2024 Infiniti QX55 Review: Style Over Substance

A coupe crossover doesn't make much practical sense, and it typically sells on style and performance, not trunk space and rear headroom - two metrics that are usually worse than on its boxier donor car. The Infiniti QX55, a fastback compact crossover based on the QX50, is more practical and roomy than you might expect and has premium aspirations and a bone to pick with rivals such as the likeminded BMW X4, Audi Q5 Sportback, and Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class Coupe. But it's a tough sell at a base price of $50k - nearly $10k more expensive than the base QX50. The QX55 compensates with standard AWD and a well-equipped Luxe base trim, accounting for some of the difference, but it gets the same 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder as its QX50 sibling, delivering 268 horsepower, as before. The QX55 is stylish, well-equipped, and has a near-premium cabin, but this isn't enough to compensate for its weaknesses in the face of such tough competition.

New for 2024

The QX55 range gets a few minor tweaks, but none of its basic specifications change. On the outside, a new chromed 20-inch wheel design becomes available, while some trims lose access to certain colors: Slate Gray is no longer offered on the Luxe and Essential, while Mineral Black is no longer offered on the Sensory. Inside, the old leather-trimmed shifter knob makes way for the squared-off item from the QX60 with the shift pattern on top. In the center console, the two cupholders are now joined by a standard wireless charging pad, but the sliding lid that used to cover this area has been deleted. Lastly, two safety features have been added to all trims - a rear-door alert and side mirrors that automatically tilt down when selecting Reverse. The 2024 QX55 goes on sale in the USA at a base price of $50k.

2024 Infiniti QX55 Price: Which One to Buy

For MY2024, the price of a new Infiniti QX55 Luxe now starts at exactly $50,000 - $850 more than before. The Essential and Sensory trims increase by $700 each, so now they will cost you $54,950 and $58,500, respectively. These prices are MSRP, so they don't include the $1,195 destination fee.

As before, the mid-range Essential is the best buy. While the Luxe is very well-equipped, including leather upholstery, a sunroof, and 20-inch alloys, the Essential adds a few big-ticket items of its own, most notably ventilated front seats, navigation, traffic-sign recognition, a premium 16-speaker Bose audio system, and a surround-view monitor. For a premium of less than $5k over the Luxe, this represents the best value in the range.

Interior and Features

The interior is stylish and well-built with mostly premium materials, though the ergonomics aren’t at the top of the class, and a few brittle plastics can be found if you go prodding the fittings.

It's a mixed bag once you're inside the QX55. Upsides include a surprising amount of interior space for a coupe crossover, near-premium cabin quality, and a high level of standard equipment, even on the base car, with features such as leather upholstery and a sunroof. But the QX55 misses out on some niceties, such as a digital gauge cluster, and we can't see the point of using two small touchscreens atop each other if one big one high up on the dashboard might have done a better job just and be less fussy. There are a few cheaper materials in evidence, but they're mostly hidden well, and the cabin still looks passably premium, although it's showing signs of aging compared to the latest digital cockpits with their large center displays. With an SUV-typical 8.6-inch ground clearance, getting in is easy, but you have to duck a little more than in a QX50 to clear the sloping rear roofline. The view out front is commanding, but the tapering glasshouse is a little restrictive out back. At least there are standard rear parking sensors to help maneuver the QX55, but we would have liked a higher-resolution backup camera.

Space

Cabin space is competitive in the compact coupe-crossover class; the second-row space trades blows with the competition, like for like, with numbers in the middle of the bunch, but never the worst. Second-row legroom is impressive, considering the QX55 has a shortish 111-inch wheelbase, with most rivals having more distance between the axles. The driver will be comfortable most of the time, with comfortable front seats that are power-adjustable, but they are a bit flat for some tastes. The driver's seat cannot quite drop as low as some taller folks would like it to go. For most average people, the QX55's cabin will be comfortable and spacious enough.

Cargo

If cabin space is on par for the segment, trunk space is exceptional. Even though the available trunk volume behind the second row is down nearly five cu-ft compared to the QX50 at 26.9 cu-ft, this figure beats the X4 and GLC Coupe hands down, while even marginally edging out the roomy Q5 Sportback. Fold down the 60/40-split rear seats, and the good news continues, with a resultant 54.1-cu-ft trunk again beating all the mentioned rivals comfortably. The second row doesn't fold completely flat, though.

The cabin is well catered for as well, with roomy door pockets with bottle holders front and rear, a glovebox, a center console with two front cupholders, a wireless charging pad, a lidded storage compartment, and two front seatback pockets. The rear-seat passengers' cupholders are in the fold-down center armrest, which also contains a narrow slot for small items.

Materials and Colors

The Luxe and Essential get standard leather upholstery and a choice of two interior colors - Graphite/Black and Stone/Black - with dark aluminum trim. The Sensory gets premium semi-aniline leather in the same color schemes, in addition to Monaco Red/Black, with Black natural open-pore Maple wood trim. Last year's leather-trimmed shifter knob has been exchanged for an XC60-like flat-topped urethane item with the shifting pattern shown on the knob. The steering wheel is trimmed in leather in all trims, though, and a Graphite headliner is standard.

Features and Infotainment

Unlike the base Pure trim available on the QX50, the QX55 lineup starts with the far more luxurious and aptly named Luxe trim, which means a high level of features and equipment. These include keyless entry with push-button start, leather upholstery, heated eight-way power front seats with driver's memory, dual-zone climate control, illuminated sunvisor mirrors, a manually tilting/telescoping steering wheel trimmed in leather, a power moonroof, and a garage-door opener. The feature count increases as you move up the range, with items such as heated rear seats, ventilated front seats, an electrically adjustable steering column, tri-zone climate control, enhanced ambient lighting, wood trim, and more on the list.

