There’s something about Infiniti’s new QX56 that seems unseemly. It’s not that it’s bigger than every other SUV (it isn’t — though it’s mighty big) but that it has apparently been designed to celebrate its own gigantism so brazenly. This is the SUV as hussy. It’s the sport-ute equivalent of a hefty woman in a tube top, vinyl miniskirt, thigh-high boots and too much makeup.
As the chorus that has arisen against big SUVs has grown louder and unreasonable, this is a machine sure to only antagonize them.
More than an Armada?
If Infiniti is trying to hide the fact that the QX56 is based on the Nissan Armada, it’s not making too great an effort. The Armada’s distinctive arched greenhouse, circle-and-bar (Nissan logo) front door handle shapes, trailing edge rear door handles, and all the sheetmetal from the A-pillars back is common to the two trucks. The big change comes up front where the QX56’s massive nose features a front grille large enough to barbecue a whole hog upon and is covered in enough shiny faux-chrome to reflect virtually all solar radiation that makes it to this planet back out into deep space. We say virtually all: we mean quite a lot.
Considering how lightly Cadillac has disguised the
Chevrolet Tahoe to turn it into the Escalade and the modest façade tweaks that
transform Ford’s Expedition into
