Hulk

What we like:

Road presence like no other

What we dislike:

Probably not the obvious choice for most

The big question as always with something this large is whether it’s any good to drive.

On paper at least, the QX80 sounds very promising. You get a 5.6l V8 that has nothing force-feeding it; there’s a 7-speed automatic gearbox with rev-matching and an all-wheel drive system that is mostly rear biased if you’re driving along normally and all the usual off-road modes you might expect from a proper SUV.

There’s also what Infiniti calls Hydraulic Body Motion Control, which is basically automatically adjusting dampers that control body roll because the car is nearly three tonnes.

So the sum of all these technologies makes for a car that never feels underpowered because the 400 hp 560 Nm V8 will pull it along rather nicely in a perfectly linear manner that gives the car composure more than anything else.

And in a car like this the feeling of steadiness is something that’s prized, because it’s not the most confidence inspiring car around the bends owing to its size but the dampers work their magic well enough for it not to be all over the place if you turn in a little more quickly than you ought to.

As far as ride comfort goes well it’s supposed to be a lounge on wheels somewhat and it does that quite well. It doesn’t quite match up to Lexus’ ride quality but it definitely is to be described as refined and comfortable.

Of course being the largest offering from Infiniti they’ve thrown in a whole host of safety features including a radar that will detect whether you’re going to collide and brake for you (a feature that can be annoying because the car pre-emptively slows down without warning) as well as adaptive cruise control that will manage distance and speed relative to the car in front of you which is always welcome.

So for the price of $415,800 (at 10 Mar 2016), you could have a flagship offering that doubles both as an SUV and an MPV all while scaring everyone else on the road away with its hulking presence.

Would you?

Credits: Story and Photos by Alvan Sio