Road Test
No one expects straight answers in an election year. About anything. Even cars aren’t exempt from the spin cycle. Take “crossovers,” for example. They’ve recently become the flavor sensation. So Infiniti, wet finger on the polls, announced its new “EX35 Crossover.”
That’s the headline. Buried back in the “technical specifications” pages we see the same car listed as a “station wagon.”
So which is it? Technically, we come down on the side of “wagon,” an empirical decision based on overall height lower than 64.4 inches. But falling for a new car is not a technical decision, and Infiniti is revving up the spin machine to distract from the obvious—our eyes tell us this is a five-door hatchback, the body style that’s famously unsalable to Americans. You spurned it as a Chevy Citation, you abhorred it as a Pontiac Phoenix, you eschewed it as a Saab 99, and you pretty comprehensively shunned it as a Lexus IS300 SportCross.
Against all odds, Infiniti is running the old game plan again. Our advice: Don’t blow it this time, America. Think of the hatchback costume as the automotive equivalent of cargo pants. Beneath the fashion statement is an unexpectedly refined machine packing an extra measure of usefulness.
The basics: The EX35 starts as a G35 four-door that’s had two inches snipped out of its wheelbase and 4.7 inches lopped off the overall length. The roof has been raised 4.7 inches to 61.9, which makes it a rather tall car but still a shorty compared with the headline-news crossovers, such as the Ford Edge at 67.0 inches road to roof or the Buick Enclave at 72.5 inches. Infiniti’s other crossover, the FX35/FX45, measures 65.0 inches.
The EX35 seems small when you’re standing beside it, and it drives that way too, compact and quick in its moves.
The powertrain is a direct lift from the G35 with minor retuning of the 3.5-liter V-6, downgraded to 297 horsepower at 6800 rpm from the sedan’s 306. A five-speed automatic is the only transmission; rear-wheel drive is standard equipment with all-wheel drive as an option.
Our all-wheel-drive test car came with seemingly every option on the Infiniti menu, from mahogany-stained maple on the dash, doors, and console—shiny black and frosty aluminum accents are standard—to “upgraded leather” on the seats where cloth is the default choice. The wheat-colored leather of the test car is supple to the touch and gorgeous to the eye. The details are beautifully done. The steering wheel can hold your eye for a week, just the way it brings leather together with grained vinyl and various switches in a perfect match of color and texture. A leather-covered jacket hanger folds out from the back of the driver’s headrest; no more fumbling with an unseen hook above the side window as you try to look sharp for the meeting. If you don’t feel rich in this cockpit, you were born for a Bentley.
Compared with the quick-reflex G35 Sport, the EX35 is relaxed, and its performance numbers are off a step—an extra 432 pounds and 4.7 inches of height will do that. Still, it romps to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds and on through the quarter-mile in 14.6 seconds at 98 mph (0.7 and 0.5 second behind the G35 Sport we tested in January).
Instead of the crisp-response summer tires of the G35 Sport, our EX35 wears loafers, all-season 225/55R-18s, which knock cornering grip down to 0.83 g and stretch the stops from 70 mph to 166 feet, still excellent achievements for such a multipurpose vehicle. The four-wheel discs proved to be exceptionally fade-free in our tests, too. Ride quality is smoother than that of the G35, even those without the Sport suffix, and tire noise is muted.
