Infiniti FX review

2. Engines

The FX is Infiniti's rival to the Cayenne, Q7 and X5/X6, and it somehow manages to out-lairy the lot. Like all of them, it's available with a huge petrol engine: the difference is that they give you a diesel option, too.

In fact, the FX does give you a choice. A choice between a big petrol engine and a huge one. There's the FX37 and the FX50, powered by a 3.7-litre V6 and a 5.0-litre V8 respectively. Power and torque figures are 320bhp and 266lbf.ft, 390 bhp and 369lbf.ft; max speeds are 145 and 155mph, 0-62 times are 6.8 and 5.8 seconds and, here it comes, combined fuel consumption figures are 23.5 and 21.7mpg. As for CO2, the 3.7 emits 284g/km and the 5.0 chucks out 310.

As always with built-for-America vehicles featuring engines the size of Mount Rushmore and a voluptuous capacity for consuming fuel, you have to weigh the cost of running them against the value for money you get at purchase time. And as you'd imagine, the FX is a very well specced vehicle, whichever model you go for. But whereas Jeep, for example, established itself 15 years ago by bombarding you with kit at how-do-they-manage-it prices, this is no bargain. Spec-for-spec, it'll give anything German a bloody nose, but at £42,000-£44,000 for the 3.7 and £55,000 for the 5.0, it's clear that Infiniti intends to build its brand aura by costing plenty, not amass sales by giving cars away.

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