2008 Infiniti FX35 Review Summaries

What reviewers liked most about the Infiniti FX35:

Equipped with Nissan's ubiquitous 3.5-liter V-6, which develops 280 horsepower in this iteration, the FX35's pace is surprisingly close to that of the FX45, which has a much more powerful 315-hp V-8.

-- Car and Driver

A low center of gravity and wide stance helped the FX45 immediately convey a sense of being planted to the road, so much so I boldly took curves and corners at speed.

-- Carpoint.com

Intended as a premium crossover SUV, the FX35/45 offers some of the best qualities of a car and an SUV all in one package and with little compromise.

-- Edmunds.com

They can be driven much harder than traditional sport-utilities, with big, powerful brakes and firm, fully independent suspensions.

-- New Car Test Drive

What reviewers liked least about the Infiniti FX35:

This also means, of course, that for serious off-roading the FX45 is not worth a cheetah's furball. Or we assume it's not, since Infiniti didn't let us take it off-road during our day's drive.

-- AutoWeek

At 30.6 inches, the load height is higher than that in some other SUVs.

-- New Car Test Drive

Infiniti FX35 Comparisons:

Yes, at 65.0 inches high, it does stand some seven inches taller than a Ford Taurus station wagon. And at 189.1 inches long, it is about eight inches shorter than the Taurus wagon. So the FX does possess proper SUV proportions.

-- Car and Driver

Note the broad price range here [between the FX35 and FX45], with some $10,000 variation. This means the FX competes both with competitors like the Acura MDX that only offer V6 power and are priced in the mid $30,000s as well as competitors with V8s, like BMW's X5 4.4i, which is in the $50,000 range.

-- Carpoint.com

The FX45 can zip from 0 to 60 mph in slightly more than 6 seconds, while the Porsche Cayenne S takes nearly 0.2 second longer.

-- New Car Test Drive

Best one-liner about the Infiniti FX35:

The FX45 is (we are not making this up) a "Bionic Cheetah" We assume that Bionic Cheetah beat out "Mechanical Marsupial," which would have been our choice.

-- AutoWeek

The cabin remains quiet, but we found ourselves rolling the rear window down for no other reason than to hear the V8's exhaust note.

-- Edmunds.com

Like any self-respecting, SUV-hating group of automotive journalists, we were all set to hate both the Infiniti FX35 and the more powerful FX45. Then we drove them.

-- New Car Test Drive