More than a fancy Pathfinder_ _ 2022 Infiniti QX60 Review.

Today we are testing this, the all-new 2022 Infiniti QX60. Now, this is a three-row crossover aimed at families looking for some practicality mixed with a luxury experience. The QX60 has always been the most popular vehicle that Infiniti makes, and it goes up against some rivals from Audi, from Acura, from Volvo, and Lexus. So it's got its work cut out for it. Is it good enough to beat them, or is it really just a Nissan Pathfinder with some extra chrome? Let's go find out. What's up, folks? I'm Dave Underkoffler, editor of Autolist.com, a sister publication to CarGurus. For the past week, I've been testing this loaded QX60 Autograph. Now, if you're keeping score at home, the Autograph is the top trim level of the four that are offered, and the one you see here stickers for $65,000. Now, I don't think it's worth $65,000, but I do think that the base model QX60 is worth checking out. Before I tell you why, here's a little backstory. This is the second generation of the QX60. Its predecessor dates all the way back to 2013, when it was first introduced as a JX35. A year later, it was renamed the QX60, and that version has been with us until now. Much like that earlier QX60, this new generation is based on the Nissan Pathfinder. The Pathfinder was redesigned for 2022 as well, and we've got a review of it here. Remember that Infiniti is the luxury division of Nissan, much like Lexus is the luxury version of Toyota, or Genesis is the fancy version of Hyundai. So, a lot about this crossover is similar to the Nissan Pathfinder that it's based on, but Infiniti did a really nice job of covering up its more pedestrian roots. Now, before I get to the styling, be sure to like and subscribe to the CarGurus channel so you'll never miss another upload. Now, the styling. So, as you can see, Infiniti did a nice job of creating a sleek but unique appearance. This is a crowded field of luxury crossovers, so they wanted to stand out without being too weird, and I think they really accomplished their goal. You can see you've got Infiniti etched into the chrome here. There's a lot of chrome throughout the entire car. You've got an enormous Infiniti logo in case you forget what you're driving. So, moving along the side, you've got a fake air vent at the front bumper here. These are 20-inch alloy wheels. They come on the autographed version as well as the two trims below it. The base Pure model has an 18-inch alloy wheel. Moving down the side here, you've got more chrome trim, again with the Infiniti name on it. They don't want you to forget what you're driving, and what I really like is how the roofline sort of slopes down, but then this belt line rises up to meet it. It gives the car a really athletic stance. Though this QX60 is all new for 2022, the wheelbase remains the same as its predecessor. It is, however, a bit wider and a little bit longer. This new QX60 also rides on a wider track, which should improve stability and handling. Although this QX60 rides on the same platform as a Nissan Pathfinder, it does have a little bit less ground clearance, so if that's important to you, maybe opt for the Nissan. Moving to the back of the QX60, there are two things I don't like. One, yes, the roofline is nice in how it slopes down, giving that athletic stance, but what it costs you is rearward visibility. When you're driving, it's not as easy to see out the back as it should be in a vehicle this large. The second thing is this chrome down here. Now, on the rest of the vehicle, they did a nice job of adding chrome where you would actually want it, but here you've got it in the bottom of the bumper in the diffuser area, and it's made to look like some sort of fake tailpipe thing. It doesn't quite work. It actually just comes off looking kind of gaudy. I would do without that, but what do you guys think? Is this too much chrome down at the bottom of this bumper, or would you be okay with it if this were your QX60? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Otherwise, the rest of the QX60 is pretty sleek back here. You've got these LED tail lamps that run across the back hatch, more Infiniti badging, and as you can see, this one is equipped to tow, and we're going to get into the tow ratings a little bit later, but first, let's talk about the engine. So unlike most of its competitors, the QX60 only comes with one engine, and it's not turbocharged. It's a 3.5-liter V6. Again, it's from the Nissan Pathfinder, but it makes a scooch more power than that Pathfinder. Here, it's 295 horsepower, 270 pound-feet of torque. That power is routed through an all-new 9-speed automatic transmission that replaces the CVT in the previous generation QX60. This transmission also has a manual mode and paddle shifter standard on all models. Front-wheel drive is standard, while all-wheel drive, which is what our version has, is a $2,000 option across all trim levels. The QX60 comes standard with hill start assist and four-wheel disc brakes with an electronic parking brake. McPherson struts handle front suspension duties, while a multi-link independent setup is installed in the rear. On front-wheel drive models, the QX60 has a fuel economy of 21 city, 26 highway, and 23 combined. If you switch to all-wheel drive, those numbers fall a bit to 20 in the city, 25 on the highway, and 22 combined. The QX60 will tow 6,000 pounds, which is more than enough for most users, and it's a bit of a bump over the previous generation. So what's all that like to drive? We'll get to that