2012 Infiniti QX56 Car News and Review

I did something terrible the other day. I drove to the hardware store and bought incandescent light bulbs. I stood there in the aisle for a few extra minutes, staring at the compact fluorescents mocking me in their “be green” packaging, thinking around the several burnt out incandescent bulbs in my basement and wondering how long the new ones I held in my hand might last. Better grab some other box, just to be sure – government mandate has incandescents being phased out starting in January. I kept from making eye contact with the cashier while I paid and slunk out to my car.

So I’m a hypocrite, a self-professed environmentalist who can’t even do this one simple thing to save the planet. But I am just not interested in spending a weekend replacing entirely the dimmer switches throughout the lower level of my house, and compact fluorescents don’t work in those fixtures.

Which brings us to the 2012 Infiniti QX56. From a sure perspective, this 16-mile-per-gallon, V8-powered, body-on-frame SUV is an incandescent light bulb – a holdover from last decade, before the enactment of necessarily draconian fuel economy standards. But as my esteemed co-worker Zach Bowman wrote in his First Drive of the QX, “you can’t tow 8,500 pounds with a Toyota Prius.” Neither can you fit a driver and up to seven passengers into one, not even the new Prius V.

I’d like to point to the technological marvel that solves the fuel-efficient family tow rig conundrum, but the solutions useable right now are limited. We’ll get to those alternatives presently, but for now, let’s agree that new technology has a way of only solving part of the problem. So in this case, if you want to tow big stuff and you’ve got a big enough brood that you need three rows of seats – and you’re ready and willing to spend big cash – the QX is as good as it’s going to get.