Everything You Want To Know About the INFINITI FX Series and QX70

hello joe here from infinity of tacoma today i'm going to talk about the fx and qx70 series uh really cool vehicles uh one of my favorite series of vehicles that infinity has made i've been of infinity a little over 16 years um and it's one of my favorite products here we have a 2016 infiniti qx70 and then next to it we have this 2008 infiniti fx35 eventually the fx35 evolved into the qx series the fx35 is a really revolutionary vehicle uh today you know crossover suvs are very popular every manufacturer pretty much offers them now and for a lot of uh manufacturers they sell more crossovers and they do regular cars things are a little bit different back in you know 2002 2003 when the 2003 fx first came out was pretty revolutionary because on instead of uh like a body-on-frame truck which back in the day most suvs were built on truck-based architecture the fx was based off the nissan 370z sports car platform so it combined a lot of things it was uh you know you had the high up committing view of a regular sport utility vehicle you had extra cargo space all-wheel drive but being built on a sports car platform and its beautiful curvaceous body it offered a performance car driving experience so it can combine you know the utility and practicality of an suv it's a luxury vehicle and it's a performance vehicle so the fx was one of the first uh in the segment we've seen other vehicles kind of pop up you know we have the porsche cayenne uh the bmw x5 um you know now we have the uh the jaguar f-pace uh you know the fx was one of the first ones if it wasn't for the fx we might not have had all these other performance you know crossovers you know the porsche macan i can go on and on the fx is one of the first and uh i still think is you know one of the best crossovers out there then uh so the fx series was made in 2003 was the first model year of the fx series this particular one is a 2008 2008 it's actually the last year of this generation of the fx from 2003 to 2008 there's a few mild changes here and there but for the most part it's pretty much the same vehicle again slight differences then in 2009 they redesigned the fx series and it looked a lot like the qx series so in 2009 they came out with the fx35 and the fx 50. before you had the fx 35 and you had the fx45 so the fx35 had a 3.5 liter v6 that made 280 horsepower or you could get it with a 4.5 liter v8 that was the fx45 featuring a 315 horsepower v8 in 2009 the fx was redesigned and it pretty much has a similar body style to the qx70 and you could get the fx35 which had a 3.5 liter v6 but it was bumped up to uh 300 about 300 horsepower from 280 horsepower or you get this really cool 5 liter v8 which made 390 horsepower most people would opt for the the v6 we would sell a lot more v6s uh the v8 version of the fx and the qx series is pretty hard to find but if you can find them people like them a lot so we had the fx35 and then we had the fx 50. uh then in 2013 infinity changes up a little bit they increased the size of the 3.5 liter v6 to 3.7 liters so they changed the name to fx37 because at the time the infinity name was tied to the size of the engine 3.5 liters or 3 500 cubic centimeters and they increased it to 3.7 liters or 3 700 cubic centimeters so it became the fx 37 horsepower went up from 300 horsepower to 325 horsepower so we had the fx37 for 2013. uh the fx 50 stayed the same they didn't change the engine at all then in 2014 infiniti confused a lot of people they kind of revamped all their model names we had a new leader at infinity and he decided that we should throw out all the infinity names and uh re you know kind of reinvent them so they got rid of the fx series completely and then it became the qx70 and it didn't matter what size of the engine if you got the qx70 with the v6 it was a qx70 3.7 or if you got the qx 70 with the v8 it was a qx 75.0 and from 2014 to uh when the qx70 was dropped pretty much no no changes a 2014 uh qx70 or a 2013 fx37 for that matter is going to look pretty much identical to a 2017 qrx70 they did offer some packages later on like they offered a limited package a sport package things like that but the nuts and bolts of it the interior layout the design is pretty much the same from 2009 to 2017. um and uh it's really a great product i'm kind of sad that infiniti dropped the qx70 in 2017 it was aging it didn't need some improvements to compete with the competition is getting along in the tooth i must admit that but with the new qx55 that's coming out infinity actually took a lot of design themes from the fx series and the qx70s and they applied that to the new qx55 uh which is based off of the new qx 50 crossover and it has kind of more of a streamlined koopish design theme kind of like what we find on the fx series in the qx70 series so with the fx35 this particular generation uh this was made till 2008 it's getting a little bit harder to find nice pre-owned ones just with how old they're getting but if you can find one they're fantastic products i actually did a video recently um of one we took it on trade that had 300 000 miles on it and it still ran great you can watch that video on our youtube page this one has forty six thousand miles um and a lot of times when we have vehicles that come in on trade like this one with a hundred forty six thousand miles we're going to send them to ox and they just not only have a little bit too many problems uh but infinities are pretty reliable especially the ones that are made in japan like this and this one we were able to put through our service department and we deemed it in good enough condition to sell