I just stepped out of training for the new 2013 Infiniti JX35 crossover, and it was stellar. Big thanks to Philip Ayoub from Infiniti Canada for stopping by 417 Infiniti today and giving us the hands-on tour with the new JX35. There’s so much to talk about here I’m going to just get right to it, we’ll go with a sort of point-form, stream of consciousness form to get it all out!
- We got to try out the world first Backup Collision Intervention (BCI) system, and man, does it ever work! We set up a road cone and tried to back up into it, and the system, as promised, kicked on the appropriate amount of brake force to stop the vehicle completely. It was really cool to see, and everyone who tried it (myself included) were grinning like kids on Christmas morning – it really does, the first time you try it, evoke that gentle sense of wonder that you get when technology reforms your opinion on how something actually can work. This is a world first technology for cars. No other car will literally stop itself. The radar used for the BCI system is actually hidden in the bumper – it’s not those four little dots you see on the backs of cars these days, those dots are for parking assistance. The BCI is it’s own system and it’s hidden behind the bumper. Just fantastic.
- The Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) is actually a radar system now as well, instead of the laser system used by previous Infiniti vehicles. It’s more accurate, senses a wider range of motion, and is a strict improvement – I didn’t know that heading into the training, it’s awesome stuff. I drive a G37x with ICC, and sometimes I have to factor in the laser’s position with my driving when cars come into my lane, and I have to account for it picking up and reflecting off other cars. Snow and rain can sometimes affect my sensor, but the radar sensor that the 2013 Infiniti JX35 now uses won’t have that problem. We took the JX out for a test drive and the system is so good, it had one of our salesmen laughing at how effective it was. It anchored to a truck at 100 km/h on the 417, and when he followed that truck off the highway, the JX kept slowing down all the way, maintaining distance, matching speed, right down below 50 km/h. It was really cool to see!
- The JX35 has excellent reinforcement throughout it’s unibody construction, and it has not one, but TWO transmission cooler/heaters to both cut down on CVT noise in the winter, and allow for a great two capacity of 3,500 lbs.
- I got to sit in the 3rd row of the 2013 Infiniti JX, right back in the 3rd row, and I’m not a tiny guy, I’m 6′, 240 lbs, and it felt roomy and comfortable. I found ample legroom with at least 2-4″ to spare, my own cupholder (one on each side in the back), and this is the great part, there’s actually a separate, exclusive air conditioning unit right in the back there for the 3rd row passengers. Apparently they found that the air coming out of the front, while cool, tended to warm up uncomfortably by the time it got to the 3rd row, so they added separate cooling JUST for the 3rd row and for passenger comfort. I ALSO found back there, that the 3rd row reclines a small degree, so you can lounge back a little, or give exceptionally tall individuals a little extra headroom. I found it super easy to get into, maybe a little less comfy to get out of, I felt like getting out of the JX35 was a bit like getting out of the back of a large or midsized coupe. JX still does that well, regardless, with handles and easy places to step and hold to make the process better.
- Sliding forward the second row was preposterously easy to do. It’s literally one easy to grab and move toggle switch, and then everything sort of falls forward with almost no effort at all. Really, really well thought out design. Collapsing the 3rd row from the back is ridiculously easy and well-fitting, you pop the headrests down with two pull tabs, and then topple the seats over without any friction or force, and boom, you have a TON of room for cargo. The more I explored back there, the more impressed I was with the design.
- Driving the new JX35 is much in line with what I’ve read online and in other reviews. The CVT is the most refined I’ve ever driven with, and Infiniti maintains that trademark acceleration swell to keep things feeling butter smooth and confident. It’s no race car. It’s a well-powered, fuel-sensible seven seater. It has only as much power as it needs to confidently transport seven people, and it does that exceedingly well. It’s WAY lighter than the competition, some 700-800 lbs. less than the Audi Q7, and it’s got best in class fuel economy to boot.
