Cars

Cars with Jan Coomans. Going glamping with the Infiniti QX80

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Infiniti QX80

Those of you who may have read some of my articles before, would know that I’m not the kind of guy who insists on buying the largest possible car. But that’s not to say that I can’t put on my journalist hat and give a truly massively sized car like the Infiniti QX80 a try. Especially if it’s to drive into a Russian forest.

As a brand, I think there’s a lot to like about Infiniti. As the luxury arm of Nissan, it’s basically what Lexus is for Toyota. A luxury brand, but not particularly pretentious and of course really well built.

Infiniti QX80

You won’t find any Japanese car maker near the bottom of reliability surveys, after all.

Infiniti also builds some cars, like the Q60 coupe in particular, that I find rather beautiful. So well done on that. The QX80, to be fair, possesses the kind of beauty which only its mother, presumably a hippopotamus, would find attractive. But that shouldn’t detract from the fact that it has an awful lot of qualities which may appeal to you. It has also recently received an update, with a facelift and a modernized interior.

Infiniti QX80

I imagine that the main reason one would consider buying the QX80 is, rather obviously, that it’s got lots of space. This being a glamping trip, I had half expected that we’d be putting the rear seats down, chucking in a mattress and sleeping in the back of the QX80. Which, in retrospect, could have worked out at least as well as staying in a large tent on a very cold night. As a result of being positively gigantic, the driving experience is not particularly fascinating but it is very comfortable indeed. Which is a good thing as a slight error on behalf of my co-driver had us drive two hours in the wrong direction at first. So we ended up with plenty of time at the wheel – and on the passenger seat.

Infiniti QX80

Even so, when we finally stepped out of the car at Vili Uley, I felt fresh as a daisy. It was a rather cold day in the Tver region, with daytime temperatures about 6 degrees below freezing and at night well under 10. This meant that our large personal tents would be heated by a wood fired stove. Very natural, and rather cozy as well. The only slight downside became apparent at night, as the wood would only burn for a good two hours at a time after which the fire would go out and the stinging cold would quickly start to penetrate the thin walls of the tent. This meant that one pretty much had to treat the heating system as one would a newborn baby: feed it regularly and abandon all hope of a few solid hours of sleep.

Infiniti QX80

Probably because I’ve never been a parent, I failed rather quickly at keeping the fire alive and woke up around 4 AM from feeling bloody cold. Attempts to revive the fire were only mildly successful, creating some heat but the flames remained as small as my toes remained cold. All memories of being nearly cooked alive in my tent earlier that night (there’s no real way to turn down the heat once the fire gets going properly) were quickly forgotten. That having been said, I can see how glamping here could be awesome at the right time of year. The location is gorgeous, as Vili Uley sits on a small peninsula in the Volga river and inside a pine tree forest. It’s totally quiet, and the air is crisp. The tents really are rather luxurious, and the meals we had at the large main tent were delicious.

Infiniti QX80

You can forget about showing up there in a sportscar however. The road into the place is hugely bumpy, in fact it seems more like it’s been peppered by rocks from outer space creating a field of craters to drive through. Apparently, this is somewhat by design as the people who live along that road would rather keep out unnecessary visitors. I reckon they’ve done a good job assuring precisely that.

Infiniti QX80

The QX80, of course, plowed through it with ease. There was no need for Infiniti to set up any off-road driving demo to prove the prowess of this large SUV, simply getting to the destination offered us plenty of proof of what the QX80 is capable of.

I still can’t say that I ultimately think that cars this large make sense for most people or families, but there is a refreshing honesty about the QX80 which makes me respect it a lot more than brands which brag about their SUV going around the old Nurburgring in some kind of record time. If you want to go fast in a 2.5 ton high riding vehicle, you’re doing it wrong. Even if it’s got a “competition” badge on the back. The QX80 has no such silly thoughts, though the large naturally aspirated V8 which powers it offers a good amount of power for overtaking. It even sounds rather good. Fuel efficiency isn’t going to be stellar however, but that’s to be expected.

At the end of the day, the QX80 offers exactly what it says on the tin, and that’s good enough for me.

16 декабря 2020
Jan Coomans для раздела Cars