in a minute, but first let's show you that $65,000 interior. So as I've mentioned, we're testing the top trim level of the QX60. That's called the Autograph. So the Autograph gives you a lot of the really nice things you see here that are probably catching your eye. That includes quilted leather, there's open-pore wood, this Bose sound system is on this version, and the Sensory, which is the trim level just below it. But what I really like about the QX60 is the things that make the interior great, and actually the entire vehicle great, come on the base model, so you don't have to spend $65,000 to get them. So some of the features that are standard across all trim levels of the QX60 include leather seats, not these leather seats, but heated leather seats anyway, panoramic moonroof, and this 12.3-inch touchscreen navigation system. One nice thing about this infotainment system is you have some redundancy in how you use it. You can either use the touchscreen itself, which is clear and well laid out and pretty intuitive, or you have physical controls down here, so it's nice to have those choices. Down below it you've got your climate control. Now these are haptic feedback, so they're touch sensitive, but then they give you that little ding-dong, that's a patented term, when you touch it. Generally they work well, although we have a few issues sometimes with either it not registering when we touch it, that got a little frustrating. This is a pre-production vehicle, so perhaps it was because of that. Another thing that was frustrating was the backlighting on these buttons is really hard to see during some parts of the day. So the QX60 inside also really balances nice design with practicality. You've got cup holders throughout the vehicle, not just in the front here, but in the back seats as well. You also have really nice layers to the dashboard, all the buttons are where you would expect them to be, you don't have to hunt for anything. And because this is the fully loaded Autograph version, you've got some goodies that are really nice to have, but you don't really need. That includes a heads-up display, a digital dashboard, you've got this really nice speaker grille kind of integrated into the door panel, and the front seats here have a massaging function. So as I've mentioned, the QX60 is a three-row crossover. Now this is the Autograph version, which means that instead of seven passenger seating like most of the trim levels, this is six passenger seating. Now when it comes to passenger space, the QX60 has plenty of that. I'm six foot one, and I've got each of these three seats adjusted to where I would have them anyway. And I've got plenty of leg room, knee room, plenty of head room to sit behind myself here in the second row, and it's the same in the back row. The rear seats of the QX60 are split 60-40, and they'll fold flat into the floor. If this were one of the lower trim levels, it too, the bench seat would be split 60-40, and it could fold too. Other amenities back here are USB ports for both this row and the rear row, and you've got Tri-Zone, that's three zones of climate control to keep everybody cool and happy. One nice thing about these captain's chairs is that they fold easily out of the way with just a touch of the button for access to the third row. That's also nice because they don't collapse, which means you can keep a child seat there and still get to the third row. The exception to that is if you have a child seat like the one I use for our toddler, which actually uses the vehicle's seat belts to hold it into place rather than the latches. If that's the case, then this folding seat setup won't be as useful. There are two more features on this autograph trim level that I really like. The first is that these middle seats are heated, nice little feature, and second, the center console there between the two captain's chairs is very easily removed, and that gives you another way to get to the rear seats. So overall, passenger space on this QX60 is up 7.6 cubic feet over the previous generation, and as you can see here, even with the rear seats folded up, you've got a nice amount of cargo area, and if that's not enough, a really healthy amount of underfloor storage there, and when you need more space, these seats fold into the floor very easily. As I said earlier, they're split 60-40, and that gives you a lot more room. Overall, with these rear seats folded, this generation of QX60 has 41.6 cubic feet of additional cargo space over the previous generation. Alright, so we've told you everything about the QX60 in terms of its powertrain, 295 horsepower, 270 pound-feet of torque. How does it drive? It drives like a luxury three-row crossover should and would, right? This is not a sports car, it's not a pickup truck, it doesn't drive like either of those. It drives like a very easy, comfortable car for daily driving, for your commute, for long freeway trips. All of those, perfectly acceptable. We're on a windy road right now, the steering is good, it's communicative, it's not too light. Previous generations of Infinities have had steering that's a little too light and synthetic, you really don't feel what the car is doing. This doesn't have that. Feels good, you're in control. So one of the key changes to the powertrain of this QX60 versus its predecessor is that it switched from a CVT type of transmission to a 9-speed automatic, and that has made a world of difference in terms of its driving dynamics. 