First Drive: 2008 Infiniti EX35

Recently, a few of us from Cars.com were lucky enough to spend some time in Infiniti’s new EX35 compact SUV. While we didn’t have enough time to develop a full review — expect one closer to the car’s on-sale date — we did have some initial thoughts on the driving experience.

• The weird thing about the EX35 is that it truly handles like a car, more specifically, it handles a lot like the Infiniti G35, right down to the roughness you would expect from a sports sedan, not an SUV. The Acura RDX has a similar ride, so you can’t really dock points there. The interior is really nice. Infiniti is going with an opulent look with lots of detail in the upholstery, which is unusual. Tech features like the Around View Monitor and Lane Departure Prevention worked the way you would want them to and were surprisingly natural to the driver.

  The real downside of the EX35 is the lack of SUV-ness. It doesn’t ride like an SUV and the cargo area is tiny and not too utilitarian, even when the rear seats are folded. I’m left thinking Infiniti built a nicer-equipped and finished G35, not a great small SUV.  — David Thomas

• Like Dave, I found the EX35 and Infiniti G35 sport sedan similar in many ways. Both models share the same platform and have a sport-tuned ride and weighty steering that’s conducive to performance driving. Each one also has a strong 3.5-liter V-6 engine and an upscale interior. Think of the EX35 as a hatchback version of the G35.

  Where the EX stands apart from the G is with its technology features, though they’re likely to spread across the Infiniti lineup in the future. The Around View Monitor uses strategically positioned cameras to show what’s happening on each side of the EX35, and Lane Departure Prevention gives the crossover a gentle tug to keep it in its lane if it begins drifting across the center line. LDP is an impressive technology achievement in and of itself, but more importantly it’s a safety feature with real potential to prevent head-on collisions. — Mike Hanley

• With its low resolution and distorted camera views, the Around View Monitor is far from attractive, but it works like a charm: Never again will you have to steer perilously close to another car in a parking lot and straighten out at the last moment to end up with equal distances to each side. It seems a lot like the first navigation systems – crudely animated, but a godsend all the same.

  If Lane Departure Prevention seems like a thinly veiled Big Brother system, rest assured it’s quite subtle. Like Mike, all I noticed was a slight tug from the brakes as the car snuck back into its lane. It could prove useful on a highway with high crosswinds. Approach a curve or turn the wheel – Infiniti says there’s a two-degree threshold – and the system cancels itself. If you think of it as a gutter guard to keep the EX on the straight and narrow, you’ll soon overrun its limits. It works best when you drive like it isn’t there, and in most situations it probably won’t factor in at all. In an age of rampant litigation, that might be the best approach. — Kelsey Mays

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Video: 2008 Infiniti EX35 (KickingTires)