The Discontinued Infiniti QX70, Nee FX, May Yet Return

2017 was the 15th and final model year for the Infiniti QX70, formerly known as the Infiniti FX. Sad, sad the day.

But is the QX70/FX, a dramatically curvaceous take on the modern idea of a crossover, dead and gone for good? Perhaps not. “We are now asking ourselves what is the QX70’s role?” Infiniti president Roland Krueger rhetorically asked Automotive News, “And what should it be?”

Maybe these questions come a year or two or 15 too late, but the fact that Krueger even broaches the subject suggests a high degree of willingness to reinsert the vehicle back into Infiniti’s lineup. If Nissan’s upmarket brand could copy the degree of success the FX earned early on in its tenure — more than 30,000 were sold in America in 2004 — then the rebirth can’t come soon enough.

“We think about what it was created to be, as the FX,” Krueger says, “but what should it be now?”

At the height of the FX’s success, the boldest Infiniti was a four-door SUV coupe before four-door SUV coupes were (hilariously named) four-door SUV coupes. The BMW X6 didn’t arrive as a direct rival, albeit further upmarket, until 2008. By that time, Infiniti FX sales had fallen 59 percent since the 2004 peak.

As the QX70, with ever more abundant competition, Infiniti averaged fewer than 6,000 annual sales, a far cry from the 26,000 annual sales the FX averaged during its first half-decade on the market.

Thus, while it may seem obvious for Infiniti to fill the gap between the QX60 and larger QX80 with an alternative to the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE, Infiniti may not feel there’s space in that narrow niche. That’s why Roland Krueger, the successor at Infiniti to current Cadillac chief Johan de Nysschen, is asking the question.

Should QX70 equal something else altogether?

While Infiniti HQ attempts to answer that question, the company’s next SUV task relates to the replacement of the long-lived QX50, formerly the EX, with a second-generation model next year. More popular in old age as a lengthened model, the QX50 required an inventory build-up while Infiniti waits for the new variant to arrive. “We’ll have enough inventory to run out just as we launch the new QX50,” says Randy Parker, Infiniti’s North American vice president.

Infiniti showed a concept that accurately previewed the second-gen QX50 at the North American International Auto Show in early 2017. Before that model’s arrival, the QX50 was put on hiatus for the 2018 model year.

[Images: Infiniti]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars and Instagram.