JohnsRX

Played with a friend's FX, it has 2 faults: A little wide and theres a big hump for the drive shaft in the rear floor pan area.

Other that that, i dont care what anybody says, the FX is a much better car than my 02' RX AWD. No if, buts and brand name nonsense about it.
I am not arguing here, so dont waste time with your opinion, but if the FX was out when i bought mine, i would never have become a Lexus owner...........................and i would be missing out a LOT!

Lexmexico

When I was back in the States a few weeks ago, I tested the FX35.

1. Could not see out the back very well.

2. The interior is gawdy/inferior for the price, but exterior is very nice. Looks like an automotive version of a cheetah.

3. The acceleration is great, but when I played around with its so-called tiptronic, the gears are way off what they should be. Better to leave it in auto.

4. Motorized rear lift gate? Where is it?

5. Could I take this off road? No. One can theoretically take an RX off road with a few mods.

StyleZ

Find it funny how you say your not trying to bring up an arguement in this post and don't care about others opinions. Yet you post this on a RX thread knowing you will get some negative fb for the post Don't get me wrong its a fast and well designed car. I had a choice of getting an rx330 or a fx45 and without a doubt i got the RX cause i know in the long run Lexus > Infiniti. And oh yea! what happen to those rims i asked you about? Your friend never emailed me

j4ydubs

Have you tried the RX330? That's the vehicle you should be comparing it to. Don't quite understand this post? You don't want to argue, but you post anyways? Also, the FX35 (not FX45) is more inline with the RX330 pricing.

But I'll agree with you. Given the choice between a FX45 and an '02 RX300, I'd pick the FX45 also. However, I did have the choice between the FX35/45 and the RX330. I went with the RX330 and would everytime...

John

johnnieliu

My wife and I recently did the FX/RX comparison. Bottom line, I prefered the FX, my wife prefers the RX. FX is more sporty than the RX; the RX is more luxurious than the FX. Both come from a long lineage of quality vehicles. BUT, the RX has the RIGHT mix of sport and luxury. Thus we chose the RX. Depending on how much wieght you give sport and luxury the scale will tip one way or the other.

I'm currently an Infiniti owner, and I have never owned a Lexus untill now(hopefully by this weekend we can pick up our vehicle).

al503

The FX does look nice. However, my current experience with the G35 has soured me on Infiniti for good. I didn't even take a test drive in the FX before getting the RX330. For me, there is absolutely no comparison in terms of quality, fit/finish, and service on all levels.

xsfo

al503
Tell us about your G35 experience. I'm curious about the G35.

al503

You asked for it:
Problems:
Rattles: The G has more rattles (doors, cowl, dashboard, etc.) than a 1 year old baby. I know that all cars have rattles but the out of 5 visits, they either say they're fixed (which they never are) or that they didn't work on them because they couldn't replicate the noise RIGHT BEFORE WORKING ON IT. It didn't matter that I went for a drive with the tech and replicated the problems the day before. If they can't replicate right before, then they won't even take a look even though the problem(s) is so widespread that Infiniti has issued TSB's for them. I got so fed up with it that I bought a copy of the service manual and went after the problems myself. I'm 3 out of 3 that I've tried to fix. They are 0 for 6.

Pull to the right: Some of the G's have a pull to the right. Infiniti has issued a TSB for a defective compression rod in the front suspension for the coupe. They won't issue one for the sedan though even though they admit that the part is exactly the same for both the coupe and sedan. I, as well as many other sedan owners have the pull. All of us have gotten the same mantra for excuses: tire pressure, crown in the road, car is designed that way in case you fall asleep. It's like alien abductees description of the aliens. I've paid for an alignment, bought new wheels and tires (was going to do this anyway) but the pull remains to where I have to keep constant pressure on the steering wheel. My S03's are also wearing out prematurely on the right side.

I had to replace my brake pads at 18K despite the fact that 85-90% of my miles are highway and I'll probably get close to 27K on my S03's. Now they squeek and there is a lot of mention of warped rotors being replaced. My last car was the ES300 that had 50+K on it, driven the same mix of miles that still had 40% left on the pads.

Gas mileage is abominable. (13 city, perhaps 20 on the highway. best ever 21 all highway 60-80 MPH) Just for comparison, I borrowed my sister's LX470 for a week and half. I got just under 18 MPG. My ES would give me close to 30.

Paint chips galore despite no sand or gravel during the winter.

According to my service manager, any mod will void the warranty: one of the excuses I got for not being able to fix the rattles was due to the fact that I had 19" wheels on my car. He said that they could void the warranty work on the rattles if they wanted to.

What else? grease/rubber streak on the windows. HVAC display and CD changer is possessed. Stretched leather despite judicious use of lexol. AC compressor sounds like a buzz saw and saps a lot of power. TSB was issued on this one but the tech didn't think it was loud enough for a fix.

Other than the above, the car is great. My first, and last Infiniti. It'll be gone as soon as the new GS comes out. I won't stray from Lexus again.

