Infiniti QX56 - Gourmet Meatloaf

The mere notion of full size, luxury sport utility vehicles wasn't a decade old when Nissan rolled out their F-Alpha pickup truck based Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX56 SUV's in 2004. Just like that, all other luxury SUV's else seemed if not outright tame at least restrained compared to the QX56.

 

The original QX' most distinctive styling touch, which it shared with the similar looking Armada, is its swoopy/hump roof that flows fairly seamlessly into a straight as a billiard table rear roof line. The recessed rear door handles helping add to the illusion that this is a pickup truck with pop up camper in the bed. Huh? Yeah. Can't make this stuff up. I'm not of the pickup truck persuasion but I find it hard to imagine that anyone who owns a pickup truck with a camper in the bed is proud of the way their mini motor home actually looks. If you can afford filet mignon, would you go for gourmet meatloaf instead?  

 

 

It's probably no surprise then that when Nissan updated the Armada and QX for 2010, the pickup truck and pop up camper lines on the QX went into the river. It stayed on the Armada, tough. That making as much sense on the Armada as it did on the QX but then again what do I know being from Long Island and all. Long Island, especially where I grew up a stone's throw from Kennedy airport, not exactly a bastion of pickup trucks not to mention pop up campers.

 

 

It might just be the Long Islander in me but even though I have had a Chevrolet Tahoe for years now and love the damn thing, luxury trucks and luxury SUV's still escape me. In my myopic New York City esque point of view, trucks should be for work or at least utility first and foremost. Ineed, the utility of my Tahoe is what I appreciate most about it. Tarting up an SUV into a luxury vehicle makes as much sense to me as a construction working wearing dress shoes to work.

 

 

I am fairly alone in my dismay of these things, apparently. Fancy tanks like this sell quite well and turn a healthy profit. Sales have been strong for the QX with the new QX56 outselling Infiniti's other SUVs, the crossovers EX and FX, as well as the Lexus GX and LX luxury SUV's.

 

 

The QX56 was renamed the "Q80" during Infiniti's bizarre model name change for 2015. The new name makes as much sense as a luxury SUV.