Infiniti Strives to Make QX50 a Contender With Refresh

SAN DIEGO – Although it was out of the gate with a small-midsize luxury CUV way back in fall 2007, being the early bird did not help Infiniti get the worm.

Instead, the QX50, then called the EX, at best mustered 12,873 sales in 2008 before falling to roughly half that volume in 2011 and slightly less than 3,000 deliveries last year, WardsAuto data shows.

The QX50 through August tallied just 1,855 units, a 2.7% decline from like-2014 and well off the 34,654 the Acura RDX delivered in the period.

“We haven’t gotten behind this car until now…we want to give (it) a shot in the arm,” Keith St. Clair, director-product planning and strategy for Infiniti U.S. tells media here last week during a ’16 QX50 preview.

St. Clair says the luxury brand is making a “substantial investment” in hopes to reverse the long, slow decline of the QX50, which an Infiniti spokesman says languished in the lineup as it prioritized other models, including its top-selling Q50 sedan.

St. Clair acknowledges the 8-year-old CUV’s cramped second-row seating has been a major stumbling block.

“There’s no hiding it,” he says of the top complaint about the vehicle from luxury shoppers.

So Infiniti has stretched the QX50, adding 4.5 ins. (114 mm) in length to a platform that formerly underpinned the G37, the Q50’s predecessor. The wheelbase increases 3.2 ins. (81 mm). These measures equate to a 4.3-in. (109-mm) hike in rear legroom and 3.9-in. (99-mm) increase in rear knee room.

The QX50’s aging platform is one reason why Infiniti can afford to drop its price $550 from ’15 but add more standard content, the spokesman says.

For ’16 the QX50 begins at $34,450 for a rear-wheel-drive model and $35,850 for an all-wheel-drive version, not including $995 destination and handling.

The QX50’s base price is just $30 less than the ’16 Lexus NX but $820 below the ’16 RDX’s. St. Clair cites the two Japanese models as the QX50’s top competitors.

Some $1,700 in additional content has been added to the base QX50, which still has standard leather seating but now comes with a power-sliding moonroof and a rearview camera.

The QX50 also has standard heated front seats, push-button start, 18-in. alloy wheels and Bluetooth.

The price of the premium package (11-speaker Bose audio system, memory driver’s seat/mirrors/steering wheel) also is down for ’16, to $500 vs. $3,050 in ’15.

The deluxe touring (19-in. aluminum-alloy wheels, meter hood with premium stitching) and technology (lane-departure warning, intelligent cruise control) packages remain $2,400 and $2,750, while a new premium plus package (navigation, Around View Monitor) is offered for $2,000.

St. Clair says the RWD platform, contrary to the NX and RDX’s front-wheel-drive layouts, may be an advantage in the marketplace, calling the QX50 a “sports performance coupe masquerading as a little SUV.”

The vehicle keeps its nearly class-leading engine, he says, Nissan’s V-6 VQ, a 14-time Ward’s 10 Best Engines winner that displaces 3.7L in the QX50 and peaks at 325 hp.

St. Clair says only the Porsche Macan churns out more standard horsepower, 340 from its 3.0L V-6, but costs almost $20,000 more than the QX50.

The QX50’s 7-speed automatic transmission and front double-wishbone and rear multilink suspensions also go unchanged, though St. Clair claims the longer wheelbase has resulted in improved ride character.

The exterior design has been tweaked slightly with a new front bumper and lower-front fascia, as well as new exterior mirrors.

The spokesman says Infiniti will undertake a mostly digital ad campaign for the new QX50, which he calls a step forward given the brand had not been promoting the CUV virtually at all in recent years.

Infiniti also is working to re-engage its 206 U.S. dealers’ interest in the model, and hopes the more-competitive pricing and added value will result in fewer incentives.

The average price paid for a ’15 QX50 is $35,405, roughly $3,000 below MSRP, TrueCar says, basing its data on the last 283 ’15 QX50s sold in the U.S.

The ’16 QX50 is on sale now at U.S. Infiniti dealers. The model still is assembled at Nissan’s Tochigi, Japan, plant.

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