That's right, they're here folks. Sorry for the delay in getting these up. Been busy the past few days. I'll give you folks a brief breakdown of my initial impression of the '09 FX in the post to come.
Lets start in the looks department. Arguably the most controversial subject regarding the new FX. I will say that unlike many recent Nissan/Infiniti designs which look better in the metal than they do in pictures (the V36 Sedan, V36 Coupe, EX and '09 Murano and I'm sure the '09 Maxima all come to mind), with the FX, what you see in pictures is what you get in person. That means if you love it in pictures, you'll love it in person. If not, it's not one of those designs that'll change your mind just because it's there in front of you in the daylight. I will say that the car looks MUCH better in darker colors than lighter ones. Unfortunately the majority of the pics I took were of a Moonlight White FX50 because that's the one I chose to drive seeing as the others were "just" 35s.
FX50 front fender vent (chrome)
The three shots above illustrate what I believe are the three more controversial design elements of the new FX. Starting with the grille, it's...well...it's "interesting" to say the least. I'm not a fan of the wavy insert. Honestly, what is that all about. It also seems a bit wider than it should be as well. The headlights are good looking...depending on where you're standing relative to the car. The FX is a car that looks good from some angles, and like complete and utter azz from others and the headlights are no exception. From dead on straight ahead they look like crap. But looking up at them from a lower 3/4 perspective really highlights them. The side vents are tacky and Ford Focus looking. I've said it once and I'll continue to say it, "what were they thinking?" So what if they're functionaly, they look completely out of place and the idea of them is so played out it's not even funny. At least the ones on the 35 are matte silver which is a bit less obnoxious than the chrome pieces found on the 50. Still, if I were to buy a new FX, these things would be removed and sent to a body shop to be color matched to the rest of the car immediately.
FX35 front fender vent (matte silver finish)
Overall the shape of the vehicle itself hasn't changed too much. The profile and beltline are instantly recognizeable as an FX. What I should have taken pics of are the tailights when they're lit up. Honestly the LED pattern looks similar to the one on the new WRX with it's sideways open square design, but it's better executed here.
Rounding out design we come to the rear. As I said, I'll try to take pics of the car with the LEDs lit up so you can see the rear light pattern as it's pretty trick. The rear end is pretty funky itself. Everything juts out and I swear if you put a strip of chrome on the rear hatch it'd be identical to the lip on the V36 Sedan and Coupe. All supposedly done in the interest of aerodynamics apparently.
This brings us to the vehicle's shoes. The 50s 21s are VERY impressive and they fit the look of the car perfectly. The 35s we've received were all equipped with the optional 20" wheels which replace the base 18s, however their 5 spoke design make them look dinky compared with the old 8 spoke 20s on the first gen. As finding FX50 21s will be hard as hell, I'd suggest swapping out the older FX35 Sport 20s for the newer 5 spokes as I don't find them very attractive at all. A very ho-hum and boring design for such an otherwise avant-garde vehicle and NOT very aggressive at all.
FX50 21" Wheel
FX35 20" Wheel
