Today saw two small but stunning developments in the rightful victory of crossovers over cars: Infiniti’s US department killed the Q30 and they folded it into the QX30. This leads to two more interesting outcomes.
The first is that the QX30 will be offered bizarrely with three different ride heights: low, medium, and high.
- low will be called the QX30S
- medium will be called the QX30
- high will be called the QX30 AWD
The QX30, as CNET reports, is just what the rest of the world will call the Q30. No change there other than the badge on the car.
The QX30S is just a sportier version of the Q30 with new wheels, tires, shocks, and the like.
The QX30 AWD—that’s the one that Infiniti was going to call the QX30. It sits a bit taller than the car-formerly-known-as-the-Q30, and it will get the usual plastic body cladding like you’d see on an Audi Allroad or a 1990s Pontiac.
Here’s how the Q30/QX30 and the QX30/QX30AWD look side-by-side.
This is a wonderful and wise decision, leaving Infiniti’s naming silliness aside.
The formerly-Q30 and the formerly-QX30 were virtually identical. It makes sense to consolidate them. The Mercedes A-Class/GLA bullshit is gone, replaced with Subaru Impreza/Impreza Crosstrek sensibility. And it also makes sense to prioritize the crossover and banish the bane of longer/lower/wider design to past where it belongs.
This is a symbolic victory for more comfortable, practical, sensible and tall designs over the low ones en vogue since GM’s Harley Earl took over car design in the 1930s through ‘50s.
Photo credits: Máté Petrány (top), Infiniti (side-by-side)
Contact the author at raphael@jalopnik.com.