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>> It shares DNA with the 370Z and the G37. That sets the bar pretty high for any SUV, and swoopy lines alone won't earn that spot. So let's look around the 2010 Infinity FX35 and check the tech.
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The FX35 is the bigger of Infinity's two highly stylized SUVs, and it appears to come from a completely different company than its big brother, the big, boxy QX56. Our car's combination of midnight mocha over java leather makes you want to eat it like a chocolate.
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Now, FXs have always had cozy cabins. That's one of the reasons they're not tremendously useful SUVs, more of a big sport vehicle. This sloping roofline and that relatively short rump mean this is not a vehicle you're going to be carrying a lot of stuff in, no how, no way. Enough about the ergonomics. Now, here's the star of the show, the LCD on the dash. You get that whether you've got this car with nav or not. Very interesting. It'd be a little smaller if we didn't have nav, and it would have things like audio and climate control and everything else on it, but because we have the nav package, eight-inch touch screen, and really good resolution. Let's look in detail. We've seen this Infinity head unit before. It's one of the better ones. Not at the very top of the stack, but you do have a lot of features going on here. You see the bird's eye view there. We've also got pretty good building rendering in a 3D sort of real world sense, though not a lot of buildings are there. The system is hard drive based, by the way, so you do have 9.3 gigabytes available for media storage. Navigation is easily set because again, you've got the Infinity controller, lots of hardwired buttons, and of course, a touchscreen, though the screen's a little far away. Bring your monkey arms. Lots of audio options on this guy, but again, because we've optioned up to the better head unit with nav and additional media sources. Let's take a look at them. AM and FM radio, no HD, XM is your satellite radio choice, which also provides the traffic and the weather overlays for the nav rig. Over here, on disc aux is where it gets fun. Bluetooth streaming audio. You always have Bluetooth hands free in this car, but you only have the streaming stereo stuff when you get the better head unit, so bear that in mind. Aux jacks, of course, AV aux by the way because this is also a DVD player, not just CD there in that slot. Here's my iPod interface. I've got a connector right here, standard USB. It doesn't require any other cable. That's nice. And of course, DVD playback, as I mentioned, can show up on this screen if you're parked. You can also optional rear seat headrest monitors with their own DVD players in each one. And the output side of this rig is Bose audio system with 11 speakers, surround sound around the cabin. Now, this nav head unit also brings you cameras galore. You have the standard backup camera, of course, a wide view they call with lines that show distance but not trajectory you're steering into. Side mode gives you the look at the curb, which is coming under a side-view, under-mirror mounted camera. And then, of course, the real crowd please is the top view around cam, stitching all the cameras together, front, mirrors, and rear, into the God view. And interestingly enough, in that mode, you do get trajectory prediction.
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Now, our FX is followed by the number 35. That means we've got the V6, 3.5-liter, not the V8 5-liter you can get on the FX50. Work with me here. 303 horsepower, 262 foot-pounds of torque. Good, but not going to blow you away, hence the V8's available. Zero to sixty in a pretty good, but again, not neck snapping 6.6 seconds. And the mileage is also pretty good for a vehicle of 4200 pounds, 16 city, 23 highway. If you get all wheel drive, though, that highway number drops by 2 down to a not so impressive 21.
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The FX tech package includes lane departure warning and prevention at speeds above 45 miles per hour. Also, adaptive cruise control and distance control assist. That last bit of mumbo jumbo will apply the breaks if you're creeping up to close on a car in front of you whether cruise is on or not. Our FX35 is rear wheel drive. You can also get them all wheel drive. Only one choice for a gearbox, so seven speed automatic sport shift, but curiously without paddles. The gearshift goes back and forth in its gate when you want to shift it.
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Okay, on the road, the FX35 basically reminds why there's an FX50. The power is a little under whelming. Yeah, it's a great 3.5-liter V6, and Nissan Infinity do those so well, but pushing 4200 plus pounds of bad coefficient of drag through the air. So things can be little more sluggish than you might like. Not bad, but not overwhelmingly sprightly. A lot can be fixed by using the gearbox properly. Leave it in standard drive mode, full automatic, and it's kind of a slug. Move it over to the sport automatic mode, the DS, and things sharpen up nicely. And then if you mix your own gear by pushing it forward or back, you get a fairly responsive level of powertrain performance. What is given up here, though, is a great suspension. This car doesn't have that. The FX50 has the option of an adaptive suspension, as I recall. This one doesn't. As a result, it feels more like a grand tour with a little more lean than I'd like as opposed to real sport SUV. But for the price, it's not out of its league. All right, let's price a 2010 FX35. Right out the gate, you're close to 44 with destination. Then to get it CNET style, you got to add the navigation package. That's the 3D buildings, the traffic, the weather, hard drive based, some of that hard drive space for your media. Also, Bluetooth streaming is included, DVD playback, and all those cameras around the car, 2800 bucks. 2900 hundred more gets you the tech package, which is mostly collision avoidance and distance control technologies I told you about. And the last big one is the rear seat entertainment rig for 1510, dual monitors, dual DVD playback.
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