Unpretentious, luxurious, "truck-like" SUV

Author's Rating:

Pros: clean styling, Japanese reliability, customer service, safety features, horsepower, understated Infiniti brand

Cons: Low MPG, rear-seat legroom

Handling And Control:

The Bottom Line: 
You can't go wrong with the QX4 if you want a true SUV. It's an upscale Pathfinder with an Infiniti brand that is built around customer satisfaction.

Author's Review
My wife and are looking to have children soon, but are still young enough to want to take trips to Tahoe, the Shasta/Trinity Alps, and around the Bay Area. We've been driving a sports coupe as our main car, and it was time to look for a more kid-friendly car for the future. This meant something that was safe, reliable, and had enough room in the back to justify not just buying a sedan. We decided to look at a wide range of possibilities:

Volvo Cross-Country
Subaru Forrester/Outback
Passat Wagon
Nissan Pathfinder
Toyota Highlander
Lexus RX300
Mercedes ML320
Infiniti QX4

We liked the Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee but we decided that their reliability and safety track records were too poor to consider. Ditto for the Land Rover. We just didn't like the styling of the BMW X5. And the Acura MDX is selling for over the MSRP. The 4Runner is just too underpowered.


DECISIONS, DECISIONS

We both thought the Volvo, Subarus, and Passat wagons were great cars. They drove well, were safe and reliable, and had reasonably good gas mileage. The gas mileage part was particularly attractive since we felt guilty about buying a gas-guzzling SUV. In the end, we weren't ready to buy a wagon. We wanted a truck that we could carry more things and that we rode high. On to the SUVs...

We decided to spend a saturday test driving cars. First was the Lexus RX300... nice. Everything about this car is nice except for the cargo room... tiny. Next, we decided to test drive the Toyota Highlander. This was, on paper, the perfect car for us. Affordable and more roomy than the Lexus. But something just wasn't right about it. Somehow, it just felt like a mini-van. We walked away trying to like the Highlander but thinking about it as a compromise.

We decided to stop by the Mercedes dealership and see the ML320 in person. It's a very nice car but it also starts to look like a mini-van (if you stare at it long enough- trust me). The ML320 is made in Alabama, not Germany. It has a history of quality problems that may or may not be resolved in the 2002 models. We decided it was not worth the extra cost. Plus, we liked the luxury-level but didn't want people gawking at us as we drove around in a Mercedes.

Our last stop was the Infiniti dealership. The minute we sat in the QX4, we knew this was the car for us. It just clicked... truck-like SUV with an upscale feel. The salesperson was very nice too. We drove away thinking we had found the car we were going to buy. The next day, we test drove the Pathfinder just to compare the two and we immediately decided we liked the QX4 and the dealership better.

THE DEAL

I looked online at many web sites and would recommend car buyers go to edmunds.com. The invoice pricing, cash holdback %, financing kickbacks, and destination charges are all there so you can make an informed offer on a car. I didn't want to haggle, and since I knew what kinds of incentives and profits the QX4 had, I felt pretty good about getting what I wanted from one of the many Bay Area Infiniti dealerships. I ended up making an offer to the salesperson over e-mail, which she accepted. I went in on a late friday afternoon at the end of the month and we did the deal. $400 over invoice and I took the special 0.9% financing - a win-win for both of us.

OUR QX4

We love the QX4! The interior fit-and-finish and styling is wonderful. The wood trim is well done, and everything feels richly appointed but not overly so. A very good balance of utility and comfort give the QX4 a Zen-like luxury feel. The niceties include a 6-disc in-dash CD changer, HomeLink controls, compass and temp gauge, and automatic temperature controls. We decide not to splurge for the nav system (plus we didn't like that the temperature controls and CD changer would have been more awkward with the nav system installed).

The square-ish, truck-like exterior is great - it just looks like what it is. An SUV. Not a car-like SUV. Not a mini-van. Not a mini-SUV. Ours is black with beige leather interior. Everything about it looks good from the outside.

The QX4 has a 240 hp V6, plenty of cargo room, and enough rear seat room for any future kids and passengers. Both my wife and I are under 6' and fit very easily in the QX4. Handling is very nice, and we love the change from a sports coupe to riding high. Our QX4 did not have the tow package, and we decided to pass on the expensive Infiniti dealer option. We're still looking and trying to decide between Thule and Yakima systems. It's very easy to find an after-market tow/rack system since the QX4 and Pathfinder use the same parts.

One thing we felt was important was the ability to see out the rear and rear-side windows. The Pathfinder has rectangular side windows that are very easy to see out of when changing lanes. Both my wife and I have no trouble driving this car in Bay Bridge and SF traffic. (In contrast, the Lexus and Highlander have angled rear-side windows and changing lanes is more difficult.)

We still feel a bit guilty at buying a car that is getting around 15 mpg. But that is probably the only real negative with the QX4. The temperature control is a little confusing at times, and there was no option for separate driver-side and passenger-side temperature settings. I also think the side running boards aren't quite as convenient and well-positioned as they could be. I had heard this complaint from other reviews, and I agree.

You should certainly know that Nissan could have put a Pathfinder XLE name on this car. But the little things do add up- xenon headlights, better-looking grille, better dash, better sound-dampening, better ride, the Infiniti analog clock, and overall better quality feel. But the best reasons to spend the extra $2500 are the Infiniti dealership and the additional warranty coverage. Infiniti's philosophy of putting customer satisfaction #1 is great. More companies should think like that.