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"  Louisville, Ky.\u2014Gasoline prices, environmental concerns, and economic recession pulled the rug out of the luxury SUV craze, which today accounts for barely one-third as many vehicle sales as in 2005. Ben Poore, Infiniti&amp;#039;s VP in charge of American operations, says such SUVs no longer serve as status symbols, but that the sales curve has leveled out and about 100,000 buyers a year still perceive a need for the passenger, cargo and towing capacity that only a big SUV offers. &amp;quot;The bling buyer is gone,&amp;quot; Poore says. &amp;quot;The buyer now has a need. If it&amp;#039;s towing, it might just be twice a year\u2014boat in/boat out\u2014but it&amp;#039;s there.&amp;quot; On average, compared with the direct competition, today&amp;#039;s QX56 buyer is the youngest, with the highest household income and the most vehicles in his garage; a greater proportion are married with children. Infiniti&amp;#039;s share of this market has been growing even with the aging current model, so Poore expects to do even better with a more stylish version that adds the latest luxury, convenience and safety features even as it gains in fuel efficiency. The Specs As Infiniti revealed at this year&amp;#039;s New York Auto Show, the 2011 QX56 is built in Japan and shares its underpinnings with the Nissan Patrol, a large SUV not sold in the U.S. but which competes with Toyota&amp;#039;s Land Cruiser in global markets. The outgoing model was built in the U.S., at Nissan&amp;#039;s Canton, Miss., plant alongside the Titan pickup and the Armada SUV. Poore notes that the change should reduce cross-shopping with Infiniti&amp;#039;s mass-market sister brand and give buyers of the luxury model a unique vehicle. While many competitors opt for unit-body construction or car-based crossovers to replace their large SUVs, Infiniti stayed with body-on-frame construction to maintain the truck-like hauling capacity. It can boast an 8500-pound towing capacity (850 pounds tongue weight) and 7500 pounds GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating). The Patrol-based chassis is stiffer and quieter than the old setup. Also quieter and smoother is the 400-hp 5.6-liter V8, which makes 25 percent more power. This is not the same V8 used in the Nissan trucks but closely related to the 420-hp engine found in the new M56 sedan, tuned to deliver peak torque (413 lb-ft) at lower (4000) rpm, important for the towing/hauling mission. This engine mates to a seven-speed automatic transmission with adaptive shift control and a manual shift mode that features downshift rev-matching (\u00E0 la the G37 sport sedan), a snow mode and tow mode. Electronic control of the 4WD system no longer offers a locked-in 2WD mode, which McNamara said only served to limit the car&amp;#039;s abilities just when drivers needed 4WD\u2014instead, there&amp;#039;s an automatic mode that defaults to 100 percent rear drive and redirects torque only when slip is detected. A 4WD Hi selection activates the front axle continuously for slippery conditions while 4WD Lo locks you in for true off-road performance.  The more efficient drivetrain combined with a slight weight reduction (about 160 pounds) yields a 10 percent or 2 mpg improvement in average fuel economy, for an EPA combined rating of 16 mpg (14/20 city/highway), best among 4WD vehicles in the luxury SUV segment. The Patrol platform gives the new QX56 a 2-inch-shorter wheelbase, but the new truck is still a bit longer than the old one, thanks largely to the decision to completely conceal the towing receiver hardware within the rear bumper. Sean McNamara, senior manager for product planning, says the exposed towing hardware found on some competitors&amp;#039; vehicles &amp;quot;looks agricultural, not contemporary, not that smooth.&amp;quot;  Indeed, Infiniti leaves farm-truck chic to the Land Rover lovers. If it&amp;#039;s not as dramatic as Infiniti&amp;#039;s smaller FX models, there&amp;#039;s nothing the least bit agricultural about the design of this 21st-century SUV. Gone are all traces of Armada, with the new QX adapting Infiniti&amp;#039;s signature styling cues of the wave-form hood and double-arch grille, the latter echoed in the chrome surrounds for the license plate at the rear. Sleeker design for the roof rails lowers overall height nearly 3 inches, while width is up just over an inch (for safety and interior comfort). The &amp;quot;bling buyer&amp;quot; may be gone, but there&amp;#039;s still plenty of flash in this SUV, with its standard 20-inch and optional 22-inch wheels and chrome highlights splashed liberally over all the exterior and interior surfaces. Rich wood and leather trim highlight an interior that designers claim was inspired by that of private jet aircraft. There&amp;#039;s more than plenty of legroom for adults in the second row of seats (buckets standard, a bench optional at