Like a fine wine, perfectly aged
Changes include new grille, rear valance, standard 18-inch alloys and a 20-mm-higher ride height
SAN DIEGO, CALIF.— Being all-new is not necessarily the be-all and end-all of what it takes for a vehicle to be relevant. Sometimes a refresh of an already good product is all it takes.
That’s what Infiniti is hoping for with the refreshed 2016 QX50, a luxury compact crossover that first appeared as the 2008 EX35. Back then, critters of this ilk were thin on the ground. Not any more. The premium compact CUV accounts for 26 per cent of Canada’s luxury car market, and so far this year these little leather-lined high-riders have outpaced the compact luxury sedan crowd in sales.
Infiniti’s offering may be one of the originals, but it hardly lights up the sales chart, being overshadowed by its Japanese rivals the Acura RDX and Lexus NX.
Then there’s the Lincoln MKC, Range Rover Sport and new BMW X1 and Mercedes GLC to complicate matters.
Infiniti’s answer? Make the QX50 bigger. OK, longer. Simple but effective. I’ve always thought Infiniti’s compact CUV to be a fine driving vehicle blessed with a beautiful interior, but its Achilles heel was stingy back seat room and woeful hatch space. For 2016, the QX50 gets an 80 mm wheelbase stretch, which translates to an extra 109 mm of rear knee room. And that makes all the difference in this car. Two adults can now enjoy the rear seat environment in comfort. The hatch space stays the same but total cargo volume is up 234 L with the seats folded.
Other changes for 2016 include a new grille, rear valance, standard 18inch alloys and a 20 mm higher ride height. Mechanically nothing changes. All Canadian QX50s have AWD and are powered by a 3.7L VQ-series V6 (325 hp, 267 lb-ft) hooked to a seven speed auto.
The QX50’s interior might be eight years old, but as a testament to the Infiniti’s design and top-notch materials it looks good and eclipses most competitors when it comes to perceived luxury. In some ways, age makes it better. Infiniti’s traditional layout with the central screen and a plethora of buttons and controls works just fine. Love those clear “Fine Vision” gauges, too.
Starting at $37,900, the 2016 QX50 has four trim levels and no stand alone options. The base model gets a sunroof, proximity key with push button starts, real leather seating (heated front, powered 8-way driver and 4-way passenger), aluminum interior trim, 7-inch display, 18-inch alloys, dual-zone climate control, USB, rearview monitor and Bluetooth.
Moving up to the $42,800 Premium bestows Around View Monitor, a fine 11-speaker Bose system, Advanced Climate Control System, memory system for driver’s seat, heated outside mirrors and steering wheel, entry/exit assist for driver’s seat and steering wheel, outside mir- rors with reverse tilt-down feature, auto-dimming inside mirror with Homelink, maple interior accents, power tilt and telescopic steering column, 19-inch split 5-spoke alloys, (HID) xenon adaptive headlights with auto-leveling, power driver’s seat lumbar support, coat hanger on driver’s seat head restraint, 8-way power passenger’s seat, power upfolding second row seats, and premium stitching.
If you want navi, you’ll have to spring for the $45,300 Navigation that also includes front and rear park assist and Bluetooth audio streaming. The full-blown Technology at $47,800 layers on a suite of radar and camera based systems: adaptive cruise with full stop, collision warning and auto braking, lane departure warning and blind spot warning.
On the road The QX50 may have some oldish bones, and its mechanicals may not subscribe to the current fashion of small displacement turbo-fours and electric steering, but driving is believing. If you’re just a bit nostalgic for V6 power, linear throttle response and meaty hydraulic steering, then welcome home. Of course none of this does anything for fuel economy. Official fuel economy numbers are 13.7L/100km city, 9.7 L/100km highway and 11.9 L/100 km combined. Premium fuel required.
Heading inland from San Diego, we hit some undulating roads that weave through the wonderfully parched and scrubby landscape. Running mostly in rear-wheel drive until conditions dictate otherwise, the QX50 feels at home here, hunkering down and eating up these roads with a confident poise that eludes many competitors. But there are some niggles. The QX50 lacks usable cabin storage space, and why no one-touch turn signal function? And if Nissan can include navigation with its 30-grand Murano, why save that feature for the second-from-top trim Infiniti? Get past that and all is pretty much forgiven once behind the wheel. Think of the 2016 QX50 as a fine wine that has aged to maturity. It is smooth, strong, has longs legs and now comes in a larger bottle.
Infiniti Design San Diego Alfonso Albaisa, Infiniti’s executive design director, hovers around a production-ready mock-up of an as-yet unreleased Infiniti at the Infiniti De- sign San Diego studio, sweeping his hands over the fetching flanks and describing the creation in a flurry of poetic sound bites that only a man immersed in the world of auto design could come up with.
“The machine is not cold, the machine has a story.” He continues. “We want you to feel the hand print of the artist. The metal will be a little bit warm from the hand. The body must be muscular and tense, but the muscles are not over exerted.”
Albaisa, Cuban-born, raised in Miami and now living in Japan, and every inch the international car designer — cool hair, groovy clothes, high energy and infinitely passionate — is playing host to a few journalists who have been given a peek (under the promise of complete secrecy) into this new division of the Nissan Design America studio that is dedicated solely to the Infiniti luxury arm. Dubbed Infiniti Design San Diego, it shares support services with NDA such as digital and clay modelling, but the creative and design process is handled by an independent team in a space reversed exclusively for this right-brain collective.
This California studio joins Infiniti’s other design centres in Beijing, London and Japan.
With the birth of any new Infiniti, there is an internal contest between the four international studios. Each will submit five or six proposals, and from there the basics are established, with all other aspects of the car undergoing a similar process. Albaisa says the four studios display distinct personalities. London is all about maturity and density. China has the youngest designers with some of the more radical ideas. Japan is the master of execution and detail, and San Diego is, well . . . California. Both feet in sunny car culture.
Of course, nothing beats seeing the physical proportions of a car, and that’s where clay modelling comes in. The basic form of the model is cut by a huge milling machine, so designers are now just concerned with finessing the model by hand. There is a central courtyard where the clay creations are viewed in natural light.
Richard Plavitech, general manager of NCA, says design is now a global process, with ideas, renderings and digital scans of full-size models bouncing around the globe at the speed of the Internet. “This studio used to be a satellite, looking upstream at future products, but now it is an integral part of the process.” Freelance writer Peter Bleakney is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. His travel and other expenses on this trip were paid for by the manufacturer. To reach Peter, email and put his name in the subject line.