The 2017 Infiniti QX60 Is the All-Around Family SUV You’ve Been Looking For

The 2017 QX60 is Infiniti’s big, comfy, good-looking crossover, and it comes with just the right amount of luxury.

byEric Goeres|
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Welcome to Critic's Notebook, a quick and off-the-cuff collection of impressions, jottings, and marginalia on whatever The Drive writers happen to be driving. Today's edition: the Infiniti QX60 AWD

What the hell is it?

The 2017 Infiniti QX60 is the luxury version of the Nissan Pathfinder, an upscale grocery-getter and family hauler in a stylish, swooping, chrome-trimmed package. It’s a $60,000 crossover that feels like it could cost much more, one that travels in style and comfort with up to seven adult passengers (plus groceries in the back).

Who is it for?

This 2017 Infiniti QX60 is for mom and dad, in the prime of their earning years. It’s a family affair through and through, but it does so with a class and dignity that suggests intelligent upscale ownership without going toward garish.

Where did we test it?

We took this 2017 Infiniti QX60 from our Brooklyn offices down to West Virginia and back for holiday travels. We ran it at prolonged interstate hours and also took it on the gorgeous backroads of Pennsylvania (specifically, U.S. Route 200 and Interstate 99—both amazing). We loaded up my family—mom and sister in the back row, two brothers in the middle row, dad riding shotgun. Yours truly took the driver’s seat. Happily, everyone reported excellent roominess.

A sharp profile on the 2017 Infiniti QX60, Eric Goeres

The first thing you notice

It’s big and good looking. It’s comfortable. It’s not underpowered (nearly 300 horsepower, thanks to the updated version of Nissan's VQ 3.5-liter V6, now with direct injection). The InTouch infotainment system is improved. The cockpit visibility is excellent. The adaptive cruise control is excellent on the interstate.

The thing they don't want you to notice, but you do anyway

 Is this steering wheel small? Gosh, there’s a lot of buttons in here. Whoa, the adaptive cruise control just disengaged and nearly rolled into that car stopped in front of me. The knob for the volume is tiny. The headlights are focused too low, and the high-beams are slow to auto-engage. Damn, trying to connect Bluetooth is maddening.

Car is good at:

Stuffing kids into. The 2017 Infiniti QX60 is a great family car. Really: great. It has everything you’d want from a minivan (not that you'd ever admit to wanting anything from a minivan), with plenty of horses under the hood, an eco mode to tame the fuel consumption, excellent rear passenger theater system, Wi-Fi, great seats, motion-activated liftgate, and plenty of upgraded safety features including advanced ABS, Brake Assist, Vehicle Dynamic Control, Traction Control, Tire Pressure Monitoring, Lane Departure Warning, Moving Object Detection, and Front and Rear Sonar System. All that safety, all that drive-all-day comfort, with a roof rack on the top, it’s the family car you’ve always wanted.

The QX60 center stack is a sprawling expanse of buttons, knobs, wood trim, and angles., Eric Goeres

Car is bad at:

The 2017 Infiniti QX60 isn’t bad at much. I mean, it’s not good at being really sporty, but it does have plenty of power. It doesn’t have the absolutely gorgeous panoramic front-to-rear sunroofs of some others in the class, but it does have a fine small sunroof up front and a damn fine big sunroof in back. And that’s what it’s like, from bumper to bumper: pretty good at everything, really awful at nothing.

Ratings

PERFORMANCE: 3

COMFORT: 4

LUXURY: 3.5

HAULING PEOPLE: 4

HAULING STUFF 4

CURB APPEAL: 4

“WOW” FACTOR: 3.5

OVERALL: 3.75

Would you buy it?

 Absolutely. And I’d be delighted to own it. I say that having spent nearly two weeks with it and having logged plenty of hours in the driver’s seat. Read trip? Yes. Groceries? Yes. Stuck a full family inside? Yes, twice. IKEA Run? No, but definitely considered it.

Not sure why G-force meter is necessary in this one, but it's fun., Eric Goeres

Deep thoughts

Infiniti upgraded the engine, the electronics, and the safety systems in this model year. They didn’t mess with the stuff that worked already, like the good looking exterior, the interior space, and the overall comfort level. And that’s the way it should be, year after year. Keep working the electronics and safety systems—keep working on them, because you’re never going to be done with that. And fix what’s needed, like the horsepower (a bit more would be nice). Leave everything else alone. Good work, Infiniti.

PRICE (AS TESTED): $44,900 ($60,045)

POWERTRAIN: 3.5-liter V6, AWD, CVT with manual-shift mode

FUEL ECONOMY: 19 city / 26 highway

PERFORMANCE: 295 hp, 270 lb.-ft.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT CAN BE CRAMMED INSIDE, UNCOMFORTABLY (EST): 16, with day bags on the roof rack.

The QX60 has a lot of handsome details, like the rear lamps, Eric Goeres
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