2008 Infiniti QX gets a hard drive-based nav and sound system

Detroit (MI) - Infiniti announced its second car that will use a 2.5" hard drive to store digital music. The firm’s refreshed SUV monster, the QX model, will offer a hard drive as storage unit for digital music as standard equipment for the 2008 model year, which will go on sale in April.

According to the manufacturer, the new standard "Premium Audio System" consists of Bose Speakers and a Burr-Brown Digital Audio Converter. 9.5 GB are available for digital music storage (the remaining space of the 30 GB drive is used up by other software as well as a navigation system). There’s also a compact flash slot, from which MP3 files can be played.

The car itself got slightly revised new front and rear fascias and now comes 20" chromed aluminum-alloy wheels to go along with your MP3 music. Pricing of the 320 hp SUV was not announced, but expect a visible increase over the $49,950 base price of the 2007 model.

Interior of the 2008 Infiniti QX

Hard drive-based audio systems are becoming more and more common in the car industry - and not only in the luxury segment. For example, several models of the Chrysler family offer the "MyGig" system and Mitsubishi recently launched a hard drive-based music/navigation combination in the 2007 Outlander SUV.