Long-term update: 2011 Infiniti QX56 interior

As we experienced on our trip to Hatta, the 2011 Infiniti QX56 comes standard with a built-in living-room, complete with leather sofas and LCD televisions. The cabin is nothing like the one in the older Armada-based model that we tested a couple of years ago.

The dash is a combination of shiny wood, stitched leatherette, soft-touch plastics and tasteful bits of chrome, all perfectly put together with none of the fragile feel of, say, a Cadillac Escalade. Some parts remain hard plastic, such as anything near the knees as well as the centre of the steering wheel, and while Range Rover goes further with the soft-touch trim, no one really touches around as much as we do so it doesn’t matter in the long run.

The front leather seats are big and beefy, with ventilation fans, power adjustability and offering a commanding view of the road. That centre-console armrest has a cooler box that can open from the front and the back.

The rear seats fit two in our tester, with a huge centre console for storage, but it can be optioned with a 3-seater bench. Legroom is immense, and while the seat-bottom cannot slide front or back, the seat-backs can tilt and lean. There are also two DVD screens fitted into the headrests, and is a much cleaner install than the aftermarket-looking nonsense on the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class or the single flip-down screen on the Lexus LX570. Passengers get rear a/c controls with four roof vents.

Third-row access is extremely easy, with second-row seats that manually fold forward fully. It helps too that the QX56 comes with proper rubberised side-steps, unlike the slippery metal ones in the BMW X5. Legroom back there is just about adequate for most adults, but the 3rd-row seat-backs can electrically tilt back further to give rear occupants more room to breathe. Last-row passengers do not get any padded armrests, although they do enjoy four cup-holders and a couple of roof-mounted a/c vents.

Luggage space is understandably limited with all three rows up, but it can still fit a day’s worth of picnic food or a week’s worth of groceries for a small family. Of course, electrically fold down the third row, and it can fit a refrigerator. Or a bed, if you fold down the second row. Basically, the living room can be turned into a bedroom.

The Infiniti QX56 is very large, but unlike the waste-of-space that is a Hummer H2, the cabin is laid out in a practical way. And of course, it looks and feels great too. We’ve even managed to keep the off-white interior clean so far. You simply learn to tread lightly when you have beige carpets.

Original Mileage When Borrowed: 10,415 km
Latest Mileage To Date: 11,600 km
Latest Average Fuel Economy: 17.2 litres/100 km
Cost of Latest Problems: Dhs 0
Cost of Latest Maintenance: Dhs 0

Total Non-Fuel Running Cost Since Borrowed: Dhs 0

Read all 2011 Infiniti QX56 long-term updates