By Chris Haak

This morning in New York, Infiniti revealed its all-new QX56 full-size SUV. Unlike its immediate Nissan Armada-based predecessor, the new QX is based on the overseas-only Nissan Patrol SUV. The Nissan Patrol is basically Nissan’s answer to the Toyota Land Cruiser, and makes a very solid foundation for the QX in coming years. Humorously enough, the Patrol even looks very much like a Land Cruiser, except one with a Nissan Pathfinder’s grille grafted onto its front.

Back to the QX56 – with Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi plant changing over from pickup and SUV production to focus on light commercial vehicle production, the QX56 in its recent state was not a model whose existence was easy to justify. In fact, the Titan – which donated its chassis, front sheetmetal, and portions of its interior to the Armada (and to a lesser degree, to the QX56) very nearly went out of production directly by Nissan, until Chrysler and Nissan agreed to scrap the agreement to rebody the Dodge Ram as a second-generation Nissan Titan. Continue Reading →