We just returned from a weekend trip to a lake about 200 miles from home. For those still waiting to get your hands on your ordered JX, I thought I'd write up a short trip report of the good and "could be better" things I noticed on the first short road trip with the JX.
Good:
- The ride. After 5 hours in the JX on the way home (traffic/back roads/dropping off kids' friends), I was ready for 5 more. The seats are supportive yet cushy, the suspension is soft yet feels connected with the road, and the space inside made it relaxing for 2 adults/3 teens along with a 3d row of boating needs.
- Gas mileage. Averaged 22.8 round trip which included some highway, some traffic, lots of back roads, and a few short trips. Was in normal or sport mode the whole time.
- Transmission. The CVT takes a little getting used to, but the power is there when needed. I didn't realize that there is a manual side of the transmission until this trip. While following the idiot in the Camaro going 60 in a 70 in the left lane of the highway, I knocked the transmission over to the left, it "downshifted" and we took off. I was still trying to figure out exactly what happened as I realized I was doing 90. Impressive.
- Transmission Pt. II. Out by the lake, it's a series of up and down hills, some of which are fairly steep. The CVT did a great job of upshifting/downshifting to maintain speed without laboring. Again...I was really impressed.
- Electronics. Extremely intuitive and easy to use on the road. The stereo is amazing with the Deluxe Touring package and the kids enjoyed the TVs immensely. Even in the little towns we passed through, the Nav had restaurants, gas stations, and accurate directions.
- Space. We folded down the 3d row to accomodate the kneeboard, tube, and large cooler, but there was ample space to have packed for several days.
Improvement Opportunities
- Navigation programming. For as smart as this vehicle is, you'd think when it detects a passenger in the right seat, it would allow full use of the Nav system. I know from previous ownership that this is a Nissan thing. It would be nice to be able to type in a specific address while the vehicle is moving. I couldn't get the Infiniti Connection to work at the lake (no reception). Thinking about it now, I believe you can give voice commands of a specific address while moving, but that didn't occur to me at the time, so I didn't test that.
- Rear Entertainment. I first tried to plug in the PS3 for the rear aux. It wouldn't power up. I don't know if my PS3 may have issues or if the voltage it detected from the invertor wasn't stable enough and it shut itself off. We ended up plugging an external DVD in and it worked fine.
- Rear Entertainment, Part II. Maybe this is nitpicky, but if you're going to have the ability to show different sources on each screen, it would make sense to include two DVD players. I felt pretty dumb rigging up a bulky household DVD player to the system before we left.
- Rear Entertainment, Part III. This is probably really nitpicky, but I also felt a little 1980s digging out the DVD collection to bring along. Why not give us a removable hard drive we could sync with iTunes/Netflix/etc to bring along on the trip? Maybe the USB drive input will do this. I'll have to experiment more before the next trip.
- Clean-up. As beautiful as the JX is from the front, all of those curves/openings make it challenging to get the bugs out after a trip. I also noticed the chrome door handles show a lot of dirt/grubby handprints.
Overall, we couldn't be happier with our purchase. When it comes to performance/comfort/fuel efficiency/capabilities, we've never owned a vehicle that did all of these so well. If 80% of my complaints are about accessories and the other 20% my laziness in car washing, it must be a solid vehicle!
Good:
- The ride. After 5 hours in the JX on the way home (traffic/back roads/dropping off kids' friends), I was ready for 5 more. The seats are supportive yet cushy, the suspension is soft yet feels connected with the road, and the space inside made it relaxing for 2 adults/3 teens along with a 3d row of boating needs.
- Gas mileage. Averaged 22.8 round trip which included some highway, some traffic, lots of back roads, and a few short trips. Was in normal or sport mode the whole time.
- Transmission. The CVT takes a little getting used to, but the power is there when needed. I didn't realize that there is a manual side of the transmission until this trip. While following the idiot in the Camaro going 60 in a 70 in the left lane of the highway, I knocked the transmission over to the left, it "downshifted" and we took off. I was still trying to figure out exactly what happened as I realized I was doing 90. Impressive.
- Transmission Pt. II. Out by the lake, it's a series of up and down hills, some of which are fairly steep. The CVT did a great job of upshifting/downshifting to maintain speed without laboring. Again...I was really impressed.
- Electronics. Extremely intuitive and easy to use on the road. The stereo is amazing with the Deluxe Touring package and the kids enjoyed the TVs immensely. Even in the little towns we passed through, the Nav had restaurants, gas stations, and accurate directions.
- Space. We folded down the 3d row to accomodate the kneeboard, tube, and large cooler, but there was ample space to have packed for several days.
Improvement Opportunities
- Navigation programming. For as smart as this vehicle is, you'd think when it detects a passenger in the right seat, it would allow full use of the Nav system. I know from previous ownership that this is a Nissan thing. It would be nice to be able to type in a specific address while the vehicle is moving. I couldn't get the Infiniti Connection to work at the lake (no reception). Thinking about it now, I believe you can give voice commands of a specific address while moving, but that didn't occur to me at the time, so I didn't test that.
- Rear Entertainment. I first tried to plug in the PS3 for the rear aux. It wouldn't power up. I don't know if my PS3 may have issues or if the voltage it detected from the invertor wasn't stable enough and it shut itself off. We ended up plugging an external DVD in and it worked fine.
- Rear Entertainment, Part II. Maybe this is nitpicky, but if you're going to have the ability to show different sources on each screen, it would make sense to include two DVD players. I felt pretty dumb rigging up a bulky household DVD player to the system before we left.
- Rear Entertainment, Part III. This is probably really nitpicky, but I also felt a little 1980s digging out the DVD collection to bring along. Why not give us a removable hard drive we could sync with iTunes/Netflix/etc to bring along on the trip? Maybe the USB drive input will do this. I'll have to experiment more before the next trip.
- Clean-up. As beautiful as the JX is from the front, all of those curves/openings make it challenging to get the bugs out after a trip. I also noticed the chrome door handles show a lot of dirt/grubby handprints.
Overall, we couldn't be happier with our purchase. When it comes to performance/comfort/fuel efficiency/capabilities, we've never owned a vehicle that did all of these so well. If 80% of my complaints are about accessories and the other 20% my laziness in car washing, it must be a solid vehicle!
