With the family in need of more space than the ML320, and a tow vehicle too, we considered a few options. Neither of us wanted a pickup truck for an everyday vehicle. The Mercedes GL might have been a consideration, but it wasn’t out for two more model years. We thought about an Escalade, but I had my GM misgivings and with their rising cult status at the time, no one would dicker much on them. We drove a Volvo XC90, but it wouldn’t tow enough weight. My in-laws had driven Fords and Mercurys for decades, but had two lemon Explorers back to back. So, an Expedition probably should have been on our shopping list but got crossed off. Â We considered a motorized RV to eliminate the tow vehicle need, but that was just another vehicle to tag, insure and maintain. Thus, we found ourselves at a new and unexpected place.
Doing some research online, the Infiniti QX56 appeared on multiple lists of towing vehicles. It was of course, based upon the Nissan Titan pickup truck. We weren’t terribly familiar with Nissan or Infiniti products, but we liked what we read online, and compared to some of the alternatives, the pricing seemed pretty reasonable as well. We liked the looks too, though I will freely admit that’s a face that some would say only a mother could love.
When we went for a test drive, we went to the dealer closest to the house. There were (and still are) three Infiniti dealers pretty close by. He gave us a tour of a showroom example but he had no 4WD versions in stock. We liked what we saw, though, an Asian themed interior with nice wood accents, heated leather seats, navigation, satellite radio, and DVD system for the kids. Back to the internet, and we found that the dealer furthest away had mostly 4WD versions in stock. The 4WD option included a trailer tow package as well, with a receiver hitch, seven blade plug, and trailer brake prewiring.
So, off to that dealer we went. This was the first time for us driving the vehicle. It was large, no doubt, but you had plenty of glass and could tell where the corners were. This was also our first vehicle with a backup camera (tucked in the top of the license alcove) and rear sensors, which of course are a given on so many cars now. Just a dozen years ago, it seemed so space age. And it was an immense help, making backing, parking, and hitching a trailer a breeze. The back glass also flipped up, unlike the fixed glass of the ML320. That made chucking groceries and the like in the back a lot more convenient.
We thought we wanted black, but it was so much surface area, it was too much of a good thing. Black with a black interior, especially, was like a rolling coal shaft. After going back and forth between the other choices, we settled on silver with a tan interior.
On the test drive, my wife did run over the curb a couple of times. We laughed it off, and thought she would get used to it. She never did. It became a running joke in the family about my wife running over curbs, bushes, and small buildings in the QX56. I recall paying in the 40’s when all was said and done, Google says MSRP for a 4WD version in 2005 was just over $51,000, or about $63,000 today. So, it was about like buying a heavy duty pickup which we didn’t want for a daily driver. And, we were no more out of pocket than my sister in law with the Excursion and used Plymouth Voyager pair.
While the car (truck?) initially rode very smooth and quietly, this seemed to deteriorate rapidly. The OE Continental Contitrac tires seemed to be the cause, and they were wearing rapidly. I replaced them with Michelin LTX MS2 tires, which restored the quiet and smoothness. Much better than when new, actually. And they were an improvement in the snow, as well. It used a lot of gas, but gas was cheap! Until a month after our purchase, when Hurricane Katrina hit and gas spiked to $4.00 in our area ($5.00 today). That was concerning for sure, but gas prices moderated pretty quickly.
When we went to look for trailers, the 9100 pound tow rating made the looking easy, as it was more than we needed. We settled on a two year old, 30 foot bunkhouse with two slides. The slides added to the weight, but we had the capacity to spare. The trailer was 5500 pounds dry, and about 6100 filled with water and LP gas. We camped at sites with full connections, but traveled with the fresh water tank filled to use the bathroom and kitchen on the road. Then, you add all your food, clothes and toys. We put the bikes in there too. So, ready for the road it had to be 7000 pounds.
The QX56 handled it very well. I had read that staying 2000 pounds under the maximum tow rating for your vehicle is ideal, and I think this is sound advice. You could tell there was all that weight back there, for sure, when accelerating or braking. But the QX56 handled well with the trailer, and steering and tracking were unaffected. The electric trailer brakes and anti-sway hitch were must-haves, of course. We got about 10mpg when towing, so we learned we could get about 40 minutes out of each quarter tank. Gas stops took some planning ahead, lest you find yourself on an isolated stretch when the need arises.
On our first trip to Florida, we broke the trip into two days. As a newbie camper, I didn’t want to arrive late and have to back and hookup in the dark. At our overnight stop, we awoke to find about 20 people examining the QX56. Had I hit something? Did I have a flat? It turned out they were tourists from Australia, who had heard of Infiniti but never seen one (they were not sold there at the time, but are now). They had rented RV’s and were taking a few weeks to tour around the USA. We had a great visit, and chat about their exploits over coffee!