- Menu system is very much like other current Infiniti vehicles. Smart, smooth controls, buttons AND the touchscreen so you can interact with it however feels right to you. The driver’s seat is a commanding one and you feel very much connected to the interior, it cups and holds you well, things are well within reach and comprehensible. This is the first vehicle from Infiniti to come with Infiniti Connection, which is, in my opinion, the best selling point to the JX35. I love this thing.
- We got a chance to finally, thoroughly explore the Infiniti Connection Plus system, and I am not ashamed to say I’m in love with this thing. I only wish I could get my G37x retrofitted to include these telematics. Aside from a host of emergency, safety and maintenance alerts and options, the geo-fencing and valet modes are truly fantastic to experience. Where do I even start with this? The fencing is done as a radius from an address, and you can fence-in the JX and fence-out the JX from various spots around the city. Don’t want your daughter visiting some boyfriend you dislike? Set a 2km fence around his house, and if she enters that zone with your car, you can choose to get a text message, a phone call, an email, or all three! You can set a speed-limit electronically so that if the speed is exceeded, you get a message about it. Valet mode limits the radius to 0.4 km around the area in which it’s set, so the valets can’t joyride with the vehicle.
- But let’s say you knew all that from other places – I found out today that you can actually send a remote unlock code to the vehicle to, for instance, let your kids or your friends into the car because they forgot their jacket, their bag, their hat. All through an online portal!
- You can customize that same portal to track your favourite sports teams, best news feeds, important stocks, and have that information dynamically delivered to your JX.
- My favourite feature is the concierge service. You can call anytime, for ANYTHING, and there’s no limit to it’s use, you can everyday or every hour. How many times are you with friends in the car, decide to do something, and someone has to look up the address on their smartphone? Or you’re arguing with someone about this fact or that, and you need to turn to google to verify who’s correct? We use google sometimes dozens of times every day, and the Infiniti Personal Assistant will do it for you while you’re driving. It’ll make recommendations, answer ANY questions you have, chat with you, provide you turn by turn directions and stay on the line with you even if you are driving across the country, you name it. This feature is strictly amazing, and I can only hope that all future product releases from Infiniti take advantage of it. Infiniti Connection and Infiniti Connection Plus will be available for free for the first year of ownership, and will then be available as a subscription, for something like $350-$400/year.
Everything is worked through an online portal you can access with a computer, smartphone, whatever you like. It’s secure and protected like any site you’d make a purchase, with SSL encryption. It’s well laid out, easy to understand, and simple to operate, with nice graphics and a well-thought-out layout. You can even program your navigation remotely from the computer, adding in addresses and points of interest on your computer, instead of having to sit in the JX35 and type it all in manually.
- Mind you, sitting inside, the interior of the JX35 is no punishment. Everything in this car is soft touch, smooth, sensual, and comfortable. Sitting up in the driver’s seat is bliss. The leather trim is supple and feels rich, and the wood accents are dark, unintrusive to the eye, but pleasant as a luxury touch, and they don’t dominate the experience. The impression you’re left with is one of status and luxury, and the only disappointment is getting out of the 2013 Infiniti JX35.
Maybe this all seems like high praise, and maybe I’ve just been working with the JX35 so much over the last few months that I’ve indoctrinated myself as to it’s merits. All I can say to that argument is, come drive the new JX35 and tell me I’m wrong. I am STILL encountering new things to love about the JX, and I’ve been writing about it and designing advertisements for it for months now. I come away from my first, in-person experience of the JX with a sense of confidence – this 7-passenger crossover was designed from the ground up to be Infiniti’s best attempt at creating a luxury family vehicle that does everything for everyone, and it hits all the high notes, and avoids all the lows. It’s spectacular, it’s beautiful, it’s stylish and sublime. Drop by 417 Infiniti in Ottawa, ON today and get your pre-order in now, we’ve got 11 pre-orders at the moment and I think we’re allotted just 15 of these beautiful SUVs for the first deployment, so get your order in while the supply lasts. This IS your next family vehicle, and it’s a winner.
