On the words of that great inter-galactic space ranger, Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movie franchise: “To Infinity and Beyond”.
If Infiniti, the car company, had been smart, and endowed with NASA-sized budgets, it could have made a fun ad to have Buzz uttering his famous catchphrase while driving Infiniti’s latest QX60 three-row mid-size SUV.
Oh wait a sec, the folks at Porsche got there first.
For the recent premiere of the latest Toy Story 5 blockbuster, they teamed up with Pixar to create three unique 911 two-seaters inspired by Buzz, Woody and Jessie.
Buzz’s car was painted in his space suit’s color scheme of white, greenish-yellow and purple, with Lightyear tires – a collaboration with Goodyear – a rear wing shaped like his space wings, and best of all, “To Infinity and Beyond” illuminated on the carbon fiber door sills.
Maybe Infiniti will get lucky with the inevitable Toy Story 6.
This latest QX could certainly benefit from whatever extra publicity it could get. As a luxury, three-row SUV, it locks horns with some of the biggest hitters out there.
Everything from Acura’s MDX, Lexus’ RX and TX, Mercedes’ GLE, the BMW X5, Volvo XC90, and Lincoln’s Aviator. Add to those, Buick’s Enclave, Audi’s Q7 and the terrific Genesis GV80.
That said, this new-look QX has a lot going for it. Looks for starters.
For 2026, it got a new, bolder front end inspired by its big brother QX80’s towering nose, with a more vertical grille with a big, illuminated Infiniti logo in the middle, new, racier-looking lower section, new 20-inch rims, and lots of blacked-out chrome.
I’d argue that it’s still one of the coolest looking sport-ute in its class, and quite striking when painted in our tester’s Deep Emerald paint.
The other stand-out is price. A base, though well-equipped QX60 Pure would set you back just $53,085. Want more luxe? Step up to the Luxe from $58,485. Or the new-for-2026 Sport priced from $63,685.
I’ve just spent a week luxuriating in the flagship QX60 Autograph, priced from $69,185, or $73,750 with a few options, including the $3,150 Technology package that includes Infiniti’s cool ProPilot 2.1 hands-free driving set-up.
As you might expect, the Autograph comes loaded to the hilt. Stand-out features include a new disco-quality Klipsch Reference Premiere audio system with no fewer than 20 speakers. It rocks.
Then there’s that lovely quilted, semi-aniline leather and open-pore wood that’s slathered around the Autograph’s cabin, the massaging front seats, the second-row captain’s chairs, and near full-length glass roof. It offers a proper luxury experience.
Alas, the QX60’s luxury experience is slightly let down by what’s under the hood.
Last year, Infiniti dropped the lovely old 3.5-liter V6 and replaced it with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder VC-Turbo.
On paper it’s an engineering marvel that does wonderful techie things to continuously adjust the engine’s compression ratio to, in theory, offer livelier performance and better fuel economy.
Power-wise it offers 268 horseys and 286 lb-ft of torque – fine, but not exceptional in this class – delivered to all four wheels through a smooth-shifting nine-speed automatic.
Fuel economy is again fine, though hardly exceptional, with 21mpg in the city, 27 on the highway, and a combined 24mpg.
What lets it down, however, is the engine’s lack of real refinement. Rev it hard to sprint from zero to 60 in 7.5 seconds, and the four-cylinder sounds a little rough and ragged – definitely a little “buzzy” – and no match for the previous V6.
The engine’s computer also loves to send the automatic into the highest gear possible as quickly as it can, making the QX feel sluggish, even in Sport mode. Thankfully there are paddle shifters for manual control.
But this latest, Nissan Pathfinder-based QX60 does steer nicely, rides smoothly and corners with minimal body roll.
Just the SUV then, to take you to infinity and beyond in comfort and style. Ol’ Buzz would approve.
