First Drive Review
Infiniti claims that the reengined 2001 QX4 offers "everything you want in a luxury sports sedan plus everything you want in an SUV." Could be --if that includes a jiggly ride, an uncomfortable back seat, rear drum brakes, and a plastic-wood steering wheel.
If that's the case, well, we almost said, "Have we got a deal for you." But the Infiniti QX4 isn't a deal, since you can get pretty much the same thing, called a Nissan Pathfinder, for less money. (The top-of-the-line Pathfinder LE with leather and four-wheel drive starts at $33,897 vs. a comparable QX4 at $36,075.) Granted, you'll have to wait in line at the service desk behind the woman with the rusty Sentra, which is why some buyers are happy to pay the premium.
The good news is that the QX4 indeed may offer everything you want in an on-road SUV. Unless you opt for the newly available, Sunbelt-ready, $1400-cheaper rear-wheel-drive version, this one has a sophisticated yet simple-to-operate all-wheel-drive system derived from Nissan's Skyline GT-R. At its heart is a computer-controlled multiplate clutch that can apportion up to 50 percent of available torque to the front wheels. (Pathfinders make do with a cheaper part-time system.)
Unlike many automated quasi-SUVs, the QX4 allows you to switch to basic two-wheel drive for highway travel by turning off the clutch, thereby saving the drag of an idling all-wheel-drive system. Or the clutch can be locked for four-wheel-drive high- and low-range driving on slick surfaces. No QX4 will ever blow by a Wrangler in the woods, but no QX4 buyer will take one there anyway.
The QX4 offers the tall seating and battering-ram presence --literally, if you check out the new grille and front bumper --that grocery getters today find necessary. That new front end now also includes xenon headlights so that car drivers will not only find truck lights in their mirrors but supernova-bright ones at that.
Unlike Lexus's RX300, the QX4 is not a tall station wagon/ minivan crossover but a slight softening of the traditional trucklet image. There's a modicum of space behind the rear seat, albeit less than SUV buyers typically perceive to be there, since anything loaded higher than the seats can become a projectile in a collision of even the most minor sort.
The core of the QX4's redesign is a substantial step up from the old 168-hp, 3.3-liter single-cam, two-valve, iron-block, regular-fuel V-6 engine to a 240-hp, 3.5-liter, twin-cam, four-valve, all-aluminum, premium-fuel replacement. It's a peakier mill, however --a bigger-bore, shorter-stroke V-6 that moves the torque crest from 2800 rpm up to 3200 (and output from 196 pound-feet to 265) and the horsepower peak from 4800 all the way to the 6000-rpm redline. Even so, torque is boosted 20 percent over that of the old V-6 just off idle speed, and the increment increases at higher rpm.
You'd think that a 30 percent horsepower increase would do wonders for the vehicle, and certainly in comparison to the previous QX4 it does. Yet on the road, the new engine doesn't feel as strong as you might expect. The throttle has a lurching tip-in, to amplify the sensation of unrestrainable power. Floor it, and acceleration is more than adequate, but the new QX4 seems to run out of steam at about 85 mph, where aerodynamics announce, "That's it for now." Subjectively, a Jeep Grand Cherokee V-8 or a Lexus RX300 feels quicker at elevated speeds.
If you press the QX4 on back roads, you'll quickly exceed the limits of the cushy suspension. Particularly in the rear, the QX4 is into its bump stops surprisingly soon, and adult riders will want to avoid being sentenced to the back seat.
Up front, you'll have Infiniti's colorful new center-screen nav system to play with (available nationally this summer for $2000). It's surprisingly simple to use, in contrast to the nerdy early-adopter kludges we've seen so far, and it has one unique feature: not only a plan-view map but a curving-to-the-horizon, bird's-eye view that supposedly gives the map-challenged a better feeling for what's ahead.
The '01 model's improvements help close the gap with the QX4's competition, but without an all-new model, it will be hard to develop a clear lead.
