2011 Infiniti Qx56 Awd Navigation, Dvd, Reverse Camera on 2040-cars

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Infiniti QX70 is fini, for now

We knew it first as the FX, debuting in 2003 as a bulgingly macho SUV/crossover thing with an impossibly long hood. It was quick and powerful, and lower-slung than typical SUVs, more like a tall wagon. Infiniti later dialed the cartoonishness of it back a few notches and started calling it the QX70. Now, the QX70 is going to take a little break, disappearing from the lineup for a few years while QX50 and QX80 redesigns are rolled out. The QX70 is sporty, with a 325-horsepower 3.7-liter V6. But it's an aging model and a bit of a slow seller - last year, Infiniti moved one-seventh as many QX70s as it did its kid-hauling cousin the QX60 - which seats more people (seven, to the QX70's five) and is less expensive. The QX70 was once popular like that, selling 30,964 as the FX in 2004. But that was long, long ago. Last year it sold 6,261. The QX70 nameplate is expected to be back in 2021 or 2022, in a redesign based on the Nissan Murano and built at Nissan's plant in Canton, Miss. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2015 Infiniti QX70 Plants/Manufacturing Infiniti Crossover SUV redesign

Autoblog sell-it-yourself highlight: 2013 Infiniti QX56

As Lincoln announces an all-new Navigator at this year's New York auto show, and General Motors' Arlington (Texas) plant runs 24/7 cranking out Tahoes, Yukons, and Escalades, Infiniti's big QX56/80 continues to gain fans in a great many upmarket zip codes. And its appeal – for those with an appreciation for Big Foot footprints – is obvious. Built atop Nissan's Patrol platform, the QX56 offers high levels of refinement with cubic yards of utility. Introduced by Nissan's Infiniti division in 2011, you would assume any inaugural bugs had been worked out by 2013, the QX's third model year. Power was supplied, in the press vernacular, by Nissan's proven 5.6-liter V8 producing 400 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque. A seven-speed automatic transmission was standard on all models, and while the additional speeds might suggest some semblance of efficiency, no one should confuse this big QX with a Toyota Prius. Our 'for sale' example, with 84,000 miles, represents above-average mileage for a 4-year old vehicle. But if those are largely highway miles in and around Madison, Mississippi, and service records are available, you shouldn't be too concerned. This is, with proper maintenance, a 200,000-mile platform, leaving you about 116,000 miles for your $37,000. And the 'ask' seems about $5,000 too dear; perhaps the seller will throw in a gas card. Related Video: Infiniti Car Buying Used Car Buying Ownership SUV Luxury

Recharge Wrap-up: Q50 Hybrid video, Iran's biodiesel weed

A new video from Infiniti showcases the Q50 Hybrid's kinetic energy recovery technology, borrowed from Formula One. The video details what is going on inside both the Q50 Hybrid and the racecar when it gathers energy to store for later use, offering better performance than an internal combustion engine alone. In the Q50 Hybrid, that electric energy helps the car accelerate from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds. The video also serves to highlight the relationship between racing innovation and performance and efficiency improvements in production vehicles. See the video above. The 2015 Toyota Prius C has been named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The compact hybrid, updated for the 2015 model year, has been upgraded from a "poor" to "acceptable" rating in the small overlap crash test, placing it on the Top Safety Pick list. Beginning in the 2016 model year, cars will have to score a "good" rating on the test to make the list, which means further improvements will be necessary if Toyota wants the Prius C to maintain its safety status with the IIHS. Read more at Green Car Reports. A couple in Tennessee have been found guilty of scamming the state in a fake biodiesel scheme. John and Lisa Brichetto's Northington Energy LLC received a state loan to produce biodiesel in 2011, but the facility never started production and was later foreclosed upon. In addition to the $142,215 the Brichettos defrauded from Tennessee, the state also invested in utilities and roads, while the US Department of Agriculture also paid for site improvements. Read more from the Times Free Press. Researchers in Iran have developed a way to make biodiesel from a weed. Scientists at the Islamic Azad University have created two liters of biomass for biofuel from flixweed. Flixweed, also called herb-Sophia and tansy mustard, is a non-edible weed that grows in various climates with little to no effort. It was found to contain 22 percent oil and fatty acids, and the biomass contains oxygenated chemical components. "This issue is important because the atomic oxygen in the fuel of a car directly cuts exhaust and the dangerous carbon monoxide and cancerous particles suspended in air," says Mehdi Alami, a chemistry graduate working on the project. Read more at Press TV.