on our used car a lot that's not perfect for instance we have these don't worry it's not contagious uh so obviously all vehicles have their shortcomings and one shortcoming of the fx series is that when they develop the dashboard um however they developed it it does not do great with heat in direct sunlight and it's not all of them that are like this and some are worse than others some just bubble a little bit some are actually worse uh but uh you know it is what it is and uh obviously it is kind of an eyesore uh an easy fix for this is to put a dash cover on it and it's not gonna make it go away but you can get a cheap dash cover and it's going to cover up those things versus having to replace this whole dashboard i think it would be like three thousand dollars it's really not cost effective so but point being is i wouldn't let something like this stop you from buying a great vehicle like this obviously you can cover it up with a dash cover but these are really reliable vehicles and as i mentioned before i've seen them go past 300 000 miles lots of great features on the fx series fx35 fx45 was kind of ahead of its time as far as the layout goes you kind of feel like you're in a cocoon almost you have these high window sills it's kind of a vehicle that you feel like you're kind it's kind of wrapped around you uh versus you know having a vehicle that you kind of feel like you're in a fishbowl where like you're of all these windows everyone can see you uh you feel really exposed i like the fx series because i kind of like i said i feel wrapped in the cocoon i feel like i'm kind of inside this little spaceship and it gives me a nice cozy comfortable feeling um the steering wheel on the fx is pretty much the same steering wheel that you find in the 350 370z uh kind of hints that it actually shares its platform it's rear-wheel drive based platform with the 350 370z uh the fx series had some pretty cool features uh that you didn't find on vehicles uh like for instance uh look at this tilt gauge cluster the whole gauge cluster tilts up and down with the steering wheel and that's so the steering wheel will never obstruct the gauges a pretty cool feature you know infinity offered that for a little while on some of their products and eventually they did away with it for a transmission you have a five-speed automatic transmission and you have manual shift mode the fx also has a backup camera this is actually one of the first production vehicles to have a backup camera this one isn't fully loaded but this is also one of the first production vehicles to have like adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning things like that the qx70 is built on the same uh sports car platform zfx it's the same advanced front midship platform uh that they use on the 350z and 370z this platform is also used on other infinity products like the infiniti g35 uh coupe and sedan the g37 coupe and sedan even the q50 q60 uh and the q70 uh sedan they're all built on this advanced from midship platform and the reason why they called the advanced from a chip platform is they take the engine they place it as far back behind the front axle as possible so the center of gravity is towards the middle of the vehicle that helps it rotate on its axis and gives it as close to perfect weight distribution as possible so going into the interior of the uh qx70 obviously it's a little bit more up-to-date versus the fx35 it's a little bit more of a modern looking interior and again the steering wheel that you see here is very similar it's almost exactly the same steering wheel that you get in the 370z again because this shares its platform with the 370z some features that you could get on the new fx slash qx70 that you couldn't get in the old one for instance is a heated and cooled front seats and then they offered more safety features intelligent brake assist forward collision warning ford emergency braking those all became available on the redesigned fx from 2009 and up and eventually the qx70 which just evolved evolved into or was had its name changed to in 2014 uh you also have a little bit larger screen with the infotainment system versus the fx a little bit better resolution you have this nice 360 overhead camera that was a new feature that you could get on the redesigned fx slash qx70 that wasn't available on the old fx and in fact it's another first is infiniti was one of the first companies to have a 360 overhead camera like that infiniti has always kind of been a pioneer of technology this one is very well equipped with features it has the deluxe touring package which gives you upgraded interior trim upgraded semi inline leather seats larger wheel and tire package this as you can see doesn't have this tilt gauge cluster like you had in the fx i think it was just a little bit too costly for infinity to produce in the vehicles having that added complexity of a tilt gauge cluster and they didn't see they probably didn't see much upside in installing that added cost to the vehicle versus you know its appeal to buyers and all that stuff so you know sometimes the bean counters will win in situations like that it's unfortunate that they drop that feature but you know as you can see you can still pretty much depending on how tall you are the gauges can get obstructed so you can kind of see how it's kind of an ingenious idea too bad it didn't stick this one has a keyless ignition of push button start it pretty much became standard on the redesigned fx or on the older fx series um you could have the keyless ignition uh with the technology package you can see the design pretty much the whole design of the fx was pretty much mirrored and updated