Infiniti JX35 review: the one-year badge that quietly became the QX60
3.1/5MotorsSouq Editorial Team
Do not let the unfamiliar JX35 name scare off a fair price, but do not ignore the CVT either. Insist on documented CVT fluid changes before buying, treat a car without that history as a near-term transmission risk, and remember that today's QX60 (2022 onward, reviewed separately) is an entirely different, redesigned generation with none of this car's transmission concerns.
Pros
- Mechanically identical to the well-known early QX60, so parts and knowledge are shared
- Genuinely usable third-row access for a crossover of this era
- Naming confusion often means a fair, sometimes below-market asking price
- V6 power is adequate for causeway and highway cruising
Cons
- CVT has a well-documented reliability risk without regular fluid changes
- Extremely rare badge means fewer comparable listings to benchmark price against
- Cabin tech and materials are unremarkable even for the model year
- Weak brand recognition of the JX name hurts resale despite being the same car as the QX60
Infiniti sold its new three-row crossover as the JX35 for exactly one model year, 2013, before renaming it QX60 for 2014 as part of the brand's global naming overhaul. Nothing mechanical changed in that rename; the JX35 and the 2014-2016 QX60 share the same platform, the same VQ35DE V6, and the same continuously variable transmission borrowed from the contemporary Nissan Pathfinder.
Why the name matters to a buyer
A shopper searching Bahrain's used listings for QX60 will miss the handful of JX35-badged cars entirely, and one searching for JX35 may not realise that a 2014 QX60 listing is functionally the same generation. Understanding this history is worth more to a used buyer here than most spec-sheet details, because it directly affects which listings you should be cross-shopping against each other.
The CVT is the one component that deserves real scepticism regardless of badge. This generation's continuously variable transmission has a well-documented history of premature wear and failure when fluid changes are skipped, and it is the single biggest mechanical risk on any car from this generation, JX35 or early QX60 alike.
Everything else about the car is competent rather than exciting: a comfortable if unremarkable cabin, genuinely usable third-row access for the era, and a V6 that is adequate without being memorable. None of that changes the transmission calculus; buy on documented CVT service history first, and treat everything else as secondary.