Special FX!
Written: Dec 12 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sporty, Powerful, Lot's of amenities and features, Best in Class
Cons: Too sporty for some, too many features for some
The Bottom Line: Two strong thumbs up for an excellent all-around vehicle. Power, handling, comfort and decent gas mileage, can't ask for much more. FXcellent!
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| KenDude's Full Review: 2003 Infiniti FX |
We purchased an Infiniti FX45 with the Tech package (which includes the Sport Package as part of the Tech Package) in January of 2003 (Our car was a December 02 build, one of the first off the line, some people might worry about this, we didn't)
The list of features is almost endless so I'll send you to the Infiniti.com website to get the laundry list. I know that in 2004 they are breaking up the packages so you can buy some things separately like the Nav system without having to get the rear seat DVD system. That didn't matter to us as we wanted them all, or features we didn't know about like the laser guided cruise control we have come to love! If you haven't driven a car with this system on the highway you owe it to yourself to do so, makes long trips on the highway much less tedious.
We've put almost 20,000 miles on our FX in the first year, using it primarily as a commuter we've averaged 18mpg with the FX45 V8. We've taken several long trips in the car (500 mile plus) and the vehicle has been great on those trips.
We chose a black FX45 with the brick-black interior combo and we get a lot of nice compliments from both friends and strangers on how good this looks and so far both are holding up nicely. I use Zaino Brothers wax on the black car and it keeps it from getting swirl marks and I use Lexol on the leather or sometimes Zaino's leather in a bottle.
Why did we get the FX as opposed to say the Lexus RX or BMW X5, etc? A few reasons. First, we could get the FX for below invoice because my wife worked at a company that allowed her to use the VPP program from Nissan/Infiniti to buy at employee price. So while the sticker on our FX45 was around 53K, I think we paid something like 46K fully loaded. We couldn't get that from either Lexus or BMW. Second we liked the looks for the FX more than the RX and about the same as the X5. We liked all of the features of the FX better than the RX or the X5 and some features were lacking on the other cars although the RX was close and had a couple of features the FX did not like the self closing hatch. What sealed the deal for us was the sportiness of the FX.
A lot of people think safety involves being able to survive a crash, but the truth of the matter is that if you can avoid the crash altogether you are better off. The acceleration and handling of the FX were head and shoulders above both the RX and the X5. The performance is so good that the Porsche magazine "Excellence" in their review of the Porsche Cayenne said that the Cayenne SHOULD have been more like the Infiniti FX45 (which out performs the Cayenne S in acceleration, handling and braking).
I've heard a lot of people say that if you get performance you must have to give up something like storage space - aka no 3rd row seat. Well let me open the eyes of a few people with the following personal story that happened this past week. My wife had to bring some wrapped boxes to her office for the company holiday party. There were 4 boxes each was 24x24x32 in size. By folding down the rear seat in her FX we were able to put 2 boxes in the FX, about what we expected. We could have placed 3 inside but the last one would have required tieing the hatch down because it wouldn't quite close.
My wife calls a co-worker who brings their Ford Expedition, that's right Expedition, the BIG one, not the Explorer, over to pick up the other 2 boxes. Guess what, they could only put 1 box in the Expedition! Huh? What? Why? Trust me the owner of the Expedition was that confused as well. First the Expedition has 3 rows of seats. Behind the third row they could only fit 1 box as it wasn't quite wide enough to fit 2 and certainly not deep enough behind the third row of seats which had to be folded upwards to allow the box to sit behind it. The problem is with the 3rd row seat folded up, you can't push the box in past that row of seats to get it into the area of the 2nd row. The side doors didn't open up wide enough to let the box in either. So while the Expedition has LOTS of interior space it wasn't "Useable" interior space because of a poor ingress/egress design!
Suffice it to say that in the past year we've never had a space shortage problem for our family in the FX. If we had 4 kids or something well then maybe, but most people with 4 kids are probably driving mini-vans or Expeditions.
Going back to performance for a minute. I drive semi-professionally in auto racing events and have quite a bit of track time under my belt. For grins we decided to take the FX45 to the track this summer and put it on the 2.5 mile road course to see how it would do. Not only did it hold its own, it was actually faster through the turns than some "performance" cars that were out at the track that day. It would be interesting to see Nissan/Infiniti compete in some SUV event with the FX, especially one focused on on-road more than off-road performance.
Finally, speaking of off-road performance, we've driven our FX45 off-road. Not any serious rock crawling like I might do in a Jeep Wrangler with a lift kit, but the over the hills through the woods, dirt road, gravel road, normal off-pavement stuff and the FX45 did just fine.
So do we have any complaints? Well on certain types of pavement, particularly those with the pavement seams at a certain distance apart you can get a little thump thump thump from the suspension, but in 99+% of the time the FX rides great. It isn't a soft, cushiony, Lexus-style ride, but rather a firm but compliant Porsche-style ride.
Some people have said that all of the electronic controls are confusing, but actually we don't seem to have a problem with them at all. My wife zips through Sirius Satellite radio stations (really nice feature as it is integrated with the car's other systems), AM, FM, CD, DVD, all without a hitch. I would complain that the wireless headphones sometimes can get accidentally turned on which will wear their batteries down prematurely, but AAA batteries are pretty cheap.
There have been 2 service campaigns on the FX, the first involves replacing the rear hatch assembly. We didn't have to have this done because our car was built in Dec of 02 and those FX's don't have the problem (I think it was Feb 03 - May 03 builds, but check with your dealer). The other service campaign involves an airbag reprogram which took service about 30 minutes to do and of course was covered under warranty. Neither one of these were really an issue for us, but I thought I should make readers here aware of them in case they are either owners or intending to buy.
Last, but not least, there are several good sources of information on the web for the Infiniti FX, but one I would recommend is www.freshalloy.com as they have a message forum frequented by FX owners who talk about all sorts of issues. Want to know where to get the best snow tires for your FX? That's the place. Want to watch DVD movies on both video screens at the same time? Check that website, all of the answers are there.
My wife really loves her FX45 and it is one of those SUV's that if I have to borrow it and run to the store I don't mind driving it either because it is very sporty and includes a host of features which appeal to me as a gadget kind of guy. I never knew how much I would like satellite radio until we got it in our FX, now it is something I will look for in any new car.
One other fun little anecdote you might want to try yourself. My wife and I backed the FX out of the garage and got into the back seats, and put in a DVD and watched part of a movie. It was a fun thing to do and probably the closest think to "necking" at the drive-in we've done in a long time. The Bose sound system in the FX45 Tech package is one of the best available in any vehicle.
As a note of comparison my wife's last SUV was a Lexus RX300 (not 330) and the FX45 beats the RX300 in nearly every category but one that surprised us was that the FX45 had a much quieter ride on the highway than did the RX.
A tip for would-be buyers, dealers are overstocked on FX's right now and there are good prices to be had if you look around. Use www.freshalloy.com to get a sense of what others are paying and what sort of deal you can get. These really are great vehicles, if you are like us, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the FX.
(New for 2004 the passenger seat has more adjustments, the roof rails can come in aluminum and a couple of other tweaks and of course separation of some packages, but for the most part very similar to the 2003)
Enjoy!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 46,000
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Epinions.com ID:
KenDude
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
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