Big Infiniti QX60 gets renamed, not redesigned

The 2014 QX70’s engine room offers no surprises. The midsize crossover is powered by Nissan/Infiniti’s 3.7-liter VQ-series V-6 engine; the same mill that makes an appearance in nearly every vehicle in the automaker’s lineup smaller than the QX80.

The power plant makes 325 horsepower in this incarnation, sending its 267 pound-feet of torque through a seven-speed automatic transmission on the way to the automaker’s Intelligent All-Wheel Drive system. This rear-biased AWD system defaults to 100 percent rear-wheel drive, but can direct up to 50 percent of available torque on demand to the front wheels when slip is detected on one of the rear wheels. Of course, the QX70 is also available standard with plain-vanilla rear-wheel drive, as well.

That the QX70’s all-wheel-drive system doesn’t feature any special off-road programming or settings and that its torque split is so rear-biased are both indicators that Infiniti wants you to keep this one on the tarmac. There is, however, a switch to activate a “Snow” driving mode on the center console, but this is a throttle control system for carefully creeping through slippery conditions without wheelspin, not a specific traction program.

The single-option seven-speed automatic transmission does have a few extra modes. There’s the standard drive program, a sport program, and manual gear selection. The VQ’s 325 horsepower so… [Read more]

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