Very Un-impressive FX35

[bgsquad]

Yesterday we were going for a day at the mountains, and after car pooling, i was riding with my friend in his FX35. I asked him if i could drive it, just to see how is it to drive an FX35... below is the feedback:

The first thing that strikes (besides the little gas pedale that feels terrible under a big boot) is the dumb transmission. The car is always shifting to the upper gear, despite being driving uphills. It's just so plain stupid, like the old 98' pathfinder I had. so with a little push on the throttle, the car barely moves with the fourth or fifth gear @ 40-50mph climbing uphills... so I had to push on the throttle to shift to second gear... and to my great surprise, or shock shall i say... it takes a whole second to kick in the second gear!!! OMG!! my conclusion is that the trans is crappy, and you have to shift to manual mode to have some intelligent control.... oh how much i love the intelligent sport mode of my X5 I can't remove my smile of my face when i reach a curve so fast, and when i start applying the break the gear shifts down by itself and holds it really long ... or when i push the throttle and the X shifts down in a fraction of a second.. this readiness and sportiness is so absent in the FX...

Now the handling... can you believe that it feels somehow boaty? the floating feeling is due to some soft and non precise suspension and steering... i did not expect that... What I did like about the steering however, is the resistance while turning: the X5 has no resistance and you have to negotiate the curve by relying on your feel of the steering wheel that accurately translates the road and the behavior of the vehicle (sport package, 18'') while the FX gives you a nice call-back that somehow helps you negotiate the curve... so it's better for novice i think (spirited drivers can give their inpute here) and the small steering wheel is cute.

Braking... it's obious that the rotors are so small for a 2000KG vehicle, and comparing to the X, it's like half... but what they did to cover over that, is a smart (??) re-maping of the brake pedal: as soon as you put your foot on it, you feel like jumping of the windshield.. this gives the illusion of strengh, but actually it's just "early reaction"...

Sitting position: like you're drowning... not the dominant and spacious position of the X... not even close... not to mention the plasticcccc all around

Conclusion: infiniti made a car that has the power (more HP than my 3.0) and can mimick or simulate a sporty car, but it's far from being an authentic one (belive it or not!) So if in a straight 0-60 line pull, the FX can do a 0.5 seconds better than my X5 3.0, I think it's just a minor advantage when you think of it as a whole and as a driving experience and ride quality (even this 0.5 seconds is insignificant in a real time spirited diriving where shifting gears tens of times and negotiating tens of curves play the decisive role)

Guys, we are so lucky to have the X5s... we did the right choice!