Infiniti FX01 October 2009

Infiniti is to Nissan what Lexus is to Toyota. Not that Infiniti is meant to be the same as Lexus - company officials are adamant that Infiniti is about performance and then luxury. As well as being more sporty than Lexus, Infiniti is determined to out-do Lexus on the service front. That is setting the bar exceptionally high, as Lexus dealers are second-to-none, but a visit to an Infiniti dealership (of which there will be five by next year) shows that they are deadly serious. The first site, in Reading, is quite simply the most attractive car showroom we have ever seen - mainly because it has been styled to look like a five star hotel, not a car dealership.

The FX itself is expected to be the company's best-seller, at least in the early days. Logically speaking, the FX should be dead in the water - it is a big SUV without any diesel option, at a time when even Porsche has been forced to fit an oil-burner to the Cayenne range. However, logic counts for little in this part of the market. There are still a few hundred Range Rover Sport and Cayenne owners prepared to look at the 'next big thing' and that is all Infiniti wants.

As a piece of design, the FX will be pretty appealing to its target market. Infiniti wants its SUVs to look like sports cars on stilts, and the FX is certainly more successful than the Cayenne in that respect. All UK cars will come with 21 inch wheels, which gives a clue to its blingtastic position in life.

After the dramatic exterior, which just about keeps on the right side of the line between impressive and ludicrously ostentatious (although quite a few owners are likely to take their FX specifications quite a long way over that line), the interior is less eye-catching. The blue lit instruments are quite nice and the option of wood inspired by the body of a cello makes a change from the usual walnut or zebra, but that is about it on the surprise-and-delight front.

On the road, the sports-car-on-stilts concept is not completely fanciful. For a two-tonne car, the turn-in and handling are surprisingly good and even the V6 is willing, although you can feel it fighting the 2000 kg bulk of the car. However, in the upside-down world of the luxury SUV, the V8 actually makes more sense. The V6 already emits a whopping 282g/km of CO2, so you might as well enjoy the full-fat experience with the V8. Buying the 3.7 litre is like ordering a meal at a top restaurant and then not eating the sauce, just so you can save a few calories.