Cars.com's Mike Hanley takes a look at the 2009 Infiniti FX35. It competes with the BMW X6 and Lexus RX 350
Transcript
(upbeat music) Hi. I'm Mike Hanley with Cars.com. And I'm here at Road America Race Track in Wisconsin with the 2009 Infiniti FX. The FX was one of the early SUVs to combine the look and performance of a sports car.
And for 2009, the model receives some significant updates. The FX retains the general profile its had before with sleek sloping roof line, but it gets some significant changes to the front. One of them is this new grill design, which has a wave-like appearance, kind of interesting. There's new headlights too. And the car has side vents, which are becoming popular in the automotive industry right now. There's cars of all different types that have them. And we're not sure why really, but Infiniti decided to put them on this one too. The FX is available with two engines. There's a 3.5-liter V6 that goes in the FX35, you see here. It makes 303 horsepower, and it feels plenty strong in this vehicle, which makes me wonder why someone would choose the FX50 with its 5-liter V8, unless you want a vehicle that has 390 horsepower. When you come inside the FX35, you can see Infiniti put a lot of attention into the cabin. It features really nice materials and finishes. And you can see this model here has things like steering wheel paddles for controlling the automatic transmission. And just nice interfaces overall for this vehicle. The back of the FX35 has similar space to what you might find in one of its chief competitors, the BMW X6. Though it does have a little more headroom than the X6 does, it's not quite as claustrophobic is that vehicle. Leg room is good. And the seats reclined too, if you wanna recline them back and take a nap. On the whole, the 2009 Infiniti FX still delivers on giving you sports car like responses in an SUV type package. And it stands up well, even against new competition, like the BMW X6. What may put it over the top for some people is its more affordable price than the $52,000 X6, because it undercuts that by a significant margin. <v Narrator>For additional information on this car or any other, go to cars.com and our blog KickingTires.