Original Article:
http://www.417infiniti.com/blog/infiniti-jx-little-known-facts-417-infiniti-in-ottawa-on/
- We got to try out the world first Backup Collision Intervention (BCI) system, and man, does it ever work! We set up a road cone and tried to back up into it, and the system, as promised, kicked on the appropriate amount of brake force to stop the vehicle completely. It was really cool to see, and everyone who tried it (myself included) were grinning like kids on Christmas morning – it really does, the first time you try it, evoke that gentle sense of wonder that you get when technology reforms your opinion on how something actually can work. This is a world first technology for cars. No other car will literally stop itself. The radar used for the BCI system is actually hidden in the bumper – it’s not those four little dots you see on the backs of cars these days, those dots are for parking assistance. The BCI is it’s own system and it’s hidden behind the bumper. Just fantastic.
- The Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) is actually a radar system now as well, instead of the laser system used by previous Infiniti vehicles. It’s more accurate, senses a wider range of motion, and is a strict improvement – I didn’t know that heading into the training, it’s awesome stuff. I drive a G37x with ICC, and sometimes I have to factor in the laser’s position with my driving when cars come into my lane, and I have to account for it picking up and reflecting off other cars. Snow and rain can sometimes affect my sensor, but the radar sensor that the 2013 Infiniti JX35 now uses won’t have that problem. We took the JX out for a test drive and the system is so good, it had one of our salesmen laughing at how effective it was. It anchored to a truck at 100 km/h on the 417, and when he followed that truck off the highway, the JX kept slowing down all the way, maintaining distance, matching speed, right down below 50 km/h. It was really cool to see!
- The JX35 has excellent reinforcement throughout it’s unibody construction, and it has not one, but TWO transmission cooler/heaters to both cut down on CVT noise in the winter, and allow for a great two capacity of 3,500 lbs.
- I got to sit in the 3rd row of the 2013 Infiniti JX, right back in the 3rd row, and I’m not a tiny guy, I’m 6′, 240 lbs, and it felt roomy and comfortable. I found ample legroom with at least 2-4″ to spare, my own cupholder (one on each side in the back), and this is the great part, there’s actually a separate, exclusive air conditioning unit right in the back there for the 3rd row passengers. Apparently they found that the air coming out of the front, while cool, tended to warm up uncomfortably by the time it got to the 3rd row, so they added separate cooling JUST for the 3rd row and for passenger comfort. I ALSO found back there, that the 3rd row reclines a small degree, so you can lounge back a little, or give exceptionally tall individuals a little extra headroom. I found it super easy to get into, maybe a little less comfy to get out of, I felt like getting out of the JX35 was a bit like getting out of the back of a large or midsized coupe. JX still does that well, regardless, with handles and easy places to step and hold to make the process better.
- Sliding forward the second row was preposterously easy to do. It’s literally one easy to grab and move toggle switch, and then everything sort of falls forward with almost no effort at all. Really, really well thought out design. Collapsing the 3rd row from the back is ridiculously easy and well-fitting, you pop the headrests down with two pull tabs, and then topple the seats over without any friction or force, and boom, you have a TON of room for cargo. The more I explored back there, the more impressed I was with the design.
- Driving the new JX35 is much in line with what I’ve read online and in other reviews. The CVT is the most refined I’ve ever driven with, and Infiniti maintains that trademark acceleration swell to keep things feeling butter smooth and confident. It’s no race car. It’s a well-powered, fuel-sensible seven seater. It has only as much power as it needs to confidently transport seven people, and it does that exceedingly well. It’s WAY lighter than the competition, some 700-800 lbs. less than the Audi Q7, and it’s got best in class fuel economy to boot.
- Menu system is very much like other current Infiniti vehicles. Smart, smooth controls, buttons AND the touchscreen so you can interact with it however feels right to you. The driver’s seat is a commanding one and you feel very much connected to the interior, it cups and holds you well, things are well within reach and comprehensible. This is the first vehicle from Infiniti to come with Infiniti Connection, which is, in my opinion, the best selling point to the JX35. I love this thing.
