2002 Infiniti Q45 on 2040-cars

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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

Infiniti previews a new... something

Sometimes we get a teaser image and accompanying statement where we can at least surmise what the automaker is up to. This is not one of those times.
The automaker, in this case, is Infiniti, and the teaser image shows only a grille with a similar shape to what you'd find on most of the company's products, albeit with a curvier mesh. Which isn't much to go on, really, and the accompanying statement (which you can read below in its forty-word entirety) doesn't give us much more. All it says is that the vehicle in question - which we'll wager is a concept car instead of a production debut - has "style and substance" embodied in a "vision... on a scale not seen before" from Infiniti.
Given the French peppered into the release and the encroaching chronological proximity of the Paris Motor Show, we'd guess that's where Infiniti will reveal this latest but of inspiration, but just what form it will take is still a mystery.

Infiniti Prototype 9 is a wonderfully beautiful EV grand prix car

Few automobiles are as elegantly beautiful as the open-wheel grand prix cars of the 1940s, '50s and '60s. The simple, slender shapes of these cars bear no extravagant flourishes or adornments. The purposeful design is what gave these cars their beauty, and it's these classic machines that inspired the new Infiniti Prototype 9. Teased earlier this week, this concept blends old and new, with classic lines hiding a modern all-electric powertrain. The Prototype 9 will make its full debut next week at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Infiniti says the car was built around a simple idea: what would a 1940s Infiniti grand prix car look like? While the silver paint may be more German than Japanese, the design could easily be mistaken for an actual '40s grand prix car. Only the Infiniti-styled grille gives it away. Everything about it, from the thin bias-ply tires wrapped over center-locking wire wheels to the bulging screws around the driver's seat, is pitch perfect. Underneath that achingly long hood rests a prototype electric motor and battery from Nissan's Advanced Powertrain Department. The combo sends 148 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque straight to the rear wheels. That's good enough to send the svelte 1,962 lb car to 62 mph in just 5.5 seconds. Top speed is right at 106 mph. While speed may die off towards the top end, all that torque and a 43/57 front to rear weight distribution should make the Prototype 9 a riot on a small, tight circuit. There's only enough juice in the battery for about 20 minutes of flat-out racing. The handmade steel body rests on a steel ladder-frame chassis. The front suspension uses a leading-arm rigid axle with transverse leaf spring while the rear uses a De Dion axle, also with a transverse leaf spring. The Prototype 9 also uses old-school hydraulic rotary type dampers. There's no power steering and no brake booster for the four-wheel disc brakes. The car was designed and built by a number of different departments within Infiniti and Nissan. A simple sketch expanded as more and more designers and engineers wanted to have a hand in the project. The steel body panels were all shaped and hammered by hand. The bare cockpit is only adorned with a thin seat, three gauges, a few switches, a gear selector and the steering wheel. The gauges are set into a fixed aluminum hub in the center of the steering wheel.