ESSENTIAL 4dr Front-Wheel Drive
2020 INFINITI QX50 Review
The 2020 Infiniti QX50 is a comfortable five-seat luxury crossover that competes with the Audi Q5, Acura RDX, Volvo XC60, Lexus NX and others. If you’re interested in a QX50, it’s probably got something to do with its impressive, technologically advanced VC-Turbo variable compression engine.
It also has sumptuous swales of bodywork, a long list of driver-assist and safety features, and a solidly luxurious interior with a two-screen infotainment setup. The window sticker for the QX50 we drove recently in Essential trim says the seats were leatherette; if true, it’s the most buttery fake leather out there.
Still, the engine’s the star. If performance is your only consideration, you can also get the VC-Turbo in the Nissan Altima sedan weighing 400 to 500-plus pounds less and at an MSRP starting $7,500 lower, a price spread that quickly expands as you option up the QX50. But if you want the QX50, it’s probably because it’s a crossover. You want to haul stuff. Which brings us to: luggage test.
The QX50 has a cargo capacity of 31.1-31.4 cubic feet behind its raised back seat, which expands to 65.1 cubic feet with the rear seats down. That's more than most in its class, and the QX50’s cargo hold certainly looks big and usable enough.
To test it, I had six roller suitcases at my disposal. Three would need to be checked at the airport, and one of those is particularly mondo (29x19x11, 26x17x10, 25x16x10). Three others were small enough to carry on (24x14x10, 23x14x11, 22x14x9). Several bags have four wheels that protrude and were counted in the dimensions. I lacked access to Riswick’s wife’s fancy bag.
An asterisk to all our luggage tests: Our crack team of test suitcases is empty. I know someone who can seriously overstuff a soft-sided bag, so depending on how you pack, your results may vary.
The QX50 didn't arrive with a cargo cover, so that made things easier. My first stab at loading all those bags seemed promising — five out of six bags fit. Two of the big boys on edge, three carry-ons standing up. That would be one bag for every occupant, but hey, we can do better.
Standing them all up was the easy solution. This fits all six bags, and I'm certain they wouldn't fly forward in a hard stop. But the driver's rear view is impeded. I'd be annoyed to look back at this throughout a long trip.
That biggest bag is the biggest offender, so can we just lay that one down? Sure, but we're back to just five bags fitting.
Laying the two biggest bags flat does not get us back to six bags, either. If I balanced the sixth one on edge atop the two in back and quickly closed the hatch, it'd block the view again, might tumble forward in an emergency, and would definitely tumble out the back when you tried to unload.
The final configuration below seemed best. Two biggest bags stacked flat at left, the smallest carry-on atop the smallest big bag at right, and the last two carry-ons standing, with just enough room that the hatch closed. The hard-sided red carry-on at right seemed be secure because its wheels straddled the rear-seat headrest, but I'd probably want to mesh that one down for good measure.
Visibility? Not bad.
It's not infinity and beyond. But the space is enough that somebody in this five-seater would get to bring two suitcases. Just don't overstuff.