The infotainment system is a bit fragmented, with a cluster-mounted driver-information display, a main eight-inch touchscreen, and a secondary seven-inch touchscreen below it mainly used for HVAC controls making up the various interfaces. Standard features include wireless Apple CarPlay, wired Android Auto, SiriusXM Radio, Bluetooth audio streaming, front and rear USB ports, a wireless charging pad, and a six-speaker audio system. The Essential adds to these SiriusXM Traffic & Travel Link and a 16-speaker Bose Performance Series audio system. Only the Sensory also gets a head-up display.

Performance

The engine delivers a solid punch, but the disappointing transmission doles out the power in starts and surges, which makes driving the QX55 smoothly difficult.

Much has been made of the 2.0-liter turbocharged variable-compression four-cylinder engine in the Infiniti QX55, which can vary its capacity between 1,970 and 1,997 cc and its compression ratio along with it for optimal performance and economy. It develops 268 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque. To drive home the efficiency point, the default transmission is a CVT automatic, though the base FWD drivetrain offered in the QX50 isn't available here - every QX55 is AWD. This setup gives the Infiniti QX55 a 0-60 time of around 6.4 seconds, not much off the competition but not a class-leading figure. Independent testing has shown top speed to be limited to around 137 mph, not that it matters much in this type of vehicle. Unlike the QX50, no trailering claims are made for the QX55, and the car has no published towing capacity.

While everything holds up pretty well on paper, it doesn't translate as exceptionally in practice. The engine and CVT introduce so many variables to the equation that the driving experience is just as disjointed as all those variables make it sound. Infiniti has dialed in an aggressive throttle response, but the powertrain is very inconsistent in its power delivery. It's difficult to tell whether it's the engine or transmission at fault - or both - but the QX55 rarely obeys commands from your right foot faithfully, and the drive is made up of periods of lag punctuated by surges of power. The handling doesn't save the day either, with the suspension at once feeling too soft around corners and too busy on uneven surfaces.

Fuel Efficiency

If all the compromises in the driving experience and frustrating CVT translated into stellar gas mileage, we might have cut the car some slack, but the Infiniti QX55's mpg figures aren't all that impressive in its class. Sure, the EPA's 22/28/25 mpg estimates for the city/highway/combined cycles are competitive figures, but the BMW X4 xDrive30i gets only a single mpg worse on the combined cycle and is vastly more rewarding to drive.

A small-for-the-class fuel capacity of 16 gallons restricts the expected fuel range to around 400 miles.

Safety

The crash scores aren’t at the top of the class, but every QX55 comes with a full suite of driver assists, with very few items left on the options list.

Both the NHTSA and IIHS have conducted only partial safety reviews of the Infiniti QX55, with the former giving it only four stars for the frontal impact while the latter gave 2023 models Good scores for the moderate-overlap frontal impact and original side test, but only an Acceptable rating for the updated side test. The QX50 is essentially the same base car and was comprehensively tested by the NHTSA, resulting in the same four-star frontal impact but five stars for most of the others, overall rating included.

The QX55 comes with a full suite of eight airbags and the expected ABS, tire-pressure monitoring, stability control, and a backup camera, but the image quality of the latter item is rather disappointing, so it's just as well all trims get rear parking sensors. Other standard driver assists across the board include predictive front-collision alert with pedestrian detection and automatic emergency braking, reverse automatic braking, blind-spot alert and intervention, lane-departure alert and prevention, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, reverse automatic tilt-down side mirrors, an auto-dimming interior rearview mirror, and automatic LED headlight with auto high beams. The Essential and Sensory also get traffic-sign recognition, a surround-view monitor, rain-sensing wipers, front parking sensors, and adaptive headlights, but only the flagship gets a head-up display.

Reliability

JD Power gives the 2024 Infiniti QX55 a Quality & Reliability rating of 77 out of 100, which is average at best. Recalls are pleasingly rare, though, with only a single one so far since the QX55 was launched - for an incorrectly installed door latch on the 2023 QX55.

The 2024 Infiniti QX55's warranty is also above average - the limited warranty runs for four years/60,000 miles, and the powertrain warranty for six years/70,000 miles. Infiniti even includes complimentary maintenance for three years/22,500 miles.

Warranty

Design

If there's one area in which the QX55 can go toe to toe with its rivals, it's styling. The exterior speaks of premium-level detailing, and the arched roofline and interesting LED taillight graphics give the car a pleasingly sporty profile and particularly attractive rear three-quarters view. All trims get LED technology for the headlights and standard foglights as well, and they all ride on large 20-inch alloy wheels and boast roof rails, rear privacy glass, black reverse auto tilt-down side mirrors, and a power sunroof and liftgate. The two top trims gain adaptive headlights and the Sensory, a motion-activated power liftgate.

Verdict: Is The 2024 Infiniti QX55 A Good SUV?

The Infiniti QX55 has moments of brilliance, and a few of them include its arresting styling, a roomy interior, a big trunk, and a high level of standard features. However, the driving experience spoils the car, and it falls well short of the class best with its inconsistent power delivery, unhappy engine/transmission marriage, lifeless steering, and unresolved ride and handling. The powertrain that promised so much on paper lets the car down on the road, and its rivals are so much better to drive that it's difficult to recommend the Infiniti over them.