Absolute dinosaur but we love it
The Infiniti QX80 is a huge, luxurious insult to the planet. We do rather like it though, writes
The official announcement that Infiniti is pulling out of New Zealand at the end of next year gives rise to the inevitable question – is a road test of the massive QX80 SUV relevant any more?
But the bigger question is this: Was a huge 2800kg petrol V8-powered SUV ever actually relevant in 2019 anyway?
The answer is, of course no. It is an absolute dinosaur, a profligate waste of resources and an offence to the planet in general.
But that doesn’t stop it from being quite endearingly likeable though.
Well, you can probably see that for yourself – the mighty, massive QX80 no longer looks like someone popped a plastic model of a Land Cruiser in a microwave for a few minutes to see what would happen.
Nope, the big fella now has a new face that squares up its features and removes the droopy, bug-eyed look of the last model.
And you know what? It works too – the QX80 is now quite a handsome beast, albeit one that has still had one too many visits from the Chrome Fairy, or however that works. Yeah, there’s still a lot of chrome going on there, but the new squarer nose wears it better, at least.
The facelift brings an entirely new bonnet, grille and front bumper designs, with new LED headlights, as well as LED tail lights and a new rear bumper as well.
The rest stays pretty much the same, meaning the same 5.6-litre petrol V8 pumping out 298kW of power and 560Nm of torque.
Infiniti QX80 Base price: Powertrain and performance:
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Surprisingly well for an utter irrelevance that is a blatant insult to the planet.
While it has a decidedly oldschool feel inside and out (come on, it’s a massive V8 luxury SUV with lots of shiny wood, of course it’s oldschool), with the obvious flashes of Nissan that all Infinitis spectacularly fail to escape from, the QX80 is a superbly luxurious and comfortable thing.
The luxury feel is tempered by those Nissan bits and pieces, however, with the hard plastics dragging the interior down to that sub-Lexus level that Infiniti seems cursed to forever lurk in.
The engine is a big barrel-chested lunk that has loads of urge up in the middle of its rev range, but takes its time to spool up.
Once that momentum is gathered, however, it is almost alarmingly brisk for something so huge.
Fortunately – and somewhat unexpectedly – the QX80 actually makes a decent fist of the whole handling thing, despite being a tall, heavy monster aimed specifically at the United States and Middle Eastern markets, where going around corners is not a priority.
While it certainly isn’t a sports car, the QX80 is predictable, with particularly well-contained body roll around corners, and that big V8 punches the 2.8-tonne behemoth out the other side remarkably well, too. The ride is, of course, spectacularly plush which, when combined with the engine’s open road urge, makes for some startlingly comfortable and effortless progress.
Of course, that punchy big V8 is also incredibly thirsty. While Infiniti officially claims a combined consumption of 14.5L/100km, the reality is a daily mixed usage of closer to the urban-only claim of 20.9L/100km.
Even more if you use that power regularly.
The QX80 is wasteful and irrelevant, yet surprisingly