1997 Infiniti QX4 The Pathfinder goes uptown. By Tony Swan, New Car Test Drive .com

If you're one of the many who love the coddling that goes with any visit to

an Infiniti dealership, but you're in the market for a sport-utility, take

heart. With the arrival of the new Infiniti QX4 you can have both.

And you can probably thank your Infiniti dealer for this addition to

the lineup. In recent years the purveyors of Nissan's luxury cars have

been wistfully watching the steady growth of the luxury sport-utility market,

particularly the sales that were lost to the new entries from Acura and

Lexus.

In particular, the incremental uptick in sales that went to Honda's

Acura division, when it added a rebadged version of the Isuzu Trooper to

its lineup, provoked a howl from the Infiniti dealer body.

The dealer outcry, obviously, did not go unheeded. During the development

of the popular Pathfinder, Nissan also worked out a parallel plan for an

upscale version to wear an Infiniti badge. And here it is.