Evaluating cars in Florida, I have never once used Snow mode on a new vehicle. It's easy to gloss over proper winter vehicle safety when a day is considered "chilly" at 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Even in Pennsylvania, it only snowed a few times a year, so I never needed to purchase snow tires. To show how invaluable Snow mode and proper snow tires can be, Infiniti invited CarBuzz to Big Sky Montana, where the temperatures frequently dip below zero, and the ground is coated in frozen water.

Using a 2023 Infiniti QX60 mounted with Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 tires, we navigated a variety of obstacles to learn how the right equipment and right vehicle programming can drastically improve safety in winter conditions.

The Stunning Location

Big Sky is located in southern Montana, south of Bozeman. The community rests in the Rocky Mountains at a 7,218-foot elevation above sea level, making it perfect for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. It's also only a short drive from Yellowstone Airport, which was completely closed to air traffic because of the snow.

After a short one-hour drive from our Ski Lodge hotel to the airport, we arrived to find that the typically straight runways were transformed into a snow-covered automotive obstacle course. Infiniti built a slalom course, ice drag strip, figure-eight course, and more, simply for our amusement. The full lineup of Infiniti vehicles was available to drive, but we stuck with the newest of the bunch, the QX60.

What Is Snow Mode?

The QX60's drive mode selector offers five different settings: Personal, Sport, Auto, Eco, and Snow. We were acquainted with the other four but have never been given the opportunity to engage Snow. Putting the QX60 into this mode will tell the transmission to start in second gear to generate a gentler launch off the line. It will also dial back the throttle, requiring more input to accelerate, meaning you won't accidentally ask for too much power and lose grip.

Finally and most importantly, it primes the traction control to its most cautious setting. If the car detects any steering input, it will cap the power to the wheels, even if the accelerator is mashed. Ultimately, Snow Mode is like a strict nanny that won't let you have any fun, but it does keep the QX60 more stable even when there's little traction available.

Snow Obstacles

Infiniti gave us a long leash to test Snow mode and see how it compared with Sport mode and the traction control disabled. The only consequence of pushing the car too hard was slowly sliding into a snow bank, which only happened to one car on our event wave.

Our day started off easy with an oval loop designed to show us how the car puts down power differently in Snow mode versus Sport. In the former, the car refuses to give power until the steering wheel is perfectly straight, while the latter delivers easy access to the QX60's 295-horsepower V6. With Sport mode engaged and traction control deactivated, we were easily able to get the back end to step out with some snowy slides.

Later in the day, we had the chance to further evaluate Snow mode on a slick drag strip made entirely from ice. It was so slick; even walking on the surface meant risking falling on your butt. In Snow mode, the car's computers quickly figured out how to distribute power via the Intelligent AWD system. Even when we stabbed at the accelerator, the QX60 took advantage of its 50:50 torque split to smoothly get us off the line without drama. In stark contrast, stabbing the throttle in Sport mode with the traction off sent all four wheels spinning almost uncontrollably, fighting for grip that just wasn't there.

The Bridgestone Blizzak

The Snow mode is highly intelligent, but it can't work miracles. That's where the Bridgestone Blizzak rubber comes in. Easily the best-named snow tire on the market, the Blizzak is also rated as one of the best. In fact, it can stop a vehicle going 30 mph 35 feet shorter than an all-season tire. The QX60 came equipped with the DV-V2 tire, which is suitable for crossovers and SUVs, but Bridgestone also offers the LM005, a snow tire designed for sports cars and supercars like the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato.

They may seem like simple round pieces of rubber, but a ton of development goes into these tires to ensure maximum traction and safety in snowy conditions. These include patented multi-cell compounds that maintain flexibility in the cold, extra tread to disperse liquid, biting edges to preserve grip, and 3D zig-zag patterns to maintain lateral stability. Even with a fantastic 4WD/AWD system, we would have been sliding around aimlessly on the frozen airfield had we been on regular all-seasons. Instead, the Blizzaks made it safe and easy to drive about while still having fun.

Timed Figure Eight

As the day came to a close, Infiniti gave us a fun opportunity to demonstrate what we learned with a timed figure eight autocross event against our fellow journalists. We were given two practice runs to determine what settings would yield the quickest time. After some trial and error, we settled on Auto mode with traction control on. The figure eight became extremely slippery since so many cars had driven over it in the morning, and the grippy powder was replaced by slick ice. Snow mode wouldn't allow us to accelerate quickly enough, but Sport resulted in too much wheel spin. Auto offered a nice balance.

The trickiest part was the stop box at the end, where we needed to stop with both axles inside the cones to avoid a five-second penalty. This was the most slippery area of the course, and nearly everyone slid outside it even after fully engaging the anti-lock brakes. We managed to get second place on our wave despite incurring the time penalty, meaning our raw time was the quickest in the group (not-so-humble brag). But autocross is about precision as much as pace, so we'll graciously accept silver.

The QX60's Amenities

Though the temperatures dipped below zero degrees in the morning, we ended the day perfectly toasty thanks to the superb amenities in the QX60. Most car heaters go up to around 85 degrees before turning to a generic "high" setting for maximum temperature, but the Infiniti can bake its occupants at up to 90 degrees. We've never seen a car heater that can crank so hot. Combined with heated seats that could defrost a Thanksgiving turkey and a heated steering wheel that can be felt with gloves on, and no amount of cold can permeate the QX60's passengers. It got so warm inside that we had to drive with the windows down to cool off.

The 2023 QX60 starts at $49,200 for the base Pure trim, but the fully-loaded Autograph AWD models we drove retailed for over $65,500. Infiniti is clearly a bit behind in other segments, but the QX60 feels every bit worth the money compared with rivals like the Acura MDX and Lexus RX. Later this year, Infiniti will show off a QX80 Concept that previews a new generation, which should integrate everything we love about the QX60 in a full-size package.