Now, I know that the old Titan pickup (which was just recently replaced) had a spotty reputation for reliability. But in our time with the QX56, we had very few problems. The most notable was a cracked exhaust manifold. When accelerating up a steep onramp on a Florida summer day, pulling the trailer, we heard a loud “pop” followed by a hissing noise under heavy load, for the rest of the trip. That “pop” turned out to be one exhaust manifold cracking. It was the subject of a “campaign”, and though long out of warranty, both manifolds were replaced for free.
At around 100,000 miles, the shift interlock on the shifter became balky. Sometimes it wouldn’t let you shift out of Park, and sometimes it wouldn’t let you shift into Park either! You could override it by inserting a metal key into a hidden slot on the shifter bezel. We had that fixed, at our expense of course. Some oily areas under the hood turned out to be loose clamps on the oil cooler hoses.
Best campground ever!
And that’s it. In about 120,000 miles, we hauled the trailer to Disneyworld five times, camped at the beach every summer, took the trailer as far north as upstate New York, and slogged through six snowy winters, taking the kids and their cousins to ski lessons. That’s pretty darn good, in my book. And cosmetically, it held up very well too. It sat outside, because it was too wide to fit in the garage in our 70 year old house (we had moved into town from the house we built in the country). I bought WeatherTech mats when it was new, and they protected the light tan carpet perfectly. The tan leather seats showed virtually no wear at all, despite kid messes being scrubbed with Clorox wipes on a regular basis.
Not my dealer, but a nice photo
I should also point out that the dealer experience with the selling dealer, and the servicing dealer closer to our house, were first rate. It was the best I’ve ever had with any make. The car was always washed, they always had a free loaner, competitive pricing, and very little turnover among the staff. We had the same service advisor the entire time, which in my experience is unusual. I didn’t go to the dealer for every service, but I did for most of them, because of the pleasant nature of it.
After six years and 120,000 miles, my wife was ready for a new car. She still needed three rows, and we still wanted to pull the travel trailer. The kids (now 13, 11 and 9) were getting pretty big to fit into the “bunkhouse” beds, which were smaller than a standard twin. But even if the camper trailer days were waning, we also had a 6,000 pound boat and trailer by this time to pull as well. She wanted all of this, and “smaller”, “easier” and “more car-like”. I was pretty stumped.
I really thought long and hard about keeping the QX56 for myself, as I was on a succession of “beater” cars as you will read about later in the series. In the end, I didn’t, but I soon wished I had! My beater car soon thereafter developed some expensive issues that would have cost it’s entire value to fix correctly.
Up to this point, the QX was the longest we had kept a car. We bought it the first week of July, 2005 and traded it the first week of July, 2011. It’s replacement is still here, though, so I guess that’s the new elder statesman in our house by a nose. The vehicle in the next installment now belongs to our youngest. Yes, the baby who caused the premature demise of the 4Runner, is 15 and has his learner’s permit!
What’s the longest you have kept a daily driver car, new or used?
My DD is an 01 Civic, 17 yrs and 211k miles, I’ve had it since day one. My wife keeps asking me how much longer I’m going to keep it. Why should I get rid of it, I replied, the ac may not work, but it starts every time. Us old guys have to stick together…
’00 New Beetle TDI, ~220K miles over 12+ years. The then-high-school-student I sold him to is still driving it, and it must be at around 300K by now.
The 94 Club Wagon Chateau was bought in the spring of 1995 and was donated to charity in the fall of 2006, so 11.5 years. The 2007 Honda Fit that replaced it is knocking on the door at 11 years this November.
I have had an odd fascination with these big Nissans, although I am probably past the point in life where one would make sense. And I always think of the old Rambler wagons whenever I notice the roofline on these.
The current QX56 puts me in mind of the long gone Buick Caballero wagon of the 50s – the chrome and the fender vents are what do it.
Now that the Nissan Armada and QX56 are heavily based on the global Patrol they’re more heavily on my radar. Consider it the forbidden fruit phenom, if I could get the global Land Cruiser I’d be paying more attention to it too.
Whenever I see a QX56, with its forward rounded roof followed by a flat roofed after section, I am reminded of late 1950s Rambler station wagons.
After reading this COAL, I did some googling of weight distribution and anti-sway trailer hitches, a car tech area in which I have no experience or knowledge. Interesting!
I meant QX80, dang Infiniti and their inability to keep an alpha-numeric scheme that kind of made sense.
Oh my! so much this! Same with Nassan (Armada?) as well!
They do sell the Land Cruiser (& LX570) in the US don’t they?
I would wonder whether the Patrol is now based on the Armada/QX80 rather than vice-versa, it had a pretty substantial change from the previous Y61 generation.
Now, I’m no fan of full-size SUVs. I don’t need the size or capability and I wouldn’t want to spend that much on gas! That being said, I find the QX56 and Armada oddly alluring. I climbed into an Armada Platinum at NYIAS a few years ago and I loved it. I… kind of wanted one!
