Ever peeked at a real estate listing for a multi-million dollar mansion and marveled at how it’s kinda like your own living space, just much, much bigger? That’s the same experience I had driving the 2022 Infiniti QX60 SUV as the owner of a modest Mazda CX-5 compact SUV. It’s like someone fed my car way too much Miracle-Gro and it expanded in every dimension. It also dialed up the plush luxury interior amenities and design, as you would expect from Infiniti. Indeed, the 2022 Infiniti QX60 “Sensory” AWD SUV is one of the most comfortable and well-appointed three-row full-size SUVs I’ve driven in quite a while. Unlike some of the ultra-lux offerings from old school luxury manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, and even Lamborghini, it’s also reasonably priced for its category.

The curb appeal is immediate, with the gentle rounding of all the edges, notably the front grill and face:

This is in Moonbow Blue, a color that comes with a $695 premium color charge. I have to admit, it’s now standard with new cars to see a $500-$900 premium charge for a paint color, which suggests that the manufacturers should just add the cost to the base price and stop the additional sticker line item, don’t you think?

Going back to the design, what I appreciated about the QX60 is that it’s a big, full-size SUV, but the design makes it seem less boxy and imposing than a lot of its competitors in the segment. Lots of interior space? Definitely. Driving an enormous box? Not so much. What we really want are vehicles designed atop a TARDIS from Doctor Who so it would be significantly bigger on the inside. Until then, however, some design touches can definitely mitigate that boxiness.

Talking about size and spaciousness, the rear legroom was entirely acceptable. The below is with the driver’s seat as far back as it would go, as I’m 6′ 3″ and need my legroom:

Definitely space for five adults. But there’s a third row! Then again, there’s no way that the third row is going to work for even teenagers, let alone adults:

It’s not really intended for seven adults, so this isn’t a revelation, but a 5yo would love this setup and the ability to stash her favorite toys in the cup holders, on the tray, and so on. They would also be able to monkey-climb over the other seats to get to their spot (though the middle seats do fold down and the back seat can split 40/60 to make ingress from the rear hatch easier too, as needed). Here’s what I mean:

With this configuration – the 60% seat up, the 40% seat folded down – it would be very easy for a little ‘un to crawl in and get situated before you even made it around to the driver’s seat. With all the seats available, notice that it’s still a decent amount of cargo space, deep enough for a suitcase or five. Fold the back row down – manually, no automation in the QX60 – and while the base is rather uneven, there’s quite a lot of space. Fold down the second-row seats and you’ve got enough space for a couple of racing bicycles or a mattress.

INTERIOR AMENITIES AND DESIGN

Moving into the interior of the 2022 Infiniti QX60 Sensory AWD, the dashboard features a striking 12.3″ touch display, along with a smartly designed center armrest suite of knobs and controls:

What I most appreciated about this design was that it didn’t feel overloaded with buttons and controls. The entire climate control system is neatly organized in the center of the dash, for example, and the driver’s main gauge display focused on what’s most important:

The above display is shown when the smart cruise control is enabled, showing where sensors are analyzing and tracking traffic. Also notice the current speed limit display – 35 – on the right speedometer display, along with the handy km/h value tucked into the lower right corner if you want to suddenly think in metric (or, if you have that as the main display, think in miles-per-hour). The above is also very readable; some manufacturers are so busy showing sci-fi designs and futuristic colors on their displays that critical information can easily be overlooked.

The default Infiniti infotainment display was a bit less elegant in its design if you don’t utiliize wireless Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, as you can see:

On the other hand, can you see the setting that’s highlighted with the orange edge? Massage Settings. Yes, the seats have a built-in massage feature. Niiiiiiice.

Switching to the center control suite, you can see that there’s a lot of control, but laid out in a straightforward way:

While there was no volume control on the center control suite, the center knob otherwise made it very easy to interact with the infotainment system, a feature that’s becoming more and more common. I much prefer this sort of control compared to the hassle of leaning forward to tap on the infotainment screen to switch radio stations, switch to navigation, or any of the hundreds of other tasks we now do with our smart vehicles.

The drive experience was very nice for a vehicle of this size, thanks to the QX60’s 3.5-litre V6 engine pushing out 295 horsepower., coupled with a 9-speed automatic transmission. Plenty of power to merge onto the highway or pass someone once you’re on the thoroughfare. The fuel efficiency was fairly mediocre, averaging about 23.1 mpg for my various trips. It’s a big, heavy vehicle, so 23.1 mpg is better than 18.0 mpg, but still, I’d like to see this category of larger SUV get a big bump in fuel efficiency until they’re all hybrid or EV powered.

That’s about it. The 2022 Infiniti QX60 Sensory AWD is a solid option for a larger family that needs room and storage capacity, while still looking stylish in the pickup line at school. If you’ve a smaller family, however, a smaller SUV will save you a lot of money both at the time of purchase and through the lifetime of the vehicle with its better fuel efficiency (and less expensive tires).

CONFIGURATION: 2022 Infiniti QX60 Sensory AWD with 3.5-litre V6 engine and 9-speed transmission. MSRP: $58,350.00. OPTIONAL ADDITIONS: Lighting Package, Premium Paint. AS DRIVEN: $60,745.00.

Disclosure: Infiniti loaned me the QX60 for a week in return for this candid write-up. Thanks, Infiniti!