2024 Infiniti QX60 Autograph Review: The Luxury SUV That Can't Escape Its Family Tree
- Nestled in a cocoon of luxury
- 17-speaker Bose sound system is great
- The interior is a nice place to be
- ProPilot is a bit of a mess
- "Autograph" trim is too expensive compared to the base model
- It doesn't mechanically differentiate itself
Upon first glance, the 2024 Infiniti QX60 Autograph looked quite a lot like the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder that I drove not all that long ago. I'd be mostly correct in that assumption as, from a mechanical perspective, the QX60 is just a Pathfinder. It's equipped with a 3.5-liter V6 that makes exactly 295 horsepower on premium fuel and that same engine is paired with a nine-speed automatic transmission and an all-wheel drive system. Even the fuel economy of an estimated 22 miles per gallon is the same.
The bodywork on the outside is, of course, much different. Plus, the QX60's "Deep Bordeaux" and "Black Obsidian" paint scheme lends the SUV a much more refined vibe over the family car that moonlights as an off-road truck Pathfinder. Yet, I thought the experience with the QX60 would be a lot of the same. Large luxury SUVs like the QX60 have always fallen firmly in the "not for me" category: as long as I have heated seats and access to Apple CarPlay, I'm happy.
After a week behind the leather-wrapped steering wheel of the Infiniti, however, I think I may be wrong about the more upscale side of motoring.
The cost of luxury
You can't talk about luxury SUVs without at least mentioning the price. That's part of the reason some people buy luxury cars, after all, to show off. The QX60's starting price of $49,650 isn't that egregious, and in fact the Pathfinder can get close to that point with the right set of options. It's only when you start climbing the ladder of trim levels do you start to appreciate the amount of cash you have to plonk down to get the best Infiniti has to offer.
This QX60 was the "Autograph" trim that starts at a cool $66,100 if you opt for all-wheel drive. The QX60 Autograph that I had the privilege of commanding was equipped with the aforementioned Bordeaux paint job (a $900 option), the Lighting Package ($795), and illuminated Infiniti badge on the front fascia ($455). Add in the destination charge of $1,195 and you're looking at $69,445. That's a lot of cash, but somewhat reasonable in the luxury car world where eclipsing six-figures for the right Mercedes or BMW isn't out of the ordinary.
Interior comforts
The leather bedecked interior that greets you when you sit at the helm of the QX60 is cavernous, with seating for up to seven people and 75.4 cubic feet of cargo room with all the seats folded down. There are two captains chairs in the middle row and a bench seat in the back for your less-favored children. The front two seats are covered in quilted semi-aniline (heavily pigmented) leather and feature not only the standard fare of heating and ventilation, but also a massage function. I will note that the massage function felt more like I was being very slowly kicked in the back while on an airplane than what an actual massage may feel like. The ventilation function, however, is quite useful.
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
For your audio entertainment needs, the QX60 is fitted with a 17-speaker sound system furnished by Bose. Next to the quilted leather that covered every square inch of the front half of the car were black ash wood accent trim pieces, because why not?
Commanding the vessel
You don't really drive a car like the QX60 Autograph, you command it. The running gear and all the loud metal bits are still positively Nissan Pathfinder-esque, but the standard 20-inch wheels help smooth things out quite a bit. It's huge, difficult to park even with the Autograph's front and rear parking sensors and 360-degree camera, and about as subtle as an orca flying down the highway at 75 miles per hour, but by golly, it's really comfortable to pilot. Aside from the ghastly obstacles on the road known collectively as traffic, the outside world doesn't really exist when you are cruising the QX60 to your destination.
19th century English bishop John Charles Ryle said "There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction." If we are using that as a metric, I can safely say that I didn't learn a single important lesson during my time with the QX60. It's just really nice to drive.
I do, however, have some gripes with the QX60 that sully the otherwise well-situated driving experience. The blame lies totally behind Infiniti's ProPilot driver assistance technology and its 12.3-inch instrument cluster that Infiniti calls a "Dynamic Meter Display."
Technology is not your friend
First the display, it's really busy and it's not initially clear what you are looking at. It's almost infinitely configurable, if you want to mess with somewhat un-intuitive controls, and frankly you probably will. By default it's jam-packed with graphics: The tachometer for instance — arguably not especially useful in a car with an automatic transmission, under normal circumstances — is a vertically oriented wheel that almost imperceptibly waffles back and forth when the engine is working.
Next to that is your fuel economy accompanied by an Infiniti logo, in case you forgot what kind of car you were driving. To the right is an image of the QX60 and a compass (once again, if you don't remember what the car looks like). Further across is your current music selection, and next to that, all the way on the right, is the speedometer, also illustrated with a vertically oriented wheel.
In the overload of information that is the instrument cluster, the important numbers, like your speed, can get lost. Fortunately, the Autograph trim is equipped with a head-up display as standard — it's optional on Luxe and Sensory trims — projected onto the windshield and centered right in the middle of your vision. Once I knew that I wasn't going to glean much useful information from the instrument cluster, the heads-up display became my primary means of checking my instruments.
ProPilot Problems
The ProPilot system is another beast altogether. Flat-out, I found it confusing to use and not at all straightforward. Even features like cruise control are hidden behind a combination of button presses that aren't immediately obvious. Cruise control is one of the best inventions of the 20th century behind maybe the use of penicillin, and it's so obtrusive to use on the Infiniti, that I just didn't use it that often.
No essential features on a car should only be accessible through multiple menus, much less one as common as cruise control. I don't want to feel like I'm trying to remember how to enter cheat codes into a video game while trying to drive. ProPilot is undoubtedly powerful driver assistance software but it's too complicated for its own good. The designers of the user experience seemingly forgot that people need to activate these features while driving on the highway, not sitting stationary in a parking lot with the owners manual in hand.
Luxury, in context
I genuinely enjoyed my time in charge of the QX60. Technological gripes aside, the piloting experience is uncomplicated and it goes where you want it to with all of the inherent grace of a big SUV.
Here's the kicker with the QX60, and one fact that I couldn't gloss over the entire week: It's almost $70,000. As mentioned earlier, that's a drop in the bucket compared to high-end BMWs or Mercedes SUVs, but it starts to make less sense when you see that the Infiniti has a base price of under $50,000. Plus the car it's mechanically identical to, the Pathfinder, starts at $37,980 for the all-wheel drive model.
The QX60 is not a bad car, quite the opposite. The interior quilted leather comforts and sound system are top-notch and would be a treat in any car, but is it truly worth nearly adding nearly $20,000 to the base price? That's a tough sell. If the top-of-the-line Autograph variant came with a different drivetrain or some sort of mechanical, tangible benefit over the base models, then it wouldn't be as much of an issue. Then there's the fact that its Nissan cousin is so impressive in this generation. As truly nice as the QX60 Autograph is, it still feels like an $38,000 SUV that got a haircut and put on an expensive suit. For that reason, and really for that reason alone, the 2024 Infiniti QX60 Autograph suffers.