All this talk about a facelift of the least interesting crossover on the market, yet the hottest vehicle launch of the year (Mazda CX-9) barely got any talk on CL.

 

It's the best people hauling crossover I've tested, might not be very interesting but that's worth something.

I haven't tried out the CX-9 yet. Hottest vehicle launch? I wouldn't come anywhere close to saying that.

 

Hottest [3-row, mid sized, non-luxury crossover] vehicle launch of the year, perhaps?

 

I think that specificity is needed lol

 

I didn't directly compare a QX60 with its predecessor JX35, but when I did a full-review on the JX35 several years ago, its interior and materials seemed quite impressive inside and out. The QX60 is the same basic vehicle as the JX35 (Infiniti did not significantly redesign the platform when they changed the name/designation). But, perhaps, in the meantime, if you say you saw some questionable materials in the QX, maybe (?) those cheaper materials were recently (and quietly) substituted in the present-generation vehicle to cut costs.

 

The pre refresh QX60 and the JX35 are identical in every way, all they changed was the badging. The vehicle was totally unchanged. The materials were strange. Soft touch, but with a strange sheen, especially the dash.

 

Haha, very funny. Probably that short wife will try to use the key fob remote to close the rear hatch!! But wait it is a Nissan Pathfinder (not a Lexus RX!) So there is no power auto hatch close.

Seriously, we rented a 2015 Pathfinder last year while up on Big Sky MT area. We were there during the beginning of the summer and it snowed a little bit. The Pathfinder handled nicely with the 4WD rental we had. Yes, it is true that the inside materials are not what we were used to as compared to Lexus and MB vehicles. But I guess at its price point, it is ok and if one wants higher quality, then will need to upgrade to something more expensive. We also rented again the Pathfinder a few weeks ago while visiting the Big Easy, New Orleans and had a brand new 2016 Pathfinder with like 30 some miles on the odo. We felt it MAY have improved slightly, but more or less the same.

Side note, not too long ago earlier in the year during spring break we rented a brand new Nissan Quest minivan with 60 some miles on the odo. We parked it in a state park parking lot in the Big Island HI. The ground was uneven due to all the laval vocano eruptions long ago. After we opened the doors to get out, we could not properly close the doors, including the sliding doors because the body of the Quest minivan was "twisted" due to uneven grounds!!! I was shocked!!! After I move the minivan to flat grounds, all the doors kind of sort of closed. This never happened with my LX570 nor my previous old LX470 nor my RX450H! ! I know these are different class of vehicles, but still it was crazy for me to find out. I later checked the small overlap crash tests for the Nissan Quest van.......needless to say it did not do well on the test.