In contrast, ES300, no rattles or problems except for a tailight bulb that would go out every year. RX330: 1 rattle taken care of the first time. No other problems.

If you've read this far, give yourself an Oreo. It does feel good to vent though.

parula

Al503, thanks for the info and warning on the G35. Do you have lemon law claims there man?

al503

Yes, I'm an attorney so that's the first thing I checked out when all of these problems surfaced. I checked out the lemon laws for Oregon and Washington because I live in Oregon and bought the car in Washington. Neither state's laws could help because I fell into a crack in coverage.

To avail yourself of Washington law, you must have registered the car there. Oregon law requires you to actually purchase the car in Oregon. So, my situation is not addressed and I was SOL. My service advisor at Infiniti didn't know about this and kept telling me "OK you have about 27 more days (etc.) in the shop until you can try to get the car lemmoned." That didn't give me much of a warm fuzzy.

In all fairness, there are a lot of G owners out there who love the car. Despite all of the problems, it is a blast to drive.

mbmorgan

Had the chance to dirve an FX45 extensively. Very sporty handling - but ultimately, I felt the FX was just tyrying a little too hard. I'll take the understatement and self assured behavior of the RX any day.

Matt

JohnsRX

huh?? ok, i'll ask the rim guy again.

JRB

At 7000 miles I have not had any problems with my FX45, and I really like its sporty handling and power. Time will tell, but I think it will prove to be a very reliable vehicle.

Sorry about the poor experience with your Infiniti G35, al503, but I don't think it's typical of Infiniti's generally. In most of the customer satisfaction surveys that I've seen, Infiniti ranks right behind Lexus, which is clearly No. 1 in the industry.

My wife (at just 2400 miles) absolutely loves her RX330. The build quality is excellent, and it certainly has a much more luxurious feel and smoother ride than my car. Even so, our 12 year-old has decided that she likes the FX better, probably, I suspect, because it draws more attention to us (her) from guys (boys her age). It's the one she has her eyes set on for when she gets her license in just 3 1/2 years, which is a VERY scary thought in itself.

Anyway, so far my wife and I couldn't be happier with our choices.

al503

JRB,
I'm glad and jealous that you are having a good ownership experience with your FX. I know that getting a car with absolutely no problems is very improbable. However, the thing that really irks me is Infiniti's attitude toward the issues. Unless the problem/defect is safety related (brake light switch, fuel line recall) they create these barriers to getting warranty work performed. Any problem needs to be replicated before they will even look at it. It's like they're saying "we don't believe, you until we see it for ourselves." I guess there are a lot of people out there who have nothing better to do than to waste their spare time and hassle the service techs with fake problems.

Me after they kept the car overnight and didn't work on it: "You heard that noise on the first, second, and fourth visit and yesterday on my drive with the tech. Why didn't you work on it?"
Service Manager: "We couldn't replicate the noise TODAY. If we can't replicate right before working on it, WE DON'T HAVE A FIGHTING CHANCE." "If you hear the noise again, come to the dealership immediately so we can replicate it."

Whether the problem is fixed or not, all I'm looking for is their best shot at it or at least an effort. To keep my car after I took some time off of work to replicate it for a tech and to be told that they didn't work on it because they couldn't replicate it the next day blows my mind.

Long story short, my problems don't get resolved and the excuses, taken in the best light imaginable, are lame.

Contrast this with Lexus service for a tail light that burned out and was replaced and burned out again in a short period of time:
Service Manager: "I am so sorry that this happened. We replaced the bulb again. If it burns out again like the last one, we'll replace the entire assembly if we have to. We filled up your gas tank for your inconvenience."
They almost made me feel bad for making them feel so bad about it. That level of service is not really necessary and I don't expect that from Infiniti or any other manufacturer. However, it is undeniably better than my typical encounter with Infiniti.

Again, sorry for the long tirade. If you've read this far, have another Oreo.

JRB

It does sound like the issues you've had are dealer-related as opposed to being universal to all Infiniti dealers. So far I've been treated extremely well on the two routine service visits to my local dealer, and have no complaints, although admittedly there haven't been any major problems for them to deal with so far. They did mess up a bit the first time, when they didn't use the Mobil I oil I had brought in, just leaving it in the car despite writing it up on the service order. For this error they were very embarrassed and apologized profusely, offering to drain their oil and do it over, but I was in a hurry and had to leave - no biggie. To compensate they then offered to do the next one for free, including the filter, and I just had this done last week. Both times the car was cleaned inside and out, and left waiting right outside the door.

It does seem that Lexus has the best control and most uniform excellent service over their entire dealer network, as you sure don't hear too many complaints from owners across the country. Infiniti's network is less consistent, it seems, as it would appear that they still have some work to do in this area. The same is true of Audi, which in our case here the local dealer was (during my experience with two of their cars) excellent in all respects, but in other locations you heard lots of complaints about shoddy customer service on an Audi-specific board that's similar to this one. I suspect this is true with just about all other manufacturers, none of which can compare to what Lexus has done in maintaining uniformly superior service to their customers nationwide. There are always exceptions, but with Lexus these seem to be very rare.