For months I've had my heart set on buying a QX80 after renting one for a trip. Over the weekend, I decided to rent one again for a road trip. This time, I tried to drive it to places I would normally go on a daily basis and paid attention to it in more details. Maybe I'm a little nit picking but for a "Flag ship" vehicle I expected a little more.

Vehicle driven: 2016 QX80 with 1100 miles with 20" rims

1. The build quality feels very thin, sheet metal feels rather weak. Particular the doors when you're closing it. The sound and feel is very hollow.
2. The wind noise is ok when you're cruising 65-75 but anything above that, you can really hear the wind (perhaps this is an aerodynamic issue of a large vehicle)
3. This one in particular I don't think have the air suspension, it felt very truck like (I do have to say, this vehicle seems to have bad wheels balance and a very slight alignment problem, not sure how much of an affect it will have on the suspension)
4. Road noise - I hear quite a bit of it over certain road conditions. I don't hear these kind of noise on the same roads in my S550 with 22's and 25 series tires
5. More of a personal thing but I wish the interior had ambient lighting at night. There's a light on the door handle but I wish there's at least ambient lights in the foot well. (Maybe I'm used to the all around LED ambient lighting in my S550, I'm basically comparing most of this to what I'm driving now since the QX will replace it)
6. The cameras are very low res, it's very difficult to tell what's behind and around you. The 360 view is nice but I find myself always looking back just to make sure.
7. Going into parking lot is not quite as simple as it should be, the view is obstructed and parking is quite a challenge. (I tow a boat with my Suburban so driving large vehicle isn't really an issue here)


I want a QX because of a growing family but that also means I have to trade my weekend car for it so I'm a little anal in selection. The first two QX I drove I really enjoyed maybe because I wasn't all that serious about buying one and maybe I got a bad QX this time? Perhaps a long time owner can tell me different. All of the above mentioned were some of the discussion the wife and I was talking about on the 700 miles trip.

no one should or needs to convince you to get this car or not. at the end of the day the car needs to satisfy YOUR expectations, and not anyone else's.

it falls short in the areas you deem important, so why reach out online for someone to justify (or not) your decision?

there are many other alternatives out there that you can try out. that is a great thing and I wish you much success in finding what works for you and your family, because clearly the Qx ain't it...

no one should or needs to convince you to get this car or not. at the end of the day the car needs to satisfy YOUR expectations, and not anyone else's.

it falls short in the areas you deem important, so why reach out online for someone to justify (or not) your decision?

there are many other alternatives out there that you can try out. that is a great thing and I wish you much success in finding what works for you and your family, because clearly the Qx ain't it...

If it were me, I would be comparing the QX80 to other vehicles in its class....