It’s perhaps a bit telling of Japanese luxury brand Infiniti’s wayward stance in 2026 that the company now offers just three vehicles, total. Even I’d mentally conjured that there was a larger lineup, but the days of Infiniti’s actual cars or smaller crossovers is long gone — those models relegated to the leagues of young dudes in older G37s who like illegal window tinting, bad exhaust and too much aftermarket carbon fiber trim.

As Infiniti works to rebuild a status that’s been usurped by brands such as Genesis, the company rolled the dice to create a new, midsized luxury SUV that is similar but not the same as the three-row QX60 — instead, a two-row-only machine with a sloped rear roof. That’s the charming, confusing and maybe-just-right-for-you 2027 Infiniti QX65.

The big push for the QX65 is to overload the new-fangled vehicle with QX90 levels of luxury and gloss, but with a somewhat more approachable size and a $54,000 starting price. To that end, QX65 is just a half-inch larger than QX60, at 198.5 inches, whereas QX90 is a full foot longer and also starts at close to $89,000.

The higher-end Autograph version of the QX65 I drove last weekend did tilt to $71,355, but it had been gifted with the advanced ProPilot Assist 2.1 package, an extra-glossy Radiant White and Black Obsidian two-tone paint job and black roof rails – plus 21-inch aluminum alloy wheels.

The overall result is a very curved and glossy rear roofline that helps give the car its own style. And inside, it’s a truly spectacular space. Mine featured vermilion red-colored quilted and perforated semi-aniline leather seating and equal doses of leather on the console, mid-dash and door pulls. There’s an astoundingly robust massage program in those seats, real open pore ash trim in the cabin, plus the standard 12.3-inch touchscreen mid-dash and another 12.3-inch digital instrument panel. Also available is a Sunfire Red paint job with real flakes of gold to brighten the look.

In keeping with QX90, the better build of the QX65 features a 20-speaker Klipsch audio system with front-headrest speakers, a 10.5-inch color head-up display and a 3D around-view monitor to help make parking easier.  

The 2027 QX65 fills a curious niche that is maybe a little more obvious in a brand like Mercedes-Benz and its literal dozens and dozens of vehicles. Mercedes (for now) makes both box-roofed and coupe-roofed versions of its GLE SUV – but also has more engine and performance choices.

The QX65’s other cognate is the new Mazda CX-70, which is essentially a two-row version of the identical three-row CX-90. You’ll find similar expanded cargo room in the QX65, though rear-seat passengers don’t get much additional room in exchange – the QX65 offers 35.8 cubic feet of room with the seats up, and 67.7 if you drop the second row (Mazda’s two-row reconfiguration means 39.6/75.3 cubes, respectively).

More similar because of its chopped rear roof, the QX65 is a little longer than the 194.5-inch Mercedes GLE Coupe, and more powerful (a 268 hp 2.0-liter turbo) than the base Merc coupe available overseas, or the 255-hp engine found here in the base GLE 350 SUV. 

At altitude, however, the Infiniti could sure benefit from the GLE 450’s 375 horsepower, the AMG GLE 53’s 429-hp boost or the kinda-ridiculous 603-hp kerrang of the AMG GLE 63 S. The QX65’s size makes it a chunky, 4,700-pound ride, and even with a helpful nine-speed transmission, I had to goose it a whole lot to make things happen when going uphill.

Throw it into a hopeful sport mode and the Infiniti’s engine and exhaust become buzzy, but you’ll have to make do by enthusiastically chucking it around on corners and pretending there’s extra boost. We understand an upgraded engine is the first priority when the vehicle is re-revised for its next model year.