Quote:
Originally Posted by RACER X
i forsee thunder having a 2nd......... 
and IMO, the flex isn't really any diff then his FX.
fyi, they go up to $40k those flex's as well as ody's
cute kid! |
The Flex is very different than the FX. First of all the obvious part is that it seats more people. It also has more room for "stuff." Ingress/egress is much much easier. An FX with a rear-facing baby seat is uncomfortable for everyone except the driver. The front passenger seat is pushed forward so far that only the short family members would even consider riding in it. The rear seat of the FX on its best day is 5x harder to get into and out of than the Flex because in the FX you basically have to climb up onto the rear wheel to sit down.
The Flex has MEGA legroom in the second row. I went to the auto show with a friend of mine who's 6'6". I adjust the driver's seat for myself and he decided to hop in the back. He had just bought an Audi Q7. It was about a week old. He got in the back and said "Oh my God! The legroom back here is ridiculous." It also has a legitimately useful 3rd row. I know it's not a Minivan but I really wanted the higher performance. I thought long and hard about the Ody and even went to the auto show specifically to see the new Sienna. I might end up with a minivan at some point but right now I'm happy with this decision.
The downside of the Flex is that while Ford has improved their interiors and fitment issues, they're still not quite there with the Japanese and Euros. Hard to beat a nice Audi interior. But the Flex's interior is pretty good. The leather and soft-touch plastics are nice. You can find a number of pieces that make you roll your eyes but they're not in-your-face easy to find.
The surprising parts are: The Flex is much faster. The Flex is much quieter. The ride is much better but the handling is comparable. The Flex has much greater outward visibility. The Flex actually has better technology gadgets on it. It's overall more fun to drive but it gives up a little bit in handling because the Flex seems to have more body roll than the FX.
Infiniti has really sacrificed a lot of function for their forms. My wife's G37s' rear window is like a gunslit. Not only is it very small, it's steeply raked and it has no wiper on it. So after a few days of being parked outside the visibility out the backlight is really awful. Despite having more power and goofy stuff like paddle shifters I think I really preferred driving my wife's previous car, and low-spec Mazda3 to the Infiniti. She's really waiting for the lease on the Infiniti to expire so she can buy another Mazda3.
Also, I bought the SEL with EB so I wouldn't get the sticker price up too far. I have nav on my iPhone now so I don't need a built-in system. And nobody buys domestic cars for sticker or even invoice these days. I got something like $4000 in incentives off of the X-Plan price (which is around invoice). My OOD price was a couple K less than the sticker.