9-speed automatics or automatics of any kind really are much better for a luxury vehicle than a CVT, which can cause the engine to kind of drone at high RPM. This transmission is great, it stays out of the way, it shifts when you want it to, so we're really pleased with that change. So probably our biggest nitpick about the driving dynamics of this QX60 is the ride quality. It's just a little too rough, especially for a luxury crossover like this. We blame the 20-inch alloy wheels. The wheels and then the tires around them just don't give enough of sort of the sophisticated smoothness that you would expect in a crossover like this. Now it's worth noting that only the Pure, which is the base model of the QX60, has 18-inch alloy wheels, and we would suspect that we haven't driven that one, that that ride quality is a little bit better. One other thing we didn't love about this QX60 is that while on paper it has plenty of horsepower, 295 is more than enough, it didn't feel as robust as you'd expect in the real world, and that surprised us because we've tested the Nissan Pathfinder, which has the same engine with a little less horsepower, and the Pathfinder weighs about the same as this Infiniti, and that Pathfinder didn't have the same reluctance when you really got on the throttle. So we would have liked a little bit more enthusiasm from this engine in the Infiniti. All right, so how do those driving dynamics stack up against its competitors? Competitors being the Acura MDX, maybe the Lexus RX, the Lincoln Aviator, maybe the Volvo XC90. This one is sort of middle of the road. It's a little on the sharper side in terms of driving dynamics, closer to the Acura MDX. It's not as soft maybe as the Lexus, particularly not as soft as the Lincoln, but it also doesn't have sort of the enthusiasm that the Lincoln's turbocharged engine does have. So it's right in the middle of the road. I'd put it a little more on the sporty side, but again, that's not sporty in the sense of a sports car, that's sporty in the sense of a three-row family crossover. Another thing that we really like about the QX60 is it comes with a long list of standard safety features on all trim levels too. Highlights include pre-collision braking with pedestrian detection, rear automatic braking, rear cross-traffic alerts, a rearview monitor with rear parking sensors, and blind spot monitoring. Upper trim levels get blind spot intervention, a driver attention alert system, front sonar, lane departure alerts, and a surround view monitoring system. Our only gripe about the safety features is that radar cruise control is not offered as a standard feature on the base trim. You have to step up to the Luxe to get it, but when you do, it's a pretty robust system. They call it Infiniti's ProPILOT Assist, and it centers the vehicle in its lane, it can match the speed of surrounding traffic, it works on highways and interstates, and uses the navigation system to predict changes in the road like curves, and it can adjust the vehicle speed accordingly. As we mentioned, it's a great system, we just wish it were on all trim levels. Despite all these safety features, the QX60 missed out on a Top Safety Pick award from the IIHS. That said, it did earn good scores in all crash test ratings and a superior score in both crash avoidance areas. Alright, so you're ready to start shopping for a 2022 QX60, but which trim level should you consider? I would go with the base model that's called the Pure. For about $48,000 for the front-wheel drive version, you get everything that makes this vehicle great. That includes the 3.5-liter V6, panoramic moonroof, a power liftgate, leather seats that are heated up front, a heated steering wheel, the 12.3-inch touchscreen, the wireless Apple CarPlay, nine speakers, a Wi-Fi hotspot, and then all of the safety features we just went over. The next trim is called Luxe, and it's about $54,000 for the front-wheel drive model. It adds 20-inch alloy wheels, ventilated front seats, ProPILOT Assist, traffic sign recognition, and adaptive cruise control. Next up the list is the Sensory. For just over $57,000 for the front-wheel drive version, it adds a Bose 17-speaker stereo system, wireless phone charging, and some fancy interior lighting. And then at the top of the QX60 heap is this, the Autograph version that we've been showing you throughout this video. It starts just above $61,000 for the front-wheel drive version. This all-wheel drive model adds another $2,000 to that. The Autograph version adds many of the goodies we've already showed you. That includes the fancy leather seats, the open-pore wood, the heads-up display, the rear-view mirror camera. And while those features are certainly nice, they're not what makes the QX60 great. All of the things that are great come on the base model, the Pure, which is why if you are shopping for this car, that's the one we recommend. All right, folks, there you have it, the all-new 2022 Infiniti QX60. Pros, really nice design, plenty of space inside, and a nice value at the base model, the Pure. Cons, well, the ride is a little rough, the infotainment system is a bit outdated, and this loaded Autograph version really isn't worth the money. But overall, if you're shopping for a three-row luxury crossover, particularly the Acura MDX or Lexus RX, this should definitely be on your shopping list, too. For a full written review of this QX60, or reviews or listings of any vehicle you're shopping for, be sure to check out CarGurus.com. And if you haven't already, like and subscribe to this channel so you can be alerted for future updates. We'll see you out there.