It’s New Years Eve and what better way to send 2018 packing than with a Nice Price or Crack Pipe Infiniti QX70 that’s packing some seriously customized bodywork? Let’s find out if its worth what its builder wants.
If you’re anything like me—and I’m pretty sure that you are—then you’ve spent a good bit of your life seeking extravagance without the onus of what that extravagance typically costs. You can often do so by buying used, refurbished, or perhaps last year’s model. Each strategy allows you the experience without quite so much the cost.
That happened to be the premise of last Friday’s 2001 Mercedes Benz CL500, a car that, nearly two decades back, would have cost six figures and represented the pinnacle of Benz Booshiness. At just $3,250 today, it’s a window into that preferred lifestyle at a mere fraction of the cost.
The opportunity proved enough for most of you, despite that CL’s obvious flaws, and the high-mileage coupe carried home a narrow but decisive 56 percent Nice Price win.
That Benz reminded me of a poem I read as a kid but which, not knowing the name of, nor its author, I have sadly not been able to revisit since. What I remember is its final stanza, which goes “Oh to live the life of Reilly, if only for a day… Oh to live the life of Reilly, while Reilly is a way.”
I found the juxtaposition of that last line to the rest of the piece hysterical, and I must say the idea of someone pining over taking on the trappings of an envied acquaintance while they are elsewhere still gives me the giggles.
The question of course, is what happens when Reilly gets back? The poem’s author has experienced that taste of the better life, could he then go back to a lesser existence and not feel an even greater longing?
In a similar vein, once you’ve experienced today’s custom 2017 Infiniti QX70 ‘Renegade Edition’ could you ever willingly go back to a regular old QX70?
Offered up as one of one by its builder, Creative Bespoke, this QX70 looks pretty badass. It’s like something Batman might use to drop off the Batkids for soccer practice. The work done includes replacement of the bumpers, grille and hood, and the addition of some serious fender extensions. Under those sit a set of black-painted 22-inch Giovanna wheels riding on width-extending spacers.
The car is wrapped in 3M satin vinyl and the whole thing is said have cost $33,000 on top of the QX70 to which all the work has been applied.
The custom work is mostly all visual, with no changes having been made to the mechanicals outside of those wheel spacers. Those might change the suspension geometry and hence affect steering and handling.
Power comes from a 325 horsepower VQ37VHR V6, the same peaky mill that gives the Nissan 370Z its name. The car is RWD-only which saves some weight and hence makes it a bit spritelier than its AWD compatriots. Just don’t take it skiing, okay?
A 7-speed automatic with manual mode backs up the hairy 3.7-litre six.
The interior is also completely stock and if you like the somewhat baroque styling Infiniti employs, you’ll feel quite at home here. It appears to be decked out with all the expected accoutrements, and doesn’t look like there’s anything amiss in there. In fact it all looks almost as-new.
This is a used car however, and as such there have been some miles already laid down, 11,822 to be exact. Despite that, it’s still young enough and comes with sufficient remaining odometer rolls, to maintain a few more years of its factory warranty. It also comes with a clear title and the pledge that you’re unlikely to wake up one morning in discovery that your neighbor has bought one too.
What might that all be worth? The asking is a wallet abusing $49,500, and it should be noted that your standard, low-mileage ’17 QX70 will typically go for around exactly half that amount. With the claimed $33K build, that does represent a substantial savings in cash and time in trying to replicate this car. Plus, you could never-ever replicate its one of one-ness.
What do you think, is this custom Renegade QX70 worth the builder’s requested bank? Or, at that much, is this Bespoke edition something better left unsaid?
You decide!
eBay out of Mesa, AZ, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Graverobber for the hookup!
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