- We got a chance to finally, thoroughly explore the Infiniti Connection Plus system, and I am not ashamed to say I’m in love with this thing. I only wish I could get my G37x retrofitted to include these telematics. Aside from a host of emergency, safety and maintenance alerts and options, the geo-fencing and valet modes are truly fantastic to experience. Where do I even start with this? The fencing is done as a radius from an address, and you can fence-in the JX and fence-out the JX from various spots around the city. Don’t want your daughter visiting some boyfriend you dislike? Set a 2km fence around his house, and if she enters that zone with your car, you can choose to get a text message, a phone call, an email, or all three! You can set a speed-limit electronically so that if the speed is exceeded, you get a message about it. Valet mode limits the radius to 0.4 km around the area in which it’s set, so the valets can’t joyride with the vehicle.
- But let’s say you knew all that from other places – I found out today that you can actually send a remote unlock code to the vehicle to, for instance, let your kids or your friends into the car because they forgot their jacket, their bag, their hat. All through an online portal!
- You can customize that same portal to track your favourite sports teams, best news feeds, important stocks, and have that information dynamically delivered to your JX.
- My favourite feature is the concierge service. You can call anytime, for ANYTHING, and there’s no limit to it’s use, you can everyday or every hour. How many times are you with friends in the car, decide to do something, and someone has to look up the address on their smartphone? Or you’re arguing with someone about this fact or that, and you need to turn to google to verify who’s correct? We use google sometimes dozens of times every day, and the Infiniti Personal Assistant will do it for you while you’re driving. It’ll make recommendations, answer ANY questions you have, chat with you, provide you turn by turn directions and stay on the line with you even if you are driving across the country, you name it. This feature is strictly amazing, and I can only hope that all future product releases from Infiniti take advantage of it. Infiniti Connection and Infiniti Connection Plus will be available for free for the first year of ownership, and will then be available as a subscription, for something like $350-$400/year.
Everything is worked through an online portal you can access with a computer, smartphone, whatever you like. It’s secure and protected like any site you’d make a purchase, with SSL encryption. It’s well laid out, easy to understand, and simple to operate, with nice graphics and a well-thought-out layout. You can even program your navigation remotely from the computer, adding in addresses and points of interest on your computer, instead of having to sit in the JX35 and type it all in manually.
- Mind you, sitting inside, the interior of the JX35 is no punishment. Everything in this car is soft touch, smooth, sensual, and comfortable. Sitting up in the driver’s seat is bliss. The leather trim is supple and feels rich, and the wood accents are dark, unintrusive to the eye, but pleasant as a luxury touch, and they don’t dominate the experience. The impression you’re left with is one of status and luxury, and the only disappointment is getting out of the 2013 Infiniti JX35.
Maybe this all seems like high praise, and maybe I’ve just been working with the JX35 so much over the last few months that I’ve indoctrinated myself as to it’s merits. All I can say to that argument is, come drive the new JX35 and tell me I’m wrong. I am STILL encountering new things to love about the JX, and I’ve been writing about it and designing advertisements for it for months now. I come away from my first, in-person experience of the JX with a sense of confidence – this 7-passenger crossover was designed from the ground up to be Infiniti’s best attempt at creating a luxury family vehicle that does everything for everyone, and it hits all the high notes, and avoids all the lows. It’s spectacular, it’s beautiful, it’s stylish and sublime. Drop by 417 Infiniti in Ottawa, ON today and get your pre-order in now, we’ve got 11 pre-orders at the moment and I think we’re allotted just 15 of these beautiful SUVs for the first deployment, so get your order in while the supply lasts. This IS your next family vehicle, and it’s a winner.
Original Article:
http://www.417infiniti.com/blog/infiniti-jx-little-known-facts-417-infiniti-in-ottawa-on/