There aren't many big SUVs I would want to drive daily, but a week with my family in the 2012 Infiniti QX56 might have changed my mind.
I can definitively say that I would like to ride around in it as a passenger every day; seating seven or eight people, it's cush and totally luxurious. As it should be: Padded with plenty of extras, my four-wheel-drive test vehicle came priced at an exorbitant $75,340. I may very well have to choose between this opulent, luxurious SUV and sending my kids to college. College is overrated, don't you think? My zoology degree is doing nothing for me. (Compare the four-wheel-drive version to the slightly less expensive two-wheel-drive version here.)
The QX56 manages to quell the myth that all SUVs are trucky and rugged. Instead, this beauty seeps comfort and luxury from every pore. Its private-jet-inspired interior is draped in gently gathered, buttery-soft leather, with all the extras that even the prissiest prima donnas among us would love. My favorites? Heated and cooled front seats, heated second-row seats for my prissy biological offspring (I say that lovingly), and a heated steering wheel that's just as comforting as warming my hands on a cup of cocoa.
Little has changed between the 2011 and 2012 QX; see the two compared here.
EXTERIOR
The QX looks a little like a guy I saw at the airport the other day who was trying to squeeze in a few too many trends. (Really? Black, skinny emo jeans, a handlebar mustache and a Mohawk? Choose one trend and rock it.) The QX has just a little too much going on for my taste. I'd take away those blingy chrome gills on the front fenders to clean it up a little.
The QX is a huge SUV (6.3 inches longer than a 2012 GMC Yukon Denali), but you don't really notice its full size until you try to park it in a garage space normally reserved for your small family sedan. Despite its grandiose size, the QX is remarkably easy to maneuver through your daily driving life thanks to its standard 360-degree Around View Monitor and a front and rear sonar system. In a vehicle this size, you're normally left blindly creeping forward in a parking space or garage until you oh so gently bump into something, letting you know you've pulled all the way forward. (The kids won't notice that little dent in their plastic wagon, right?) In the QX56, you can switch on a front-view camera that shows you just how close you are to the object in front of you, a side-view camera showing you the side of the car and the curb as you're trying to parallel park, or a 360-degree view showing you a picture as if from above the car. Audio park assist adds to the ease when parking.
Of course, the QX's large size does come with some downfalls. Mainly, getting in and out of this vehicle can be challenging for those of us under 6 feet tall. Despite the standard running boards, my daughter managed to get a huge, filthy smudge on her "fancy" dress and white tights while getting into the QX56 on the way to her piano recital. Of course, the dirt, ice and sludge that build up on the underside of cars in the Denver area in the winter doesn't help this situation at all.
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