Escalade, Grand Wagoneer, and Navigator: Don’t look now, but you have a problem. A BIG problem. It is the all-new, completely redesigned 2025 Infiniti QX80. We’ve waited on a new version for a decade now, but the time has come, and now America has a 4th choice in very large luxury SUVs. Believe me, this won’t be an easy choice either. If the Escalade is too blingy for you, and the Navigator and Grand Wagoneer are not bougee enough, this may be your answer.
My beautiful review vehicle is the Autograph edition, which is the top-of-the-line. The QX80 comes in four trim levels starting with the Pure, the Luxe, the Sensory, and finally the Autograph, the pinnacle of the lineup.
Exterior
Starting with the exterior, the QX80 retained its roots as boxy, but designers did a wonderful job making it look more modern, less top-heavy, and sleeker. LED lighting illuminates the front and rear, and a new grill features a lit Infiniti emblem.
Powertrain
A lot has changed under the hood, too. You V8 lovers will be bummed, but it’s time for us all to get on the efficiency train. Like so many other big pickups and SUVs, the QX80 now has a 3.5-liter V6 with twin-turbos and a 9-speed shiftable automatic transmission. Get this: 450-horses and 516 pound-feet of torque. This 5,600-pound SUV will flat get up and move. If you are keeping score, that is 50-horses more than the old V8, and 103 more pound-feet of torque.
Interior
Open any door to reveal a truly outstanding interior. The diamond-quilted leather power seats are just beautiful. They are heated and air conditioned and will even massage you, and you can control the intensity of the massage. The interior attention to detail is impressive, especially across the dash into the door panels. There is laser-etched aluminum accenting the leather materials across the entire SUV and it is a work of art.
There is a 14-inch digital gauge cluster that you can configure from the steering wheel. You can get a lot of information from the driver info center and can access settings for the safety systems and a myriad of other settings. There is a large round tachometer on the left side, and a large round speedometer to the right side. Gauges are colorful and easy to read, and the layout can be changed if you choose to.
Center dash is another 14-inch touchscreen that operates the 1200-watt 24-speaker Klipsch sound system, which is astounding by the way. It also controls the Google navigation, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, wireless Android Auto, wireless Apple CarPlay, Google Assistant, Alexa, and one of the better back up camera systems I’ve seen. It even comes with a built-in dash cam feature, which I would personally have on 100% of the time There is a huge head-up display on the windshield that has traffic sign recognition.
A little more about the Klipsch sound system: It offers Individual Audio, leveraging the beautiful metal-trimmed speakers mounted to the front seat headrests. When enabled, Individual Audio allows for focusing only certain audio elements – such as navigation directions, music, or phone calls – just to the driver's seat. For example, the driver can make a phone call while passengers continue listening to music, or the driver could listen to a favorite playlist and hear map guidance without disturbing those sleeping in the rear seats. Brilliant!
A little more about the camera system: It has an Invisible Hood View, which uses advanced image processing to take footage from the vehicle's exterior cameras to project an image of what's directly underneath the vehicle onto the in-car displays. The result is as if you can see right through the engine bay, helping spot curbs in narrow drive-through lanes, car wash tracks and lots of other hard-to-spot obstacles on the ground. It’s about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
28” of screens not enough across the dash ? NO WORRIES. There is another 9” touchscreen that is part of the center console that operates the climate control system, and the heated and cooled seats. It is simple to operate and not distracting. Just below that are PRND buttons. They look great and make it simple to go from park, to reverse or neutral, and if you hit the drive button twice, you can shift the QX from the steering wheel paddles. To the right of the tranny buttons is one button to raise and lower the entire vehicle, and another to activate the surround-view cameras. By the way, this steering wheel is beautiful, has a ton of detail, is flat-bottomed, and feels really great in your hands. Oh, it’s heated and power tilting and telescoping, of course.
The big center console between the two front captain chairs is soft to the touch and on your elbow. A door covers a wireless cell phone charger, and another door conceals two cupholders. Toward the rear of the console, there is a covered cool box that gets things cool in a hurry. You can hear the cold air whizzing through there. If you don’t turn the box on, it’s just a storage area.
Second row captain’s chairs slide electronically to make it simple to get to the third row. Once seated, there is room for two good-sized adults, or three kiddos, there are USBs for them, there are air vents in the ceiling, the 3rd row seat power reclines, and in a rarity, it is also heated! Leg and headroom are exceptional.
Cargo area is ample at best, there is storage underneath, and the third-row seats fold down with the push of a button from the rear. The same goes for the second row seats, and when all is said and done, you have 101-cubic feet of cargo area with a flat load floor.
While you are back there, you can raise and lower the QX for ease of loading, and there is a 110-volt power outlet. This is a great setup all around and I wouldn’t trade the 3rd row seat room for more cargo, but that’s just me.
This Autograph edition virtually comes with everything you can think of, including a panoramic moon roof with a power sliding cover, a power hands-free liftgate, remote start, electronic rearview camera mirror, front and rear parking sensors, trailer hitch and wiring hookup, air suspension, welcome lighting, 64-color ambient lighting, and much more.
On the safety front, you get predictive forward collision warning with emergency braking, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, a terrific rearview camera with rear cross traffic alert, and rear automatic braking. You also get Pro Pilot Assist, which is a hands-on driver assist system that combines Nissan's Intelligent Cruise Control and Steering Assist technologies and includes a stop and hold function that can bring the vehicle to a full stop, hold in place, and can bring you back up to speed when traffic starts moving again. It works terrific. It has blind spot warning to cover the length of your trailer if you are towing. The semi-autonomous driving system works well.
Options include the $850 Premium Cargo Package and includes rear protective carpeting and a large, soft-sided ice chest, which is nice, but eats up a lot of cargo area.
Ride and Drive
This SUV is incredibly quiet inside, and the ride and handling are about as good as anything I’ve ever driven. The steering is responsive, acceleration is really good, and it will tow 8,500 pounds. This is a true large, luxury SUV all the way. Infiniti thought of everything.
Fuel economy is 16 in town, 19 on the highway, and 17 overall, but I am getting slightly more without even trying, and if you are buying this SUV for fuel economy, just don’t. MSRP is $113,440 on this ultra-loaded SUV. That’s a lot of money, especially if you haven’t shopped lately in the large, luxury, SUV category. I reviewed a Jeep Grand Wagoneer two years ago that was almost $110,000 and a Navigator last year that was over $120,000. Escalade comparably-equipped tops that.
This is an outstanding SUV, the folks at Infiniti have a real home run here, and it is showing in the sales numbers already.
To view larger photos see a slideshow on CarPro.com.