Infiniti QX30 (2016 – 2020) Review

The Infiniti QX30 was the brand’s most convincing offering, as it tried to break into the premium sector in the UK market. It seemed to arrive at the right time as demand for small SUVs was booming, and was based on the Mercedes A-Class, which meant a decent diesel engine and reasonable handling. However, this also meant it went up against the Audi Q3 and popular Mercedes GLA, among others. Read on for our full Infiniti QX30 review.

Infiniti is a luxury brand owned by Nissan (an equivalent to Toyota-owned Lexus, if you like), and very well established in both America and Japan.

Unfortunately, Nissan chose to launch Infiniti into the UK market in 2008, which given the economic circumstances was mistimed, to put it mildly.

It also did so with a range of big cars powered by inefficient petrol engines. Needless to say, sales faltered, but Infiniti survived because Nissan bankrolled it through the turbulence.

Of course, that situation couldn’t continue indefinitely, and so Infiniti, finally, released a couple of trendy, reasonably priced family hatchbacks in 2016 – the Infiniti Q30 and this, the taller Infiniti QX30 SUV-inspired version.

You may already be putting two and two together and coming up with “posh Nissan Qashqai”– but you’d be wrong. Instead, the Infiniti QX30 is a rehashed Mercedes A-Class.

On the one hand that makes perfect sense – make a premium car from a premium base and you can’t go far wrong, right?

Not quite. The Mercedes A-Class was the German company’s weakest model, and little effort was made to disguise the Infiniti QX30’s underpinnings or improve upon them.

Much of the Infiniti QX30’s interior architecture and switchgear was lifted unchanged from the donor car, and many of the flaws remain. As a used SUV, though, it’s an intriguing choice.

The Infiniti QX30 is well built and styled to stand out, but for some reason it was determined it should be a sporty crossover model rather than a luxurious one.

The result is over-firm suspension that unsettles the ride, heavy steering that requires a little too much effort at parking speeds, and yet no real sense of driver involvement; as a general rule, the laws of physics preclude tall hatchbacks from being much fun to drive.

The first engine was a 2.2-litre diesel (again, taken from Mercedes) with a seven-speed automatic gearbox, and the result is a 57.6mpg average fuel economy rating with 128g/km CO2.

This was far from catastrophic, but most rivals offered diesels of greater efficiency, and also lighter two-wheel-drive versions. A 2.0 Turbo petrol arrived a while after the Infiniti QX30’s launch.

Equipment levels are generous, but cramped rear seats and only average boot space were further drawbacks.

All-in-all then, while the Infiniti QX30 might prove an interesting and rare alternative for used car buyers willing to overlook its flaws, it falls short in too many areas to recommend.

Fancy an Infiniti Q30? Read heycar’s Infiniti Q30 review here.

What’s most striking about the Infiniti QX30 is that it lacks the qualities that made the Nissan Qashqai so good. (The Infiniti QX30 was built alongside the latter at Nissan’s famous Sunderland plant.)

The well-damped ride quality and general sense of calm in the Nissan Qashqai’s cabin simply isn’t present here.

It may be a little unfair to compare the Infiniti QX30 to the Nissan Qashqai – they’re similarly sized, but are made from different parts and aimed at different customers. Yet as a small luxury SUV, you really would expect the Infiniti QX30 to be more comfortable.

Instead, Infiniti focused on sportiness, and the result is juddery suspension and steering that feels artificially firm at town and parking speeds.

While the ergonomics are generally fine, the steering wheel does seem set a little low and the seat high.

The firmer-than-average suspension means the Infiniti QX30 resists excessive body roll and there’s a sense of sharpness when turning the wheel, plus plenty of grip.

But this is not a genuinely sporty car.

The Infiniti QX30 suffers from a horribly unresponsive throttle, whose first third or so of travel seems to do very little.

It’s slightly better in Sport mode (one of three selectable driver settings), but then you’re left with even firmer steering, and an automatic gearbox programmed to hold on to gear for longer than comfortable.

This exacerbates the other refinement issue: the diesel engine. The 2.2-litre Mercedes sourced unit is noisy throughout the rev range, and although it has plenty of torque (350Nm at 1400rpm) it never feels especially punchy; the Infiniti QX30 is a relatively heavy car.

Add to that the tyre noise that you’ll suffer with the inevitable set of 18/19-inch alloy wheels and you have a model that just isn’t as calm and composed as it should be.

An alternative choice is the 2.0T petrol, which has 211PS on tap and is brisk off the mark.

However, even it isn’t that refined or special in the way it feels, so you might as well have the diesel’s economy.