no extra charge), and access in and out of the third row is easy. A power reclining mechanism eases the pain of sitting in that third row, only suitable for joint jaunts if you&amp;#039;re an adult but adequate for children. Cargo space, third row up or folded, is near if not at the top of the segment. &amp;amp;gt; The Drive Pricing hasn&amp;#039;t changed over the old model, so a base, rear-drive QX56 stickers at $56,700 (plus $950 destination/handling) while the 4WD model goes for $59,800. The next big choice is &amp;quot;theater&amp;quot; or not\u2014the new $2450 system replaces the single large overhead screen with separate screens in the back of each front headrest. These can operate separately so that Muffy can watch High School Musical again while Biff plays video games. Dedicated storage in the middle-row center console holds the remote controls and game consoles. Our test drive took place over twisting country roads through the &amp;quot;horse country&amp;quot; outside Louisville. With only a couple of enthusiastic drivers aboard, it proved surprisingly nimble for rapid motoring on roads that would entertain a sports car or motorcycle pilot. That might please the owner in a hurry to pick up his family or cargo, but it&amp;#039;s not the primary mission. Among the horsey set around us, the vehicle&amp;#039;s 8500-pound towing capacity might serve adequately for pulling a two-horse trailer even on challenging terrain. It wouldn&amp;#039;t measure up to the fifth-wheel haulers we spotted pulling multi-horse trailers and Infiniti does not yet offer a diesel engine like those found in a large proportion of the pickups with which we shared these roads\u2014Poore hopes a nascent business relationship between parent Renault/Nissan and Mercedes-Benz might some day give Infiniti access to diesel powertrains.  They&amp;#039;d have a hard time matching the QX for quiet, luxurious motoring, though. The biggest market for this vehicle is actually Long Island, N.Y., and we can see how it would serve well the family making the run out to the Hamptons, perhaps towing a boat or horses. Fortunately, you can turn off the beeps and alarms from the optional lane-departure warning and &amp;quot;distance control assist&amp;quot; systems, which might be welcome aids on a big wide interstate but merely annoy an attentive driver on narrow roads.  There&amp;#039;s lots of such technical and electronic wizardry to entertain and assist the driver even on the standard equipment list. Then comes a $5800 Deluxe Touring Package that was on both vehicles we drove, which adds 22-inch wheels, special leather seats, climate control (heating and cooling) for the front seats and heat for the second-row seats, advanced climate control and headlight washers. Tech geeks will drop another $2850 for a Technology Package (on one of the SUVs we tested) with intelligent cruise control, lane-departure warning and prevention, distance control assist, blind-spot warning, adaptive front lighting and more. The two QX56s we drove came in just below and just over $70,000 with destination fee. Buyers looking for bragging rights in this segment might want to talk up the hydraulic body-motion-control system from the touring package, which replaces the antiroll bars with a hydraulic system connecting the shock absorbers side to side. This minimizes the side-to-side motions on the freeway (what engineers call &amp;quot;head toss,&amp;quot; a contributor to motion sickness, particularly among rear-seat occupants) while enhancing off-road suspension travel for good articulation over logs or, more likely, that big speed bump at the yacht club.  Easier to show off, though, is the feature that turns your QX56 into the world&amp;#039;s first $70,000 5850-pound 4WD electronic tire-pressure gauge. This is more or less an &amp;quot;app&amp;quot; for the standard tire-pressure monitoring system (TPMS). Like many other luxury vehicles, the QX provides a constant readout of tire pressures and alerts the driver when the pressure is low. Unlike any other vehicle, though, the QX tells you when you&amp;#039;ve refilled the tire properly, no gauge required. Pump air into the tire and, as pressure approaches the proper 35 psi, the light on the exterior mirror housing blinks once and the horn honks once when you should quit. Overfilling results in a three-blink warning from the light\u2014release pressure until the horn honks again.  The Bottom Line Infiniti gains market share even as other makers, notably the domestic brands, minimize or abandon their big SUV efforts. The original allure of the SUV for automakers\u2014large profit margins made on incremental sales\u2014really suits Infiniti&amp;#039;s mission. The QX56 is poised to dominate in this nouveau niche among the rich who still have &amp;quot;need&amp;quot; for such a thing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/reviews/a5857/2011-infiniti-qx56-test-drive/>