What's Wrong With This Picture: Infiniti's Essence Crosses Over Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Infiniti’s Essence Concept has been making the rounds since 2009, generating all kinds of speculation about its production possibilities. In fact, so desperate are the autojourno hordes for a GTR-based Infiniti halo car based on the Essence, that CAR magazine recently asked Carlos Ghosn if Nissan were working on such a car, and interpreted the following answer as a “maybe.”

The idea makes sense. The technology is here, the platform is here. It’s a great car, the GT-R. Is it a project now? No. But I don’t want to give you the impression we’ll never do that. But I don’t want you to think that it’s coming in the next two to three years either.

Yeah, that’s definitely a “no, but you’re just too adorable to disappoint.” Anyway, little did anyone guess that the Essence’s chief function (besides wowing show-goers) would be lending its sleek schnozz to the facelifted 2012 Infiniti FX crossover… and yet here it is. Who could imagine that a big-volume crossover would be a higher priority for a luxury brand than a range-topping super-coupe?



Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Benzaholic Benzaholic on Aug 03, 2011

    The FX intrigues me. I understand it to use the same chassis family as the 370Z and the G37, which sounds like great potential, but I've never driven nor ridden in one.

  • B.C. B.C. on Aug 04, 2011

    *mumbles something about how CUV drivers should have their eyes gouged out because they obviously don't use them when car shopping*

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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