Economy test: 2011 Infiniti QX56 in Dubai

Economy test: 2011 Infiniti QX56 in Dubai


At the risk of sounding like an iPod on loop mode, we’ll say again that the 2011 Infiniti QX56 is a big car. That also made our latest economy test more interesting. Is it possible to drive one of the largest 4x4s on the planet without hurting the planet, or more importantly, your wallet?

Before anything else, you should know that this beast’s new 5.6-litre “VVEL” V8 engine likes to drink RON98 “Super” petrol. While it runs fine on the usual RON95 “Special” stuff, we suspect our fuel economy dramatically improved from 19.6 litres/100 km to 16.4 litres/100 km just by switching to the more expensive stuff, after we read the label under the fuel cap to use the premium juice. Either that, or we’ve simply started driving it more conservatively after figuring out how to control this machine over the past month. Keep in mind though that pumping “Super” into your crappy little Toyonda Tiiyarizz isn’t going to magically improve its fuel economy if it wasn’t designed for it.

So we reset the trip computer and headed out from the ghettos of Karama in the afternoon, towards Dubai Academic City, while carefully modulating the throttle to drive at 90 kph in an 80 kph zone. We were on an economy run, but we still had to get somewhere. Traffic was light. There, we waited for a few minutes to pick someone up, then headed out to Emirates Road towards Mirdiff City Centre. So now we had two people in the car, and we were still doing 90 kph on a 120 kph highway. Ironically, it isn’t too hard to drive that slow on the highway, because there are enough trucks, vans and even cars going even slower. All this time, we kept the a/c on.

From there, we went somewhere into Aweer to meet someone, and then drove back to Karama from there. But while we covered less than 50 km, we had already peaked in fuel economy and were already starting to drop in average again. Keep in mind that, in this case, cruise control is not a good thing. Our Infiniti has the adaptive system, which means it slows down smoothly when it detects a car in front, but speeds up to the set speed rather aggressively once the car in front moves out of the way. You’ll be better off controlling your right foot for smoother driving.

We peaked at 13.7 litres/100 km, but our average settled down to an even 14.5 litres/100 km, about as much as a moderately-driven Toyota Prado V6, or an aggressively-driven Nissan Altima V6.

Remember that we did this without going under 90 kph on most roads, and with the a/c turned on in February afternoon weather, with the help of a 7-speed automatic transmission. You could say that we cheated by going out at an off-peak hour, but one of the first rules of saving fuel has always been to avoid traffic in any way possible. Avoiding rush hour is half the battle.

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Comments

  1. mash…
    in the max am filling super too…
    its recommended…the sticker you saw i also have it…
    any ways…
    the strange thing is that my car reads how many KMS / liter???????????
    although we have 6 nissan cars …but nothing gives this way of reading!!!!
    am used to liters / 100kms…
    can you check for me with your friends in the dealer????
    is there any way to change it…
    and thanks for the report…BTW: the 400 hp engine consumes less fuel that the 320hp engine…

    good luck man

    • Author

      The QX56 shows km/L in the gauges also. Just divide 100 by that number for L/100km. Can’t change it, although nav screen shows bar graph in L/100.

  2. My friend said to me once that Toyota gets better mileage than Nissan if compare each Nissan cars with its Toyota rivals. Like Sunny with Corolla, Patrol with Land cruiser, armada with sequioa….. is it true?

    • Nope..false…Tiida 1.8 gets a mileage as good as a 1.8 Corolla (if not better)….Sunny 1.6 gets a way better mileage than the 1.6 Corolla..the V8 Armada gets the same mileage as that of a v6 Fj, let alone the Sequioa…However in case of Patrol, it is true that the LC gives a better mileage…but then on another note, what about LC’s power compared to Patrol? 🙂

    • Power wise there is no second thought. Nissan 😉

    • Author

      I cannot confirm any of that, but a lot also depends on how you drive. However, I’ve never got less than 20 l/100km with any V8 Land Cruiser/LX in regular driving.

    • btw..i was talkin about the old Patrol and was comparing it to the new v6 LC..not sure about the new Patrol :)…so that comparison is sorta unfair!

    • I am looking for a car like Altima. But manual transmission is a must. Because once the green line metro starts my dad is planning to use it. So, there is a plan for replacing the automatic camry to something of the same size but manual. Help me….. Altima doesn’t come in manual anymore.

  3. if you compare the engines and the power…
    almost all nissan engines consumes less than toyota except one engine…

    the 4.0 liters of nissan consume more (that didnt go through any changes since they made it)..first the 4.0 comes 270 hp (approx.) and toyota around 245 +19 for the new models…

    and armada BTW: will not stop, bacause i saw some people talking about this.

    after that, new FJ and Prado came with a better engines in the new models….am waiting for the new models of Xterra a pathy…

    my brother is law drives the murano 2008 daily to abu dhabi….he reached 170K kms ….
    and his milage per full tank more than 600 kms…

    the new CVT in all nissan models is making too many improvemnts to their fuel consumption…

    in my car Maxima…i drive 160 and the rpm is around 2600..

    in the new patrol…you drive 200 and the rpm is 3800….

  4. So, the 7 speed Patrol looks like a real improvement. In my Armada at 140KPH it goes at 2500rpm.
    I struggle mainly at city I am not good at sticking to higher gear at lower speeds in automatic transmission.

  5. thanks mash…
    am getting 15.6 after i divided by 100>> LOL
    my reading is 6.4 KMS / liter
    i think my car is burning right now…
    you can say am using the shifters ALOT

    some times it even goes down to 5.6 …

  6. @aaamohamad – im sure there is an option to change from km/l to l/km..the pathy has that option. Go through your menu and see.

  7. i tried spyke…i’ll check the catalog…maybe its there

  8. BTW I have question.

    I have been using 95 special and want to switch to the higher 98 Octane.

    Is it advisable to change the grade when the fuel tank is half full with 95 Octane.Effectively it will mix the grades for the first time.

  9. 15.6 for the 3.5 maxima?? too much…
    well a always get 15 and sometimes i get 14 in my 5.0 Mustang.

  10. i get 12.3 on 3.7 liter in utlra much better then altima , use super from day one ….i guess nissan needs improvment in this department:)

  11. when you exceed 200 come and talk…
    and never compare with size only…it shows that your technical background is the one that needs improvement.

  12. this is nyc suv BUT too big .too heavy . like ship ! and too fuel .denali have 441 hp and this is only 400 hp .back lights like traverse ?

  13. I HAVE INFNITI QX56 IT IS POWERFULL
    THAN OTHER CAR LIKE LAND CRUISER
    NISSAN PATROL
    LEXUS
    NISSAN ARMADA
    JEEP

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