with the qx70 it pretty much follows the same design theme they didn't want to break they didn't want to fix what wasn't broken it was a nice looking vehicle as the proportions were right so they just kind of improved in certain areas the engines are very similar so it's pretty much the same engine the vq series the vq35 versus the vq37 they took the same basic engine architecture and they increased the size that went from 3.5 liters to 3.7 liters 280 horsepower versus a 325 horsepower um these are great engines low maintenance you have a maintenance free timing chain so you never need to worry about the cost replacement of timing belts so as timing changes euro maintenance and design a lot of surface life for the engine about 300 000 miles so which one would be better for you well it's all a matter of personal preference maybe you like the way the fx looks or maybe like the way the qx70 looks as far as prices go uh the qx 70s and the fx 35s that were redesigned from 2009 and later in fx50 those are going to be at a higher price point because they're newer versus the older fx series so maybe if you're looking for something that's priced around 10 000 or under you're probably going to be looking at an fx35 but it's going to be older technology it's probably going to have higher miles if you're looking for a newer vehicle something that's still under warranty something that's off lease maybe one owner it's going to be a lot easier to find a qx70 in that situation versus the older fx series they're both great vehicles they have both been proven to be very reliable uh the those pimples on the dashboard is not an issue with the qx70 i have not seen one qx70 with that issue uh they fixed that so from 2009 and on you don't have to worry about uh the dashboard issues for so it's pretty much from the just the first generation of the fx that we saw that so what are some other trouble areas on these vehicles to look at uh they actually are really really reliable vehicles i'd say probably out of all the infinity products the more modern infiniti products i'd say these are probably some of the best built most reliable ones but they do have a few weak areas i guess something to look for if you're shopping for any one of these vehicles is a pretty common issue to happen is to have a leaking steering rack if a steering rack is leaking a little bit if there's a little bit of seepage usually it's not a big deal but if it's starting to drip on the ground then you could lose power steering fluid uh that can be a problem and a new steering rack is not cheap uh depending if you go you know aftermarket or you get a burn new one installed at a dealership it could be anywhere from you know 1500 to over 3000 for a new steering rack aside from that the only other area where we've seen issues is sub frames and these have a fluid filled subframes uh so sub frames kind of is part of the vehicle that helps connect the suspension components and the wheels and stuff to the unibody uh and they have bolts that will start leaking that fluid so they have fluid in these subframes to help reduce vibration it does a great job but those subframe bolts will start leaking and that fluid will start leaking out so that will prevent it from doing its job of reducing vibration um it's not really a safety issue it's kind of more of a noise vibration and harshness issue honestly i've driven vehicles of leaking subframes and without a leaking subframe and i really have a hard time telling the difference uh so it wouldn't stop me from buying a vehicle i have a 2005 g35 its subframe is not leaking but if it does i'm not gonna spend the four thousand dollars to fix it i'm just gonna you know let it seep a little bit and then deal with maybe a little bit more uh vibrations and harshness so overall those are really the two uh weak areas of these vehicles if you're looking for one um and the steering rack is really the one that's a big problem the the uh the leaking subframe is something that's kind of more up to your personal preference like i said it wouldn't be something that would be concerning to me um if you have any other questions about the fx or the qx70 series please share your questions in the comments section we'll be happy to answer them these are great vehicles as a 16-year veteran of infinity it's one of my favorites i highly recommend them and overall i think it's a great combination of a vehicle that's practical uh it's got lots of cargo space it's got all-wheel drive you have a hype community in the world of the road but it's also very fun to drive it's beautiful it's luxurious it's got really nice creature comforts that's a really pleasant driving vehicle and it's also very reliable and in my opinion it has one of the best engines that you can get and actually i would like to add a little bit to that so for overall durability i would recommend the v6 the v6 just has a little bit better track record for longevity than the v8 i've seen plenty of these v6 engines go 200 300 000 miles i've seen the v8s get up there in miles too but just in my i've seen more issues develop with the v8s like around 150 000 miles than i have the v6 so if you can find the v8 if you love it and it runs great awesome but if you want the best engine that's going to have the least amount of issues and lasts the longest i'd either go for the 3.5 liter v6 or the 3.7 liter v6 thanks so much for taking the time to watch this video hope to see you soon and have a wonderful day

Channel: INFINITI of Tacoma at Fife

Views: 71,681

Keywords: Infiniti Dealership, New Infinitis, Used Cars, Automotive

Id: KJ2Go54teWw

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020