Every Infiniti QX30 comes equipped with seven airbags, ESP traction and stability control, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition and a collision mitigation set-up.

The Premium Tech trim brought added safety kit such as an Around View parking camera, Object Detection, rear-view camera and keyless entry, which could be added to the base Premium model as an optional pack.

You could also specify the Safety Pack, with its additional Blind Spot Warning and Intelligent Cruise control.

The Infiniti QX30 is good to haul up to 750kg with an unbraked trailer, while it can handle a braked trailer up to 1800kg. That makes it useful for towing a caravan.

When it comes to space, the Infiniti QX30 is particularly found wanting in the rear.

There’s precious little headroom back there and even less knee space. Plus access is hindered by an unusually small opening, and the glass roof on some models eats into headroom even more. 

The rear bench has a ski hatch and a 60/40 split as standard, but the floor doesn’t lift flush to the boot lip and capacity is below average at 430 litres.

An Audi Q3 has 420 litres, but a BMW X1 has 505 and, somewhat strangely, the Mercedes GLA that it shares a platform with (as it is based on the Mercedes A-Class, too) provides 481 litres.

The Nissan Qashqai, incidentally, has 430 litres too.

Elsewhere in the cabin, the Infiniti QX30 isn’t exactly awash with oddment space. The glovebox is small, as are the door pockets and the oddment bin in the centre console. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the Mercedes A-Class (something Infiniti was banking on), then the Infiniti QX30 cabin won’t offend you.

But if you are, stepping inside evokes true déjà vu. Much of the switchgear is lifted without change (as are the speedometer display graphics), and the basic architecture isn’t very well disguised either.

But there are some interesting flourishes, like the purple LED highlighting, and it feels very well built.

It does have a handful too many buttons scattered about, but that’s generally the Japanese way and it helps make the Infiniti QX30 cabin seem high-end, if not necessarily luxurious.

Stitched leather and wood trim in the dashboard and door panels lift things too.

There isn’t much wrong with the InTouch infotainment system, but the sub-menus can be slightly confusing.

The good thing is, there’s both a rotary dial to control things as well as a touchscreen. Indecision on Infiniti’s part, or every base covered? You decide.

If the Infiniti QX30 had one particularly glaring Achilles heel when new, it was its ambitious pricing.

It was just too expensive next to rivals with bigger, better recognised names. However, as a used car prospect, it makes much more sense.

Depreciation means you can now pick up an Infiniti QX30 from £7000 for an eight-year-old example with 70,000 miles under its wheels.

Choose a later example that’s five years old and you’ll pay up to £14,000 for a low-mileage car in fine order.

The Infiniti QX30 is also the most widely available model from the brand on the UK’s used market, although it’s by no means around in large numbers.

The sole diesel engine offering in the Infiniti QX30 is the Mercedes-sourced 2.2-litre turbodiesel.

It offers a claimed economy of between 53.3mpg and 57.6mpg depending on the trim and spec you choose. That means road tax charged at £150 for the year with the more efficient engine and £200 for the less economical motor.

Infiniti added a 2.0-litre turbo petrol to the range with 211PS and it delivers a claimed 42.2mpg. This figure will be nearer the mid-30s in real world use, and it emits 155g/km, but pays the flat rate of £180 for cars registered from 1 April 2017 onwards.

Insuring an Infiniti QX30 is not as cheap as for most small hatches, and your premium will be calculated on the car sitting in groups 21 to 27 (out of 50).

That’s not outrageously high, but it is more than a Ford Focus of similar specification, or fellow mainstream contender, the Volkswagen Golf.

Looking after an Infiniti QX30 should be simple, thanks to so many parts being shared with the Mercedes A-Class and Mercedes GLA.

Choose the entry-point Infiniti QX30 Premium and it includes 18-inch alloy wheels, Infiniti Drive Mode selector, automatic dual-zone climate control, cruise control with speed limiter and a lane departure warning.

Add to that heated front seats, the InTouch navigation system, active noise cancellation, LED front foglamps and seven airbags.

The Infiniti QX30 Premium Tech trim adds LED auto levelling headlights, Nappa leather seat facings, dark headlining, wood inserts in door panels and headlining, power front seats with memory adjustment and a rear view camera with front and rear parking sensors.

There was also the option of the Infiniti QX30 Tech Pack as an option with its added safety features, or the Infiniti QX30 Safety Pack that further offered Blind Spot Warning and Intelligent Cruise Control.

The trims were changed in March 2018 to the Infiniti QX30 Luxe and Infiniti QX30 Luxe Tech, which had much the same equipment respectively as the Premium and Premium Tech.