system is just not usable.
Our final thoughts, if you're heavily looking into this might car might as well get a minivan at this point. We would only suggest getting the QX60 if it is heavily discounted or on a short lease. Also, who at Infiniti signed off on the placement of steering wheel heating to be tucked away under the steering wheel, forcing us to take our eyes off the road to turn it on or off.