You actually have a need for a vehicle of this size and power. I don’t, so if I drove one I’d just feel guilty. At least here in Australia, if we buy big SUVs, we tend to get diesels. I know, emissions are worse but fuel bills tend to be lower. The new Patrol (aka your new Armada) is struggling here because Nissan won’t engineer a diesel option and only offer a 5.6 V8; we also just got the Infiniti QX80, although I don’t know how well that is selling compared to rivals. I’ve seen just as many as i have Lexus LXs, but that’s not saying much.
I feel there are probably only three markets in the world where a non-luxury brand V8 SUV will sell in any meaningful numbers: the US, Canada, and the UAE. It’s really quite fascinating how Nissan managed to make such a distinctively American SUV.
It’s impossible to imagine who’d get a QX80 in Aus. It looks appalling, a constipated rhino, lots uglier than this QX56. It’s $120K(!!) It’s an unwieldy size for the inner suburbs that might afford it. It has no snob (brand) value whatsoever. And on Importamations figures, it can’t do the one thing it might be good for: towing a big van round Australia, because there are just too many stretches where 2.5 hours of driving between drinks isn’t enough.
Surely Nissan will struggle here with the Buzz Lightyear brand – I never could take that misspelt Infiniti name seriously – with models like this? This article proves that what is a rational choice in one market is an untenable one in another – in this case, most others, as you point out.
Its certainly out of the Sangyong Rodius school of misdesign, whatever they are smoking at Nissan is fairly effective.
Who would buy one in Australia? Perhaps some of the country-based horsey set to tow a big float from show to show (or rodeo to rodeo)? But even they’d want a diesel.
My brother-in-law has a patrol for his farm in the Riverina. No way he’d consider the new one – so much bigger for no benefit to him, and, again, no diesel. So they’ve lost the farmers and country-based fleets.
But then again, I’ve heard the current Toyota Land Cruiser isn’t as tough as the previous model. So there’s an opening for somebody here…..
The petrol vs diesel thing is interesting. Years ago I had a mate who got sick of how slow his HJ75 Land Cruiser tray was (6-cyl n/a diesel) and sold it for a FJ105 wagon (4.7 V8 petrol), and said his fuel bills ‘only’ went up by 20%. As it was his work vehicle I wouldn’t be surprised if the time saved paid for the extra fuel.
On sales, last year the QX80 sold 61 units, down from a peak of 126 in 2014 when it was introduced as the Q70. This compares to the LX570 that sold 285 last year (50-100% more than previous years) and 1129 M-B G or GL-class.
Your rule of staying 2000 pounds below rated towing capacity is a good one. As one who has exceeded their towing capacity by those 2000 pounds a few times, the differences are quite distinct.
Seven years and change is the longest I’ve kept a DD. Naturally, it’s a 2000 Ford E-150, a vehicle I’ve detested since we got it.
Although, for the mileage we’ve put on it (27,000 in seven years, with 16,000 of those the first year), it would be hard to classify it as a DD.
Otherwise, it was our ’01 Taurus purchased in late 2002 and sold in 2009. My ’01 Crown Vic stayed from May ’05 to March ’12. My ’89 Mustang lasted from February ’90 to May ’96.
Yes, it is certainly a bit “challenged” in the front end looks department. But hey, it got the job done. I liked my Infiniti (93.5 G20) a lot when I had it, much of the Infiniti line is/was a huge step up over their Nissan roots overall.
I was trying to recall what we had at the time you had this one and finally remembered that one of the vehicles that overlapped was a Toyota Land Cruiser, obviously a competitor to this and a fine conveyance in its own right as well as a Chevy Tahoe, again similar in mission but far less luxurious (as well as ours being much older at the time).
The longest we’ve kept a DD is a sort of tie – the 2001 V40 we had for exactly 4 years to the day (lease), but we swapped it back and forth between us. I guess the ’93 Audi S4 was 100% MY daily driver and that was just under 4 years. The 911 is now approaching five years (the record for ANY car in our family) but although it started out as a daily driver for the first year or two has a much diminished role these days.
For owned AND driven, my ’92 F-150 Custom takes the cake by a long shot (COAL here – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1992-ford-f-150-custom-one-great-red-truck/) as it was my DD from fall of ’98 to the spring of 2006. I’d probably still own it were it not for a chevy dually pulling out in front of me.
I really enjoyed reading this and I’m glad you had a positive, relatively trouble-free experience with the QX56. I’ve never known anyone personally to have owned one of these, and I don’t recall ever seeing many reviews on these. They were just kind of silently standing in the back of Infiniti’s lineup for so many years.
My family owned a 1995 Plymouth Voyager from August, 1995 to July, 2013 which I drove across country. My personal best is driving a 2003 Dodge Caravan from July, 2013 to December, 2016.
