The Infiniti QX70 Hit Its Limit Because They Forgot To Subtract Ten

"Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
07/24/2017 at 09:33 • Filed to: Infiniti

The Infiniti QX70 is dead. Not planning for retirement, not dying, but dead! D-E-D, dead!! Was it sells numbers? Was it age? Was it design? Obviously the US market doesn’t want CUVs, and they don’t want luxury cars, and they definitely don’t want sporty vehicles so I KNOW they don’t want a luxury CUV based on a sport coupe. Something is off here...

“Well Wobbles, that platform has been around since 2003, of course they are putting it out to pasture.” That platform is underneath the Q50 and, more importantly, the Q60 and I can bet you the overhauled QX50 will STILL be on that platform. Nissan is experiencing a runner’s high and if a platform still drives competitively, can support hybridization, and pass safety needs then why change it? We still have another 4 to 6 years with this platform so it isn’t like the QX70 was being completely rebuilt. Change the lighting, consoles, and toss some swoopy chrome on that C-pillar and you got yourself Miss New Booty until 2021! Heck, Infiniti showed off the concept for a revised QX70 already!!

Infiniti says that it’s the sales figures, but not the QX70's! Nope, the QX50's is what they meant. So far this year Infiniti has sold 4,772 QX70s compared to the recently revised and lengthened QX50's 7,955 sales figure. I mean the QX70 is outselling the Q60, costs $11,000 more than the QX50 but for every two QX50s sold a QX70 finds a new home. We are talking about a car that hasn’t received much more than a rear badge since the Recession!

Now, I completely agree that QX50 sales are pathetic. For reference, the FWD 3-row they call the QX60 has hit 18,279 sales so far this year. In this market the QX50 should be the best selling car in the entire brand. Infiniti agrees and says they can move QX70 shoppers into the new QX50 and turn that compact into a best seller. If all those QX70 buyers would have spent that extra $11,000 on a high spec QX50 this year then Infiniti would have had something that outsold the gold-standard of all luxury compact CUV sales....the Lincoln MKC. Oh man, I get the shivers just imagining that success story!

The FX/QX70 is the blueprint for sport coupe-like utilities. The QX70 is more like a long Macan than a Cayenne competitor now. Even Porsche can’t hide model bloat.

The real reason the QX70 is dead right now instead of soldiering on with a new look has to do with a major nomenclature fail. About a year and a half ago we made fun of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In short, they goofed up and should have called the FX the QX60 and the JX the QX70. The FX had a slightly higher starting price than the JX due to the platforms so they based the heirarchy on the prices and market at the time rather than the actual bodystyles and where the market was going.

Ideally you would have something like this:

QX30 = Q30 Crossover (true, even if they call it QX30S)

QX50 = Q50 Crossover (true!)

QX60 = Q60 (uhhhh, Pathfinder = Z?)

QX70 = Q70 (I’m still lost...)

QX80 = Q80 Luxo-Monster (theoretically true?).

Well that’s not ideal at all! Wouldn’t it have made sense to have your fairly sporty coupe crossover match up with the sport coupe it is based off of? Yeah, but instead you put a minivan there and now you’ve done borked it all up!

Well Infiniti can’t just say, “Hey ya’ll, remember like 5 years ago when we said the new names would be a lot easier to understand. Psh, ya’ll know we was just playin’ right? We switched the names on the QX60 and QX70 to see if ya’ll would catch that! Like a pop quiz and hey, all ya’ll knew something was wrong so congratulations! I mean, no one really caught what was wrong but like they say, “Knowing is half the battle!” So yeah, we are going to go ahead and switch the QX70 back to the QX60 and the QX60 to the QX70...like they were meant to be from start. Great job again ya’ll and umm, we got Funyuns and Capri Suns in the back of the QX60 which is the QX70. Ha-haaahh, sh’yeah!” They can’t say that because you gotta be a G to pull that off.

So now the QX70 is gone and will comeback in three or four years based on the Murano-platform. Uh huh...what’s really going to happen is the QX60 is going to evolve and take on the QX70 nameplate. Then the highly successful QX50 will spin off a sporty midsized 2-row cousin called...the QX60. Thus finally fixing the stupid mistake that should have never been made. Three years is plenty of time to forget a car you didn’t remember in the first place.

DISCUSSION (8)

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 09:43

Can’t we just go back to cars having real names?

jimz > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 09:49

if a platform still drives competitively, can support hybridization, and pass safety needs then why change it?

exactly. throwing everything out and starting over is costly and leads to reduced quality.

there’s a reason you can trace a clear lineage from the original Camry and Accord to today’s models. They’ve been heavily re-engineered, widened, and stretched over the generations but they’ve all been evolutionary. Other automakers will come out with a new architecture, fail to update it, then throw everything out and start over at a cost of billions.

Ash78, voting early and often > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 09:50

This is the FX. It has always been the FX and will always be the FX.

I respect this thing because it did something nobody else did — make an SUV into a sports car. And IMO, this was THE test market for the entire segment of Lux/Sport SUVs, including the Cayenne which basically saved Porsche, as well as the X6 which has destroyed my retinas and sense of well-being. But I can totally understand killing it today — it has always been sort of an ostentatious no-mans-land of a tiny inside, large outside, sports SUV that only holds 4 people (5 in a pinch). Not a lot of market left for that, unfortunately.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 09:50

no loss.

Textured Soy Protein > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 09:59

I really don’t think the naming switch is what killed the FX.

Most people don’t know what the alphabet soup of car models means. That’s exactly why carmakers use these alphabet soup naming schemes. Car nerds care about this stuff but the general car-buying public doesn’t.

I’d wager it’s more likely the FX hasn’t sold well because most people think it’s Infiniti’s version of a Nissan Murano, and other luxury brands have introduced more-obviously-sporty CUVs.

I genuinely like the FX, especially the FX50S. Only problems with it are the awful fuel economy and buying 21” tires.

Milky > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 10:06

Well thats sad, the world lost another RWD suv. I always liked the FX, they at least tried with the styling and you could get a V8. Hopefully the next EX (QX50) stays on the Z-chassis.

Ssfancyfresh > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 10:10

What is a qx50?

I had to google. Looks like a G35 hatchback. I know I’m not supposed to call it a G35/37 but I can’t keep up with all this shit.

Sad about the QX70. At least we still have the FX45.

Wait... Dammit.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Wobbles the Mind
07/24/2017 at 10:16

Infiniti’s naming schemes are really confusing. the JX/EX/FX/QX/G/M still was confusing, but differentiated a bit between them all. the famed G37 became a Q50 in 2013!

but then the name QX56 (now QX80) just doesn’t roll off the tongue, I’d just rather call it a tarted up Armada. Working with these ‘names’ all day makes my brain want to scream. I remember back when Infiniti sold a fancy Pathfinder called the QX4. that name was simple and easy to remember. Now the name for the newer successor isn’t so unique.. bah..