I can definitively say that I would like to ride around in it as a passenger every day; seating seven or eight people, it's cush and totally luxurious. As it should be: Padded with plenty of extras, my four-wheel-drive test vehicle came priced at an exorbitant $75,340. I may very well have to choose between this opulent, luxurious SUV and sending my kids to college. College is overrated, don't you think? My zoology degree is doing nothing for me. (Compare the four-wheel-drive version to the slightly less expensive two-wheel-drive version here.)

The QX56 manages to quell the myth that all SUVs are trucky and rugged. Instead, this beauty seeps comfort and luxury from every pore. Its private-jet-inspired interior is draped in gently gathered, buttery-soft leather, with all the extras that even the prissiest prima donnas among us would love. My favorites? Heated and cooled front seats, heated second-row seats for my prissy biological offspring (I say that lovingly), and a heated steering wheel that's just as comforting as warming my hands on a cup of cocoa.

Little has changed between the 2011 and 2012 QX; see the two compared here.

• Exterior
• Family-friendly features
• It's the little things that count
• SENSE AND STYLE
• BEHIND THE WHEEL
• Safety