So, why the Infiniti over the Nissan?
This was a great read, and I was especially interested in reading about the good towing and durability results your QX56 gave you.
I have it’s cousin, a 2004 Titan XE 2WD base version. Being not equipped with factory tow, it’s rated a 7400 lbs. 2.94 vs 3.36 rear ratio, trans temp gauge and higher amp battery are the differences. I did install factory hitch and harness about a year after I bought it.
Titans shared the cracking exhaust manifold problem with the Armada and QX56. The 5.6 Endurance engine and 5 speed automatic, along with brakes, front suspension and steering is the same on all 3 vehicles. The IRS rear differential on the SUV’s is, of course different than the straight rear axle on the pickup’s and these were a problem point on some Titan’s as well, mainly the locking rear diff on 4×4 models. 2005 and up Titan came with synthetic gear oil and finned aluminum cover, I installed both on mine to update the rear end. Other than these 2 problems, 2WD Titans have over the years shown to be fairly durable and reliable.
Although your trailer setup would (just) not exceed my trucks rating, it would be too close for comfort. I’m thinking around 25ft with a single slide at around 6000 lbs loaded would be handled well with the setup I have. I’ve gotten 20 MPG with 2 people at 65 MPH on a trip from Vancouver, WA to Bosie, figured towing a trailer would be about half that, your MPG seems to confirm this. Not too bad, really.
I was working for Nissan when the Titan came out and was really impressed with the drivetrain and the truck itself, and when was able to get mine for about 18k with rebates, employee discount and the fact it was on the lot for about 9 months I decided to take the plunge and buy my first and only brand new vehicle. I was tough saying good bye to my old ’70 C10 I had since 1976, in fact it took another 2 years for me to finally sell it.
I liked the fact that even base trucks in ’04 came with the same drivetrain as a QX56 or Armada whick could be close to 50k with all the bells and whistles, and at only about 4600 lbs in base trim the 305 HP 32 valve 4 cam V8 really gets moving when you step on it. I think a travel trailer may be in my future. Forums found on line have a lot of owners reporting 300k+ miles on the engines and transmissions on these Nissan’s being quite common.
13 years old now, but only 16,200 on the Titan’s odometer, never had a problem (which you would expect with such low miles), except for several recalls which I have had done. I drive it at least once every 2 weeks for about half an hour so she stays healthy. Got 12 years out of the original battery.
30 years I had the old Chevy, I still daily my ’86 Jetta GL with 310k miles and original engine/trans, bought in ’91 so 26 years and counting on this one.
Every time I see the front of a QX 56 I think of this…
We recently gave our New Beetle to our daughter (out of state, registered in her name, so no longer our car) after 16+ years of ownership. I still have … but rarely ride, so hardly a DD … a motorcycle I bought in 1999. We did rent a QX56 in Colorado a few years back after arriving just after a heavy snowstorm and planning to drive on mountain back roads. I felt pretty self conscious driving it, as at the time we owned the Beetle plus a Prius and a Forester, but found it very pleasant. The worst part was that my wife wanted to ride in the back with the kids and watch DVD’s rather than ride up front with me. It was our first and only experience with in-car entertainment that wasn’t mere audio. The vacation house we rented had a pretty good DVD library 🙂
My last 2 vehicles (1988 Nissan King Cab; 2001 Trooper) I’ve kept 12-13 years and right at 250k miles before they are taken out of daily duty. The Nissan I sold (in 2 hours and full price – it was the V6 with 5 speed…) and the Trooper is our summer/vacation car back home.
Oddly enough I may be upgrading the latest addition to get all the safety gear for my young driver.
My BIL had a 2012 Armada…he had a lot of transmission trouble with it so he traded it in for a Honda Pilot in 2015. Glad yours was of great service.
I have to say if I had $60k to blow I’d probably be all over a QX80 with the beluga forehead….
Fascinating for us who live in the EU. I have never seen one on the road and if I would, it would most likely carry Eastern European or Russian plates (such vehicles are more popular over there). Nissan / Infinity Austria do not (wisely) offer anything similar – the nearest I could think of is either the Nissan Navarra P/U or the QX70; the first is most likely to be bought by farmers or contractors, the second by eccentrics who wish not to be seen in one of the usual suspects from Germany. If you want anything like a big SUV, it’s almost always a US-made vehicle, and the people who buy those won’t be caught dead in a Japanese vehicle…
My current car a 2010 Prius Five is the longest I have kept a car, its approaching 75K miles. Previous longest was my 2003 Audi which I had 4 years and 35k miles. The Prius has been so reliable and cheap to run I don’t foresee getting a new car anytime soon, it still has 90% on its original brakes. And it can be quite quick, I always run it in PWR mode and still get about 45 mpg (I’m no hyper-miler)