So after 8 long weeks of waiting, we FINALLY took delivery this weekend and couldn't be more excited!! Thought we would post some of our thoughts and experiences during delivery and after our first road trip.
When we decided to purchase the JX35, we wanted an AWD, fully loaded with Emerald Graphite and Wheat interior. Since there were no vehicles meeting our specifications locally and our dealership discouraged us from ordering one from the factory, the sales manager found one just coming off the assembly line but heading to a dealership in New Hampshire. He secured it for us and made arrangements for transport to the PNW. The vehicle should have been here within 3 weeks but it turned into 8 weeks, after our sales manager received a phone call from the NH dealership 6 weeks after the transport company told him our car was on its way, asking, "aren't you going to have this car picked up". The moral of the story is, make sure the dealership confirms your vehicle is picked up by the transport company and get frequent updates when it will arrive.
Our dealership did a very nice job detailing the car and made sure there were no surprises upon our arrival. We wanted to add the tow package but since the dealership had not installed one on the JX yet and could not confirm that it would be identical to what the factory would install, we decided to hold off on that purchase. We are still puzzled why the JX can tow 3,500 lbs. and the new 2013 Pathfinder will tow 5,000 lbs. even though they will be very similar vehicles.We spent three hours with our salesman going over all the features and set up the Infiniti Connection and Infiniti Personal Assistant (more about that later). We printed off a check list from the forum and noted items other members have posted, which proved helpful. We found it helpful to go over the manuals online while we were waiting and highly recommend it to anyone waiting for their vehicle. We found there are several features that are not even posted on the Infinit website, such as the Hill Assist, which is a very nice system if you plan on traveling on hills (it works great...no roll backs when starting up a hill from a dead stop) and the front seat belts automatically roll back when taking them off. Ask lots of questions when taking delivery and test every system as recommended by many on this forum, if for no other reason than to make sure you have everything you asked for on your car.
We added tinting to the driver and right passenger windows to match the rest of the windows. We also added the 3M chip guard, which is something we added to our last two Nissan vehicles and have been very happy with it's results in keeping chips off the hood. Since our dealership did not offer the Infiniti warranty, we found a posting on this forum and purchased the 7 year, 120,000 Elite warranty from Circle Infiniti of New Jersey (thanks to Jugdish and Sherry) with a very substantial savings.
We took a 45 minute trip on the freeway last night which was surprisingly quiet considering the concrete pavement areas are pretty rough from winter driving with vehicles using studded tires and tire chains. The cruise control works awesome and will absolutely spoil you on crowded highways since you don't have to constantly adjust the speed settings. The radar does its job very well. The Brake Assist works well and is a nice system to have especially when driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic. You still need to pay close attention to the car in front of you but once you are used to it, your right foot will appreciate not going back and forth between the brake and gas peddle. The Blind Spot Intervention system is something I will never do without on any future vehicle. It works well and is nicely integrated with the Lane Departure system. Merging onto heavy traffic is made so much easier since you know when a vehicle is in your blind spot and if you turn your head away from the car in front of you while merging, the Brake Assist may save your bacon if the vehicle in front of you stops short.
We haven't tried the AWD system yet but feel confident that it will work as designed. Since our vehicle was slated for a New England dealership, Bridgestone Mud/Snow tires came with the vehicle, which should work well in the Pacific Northwest. Note to everyone, depending on where your vehicle is originally slated for, you may end up with different brand tires. What I did notice during the original test drives on a JX with 18" and 20" Michelin tires vs. the Bridgestone tires, is that the ride on our JX seems even quieter.
Today was the big test and we took a 285 mile drive, which included city, freeway and mountain roads. The ride was incredibly smooth and quiet. We used all the features including the Rain Sensor windshield wipers (which will also spoil you). These were my wife's must have and I have to say she was right. It was nice to not have to worry about turning them off and on or constantly adjusting them depending on the amount of rain coming down. On somewhat windy roads, we traveled the speed limit which averaged 60 mph and found the JX handled the road very well, better than expected since many of the critics complained about body roll, we sure didn't experience that. There is more than enough power and although it will never beat a sports car in a race, the ride is incredible. We had two adults in the middle seats and they enjoyed the ride and had no complaints. The upgraded Bose system with iPod integration is awesome and very easy to use. The Theater package is a luxury that many won't purchase but we like having it for our rear seat passengers or for those times when your sitting at the cell phone lot at the airport waiting to pick up passengers on a delayed flight. There is plenty of room for luggage/cargo. We typically will keep the third row seat in the flat position .
Items That We Found That Could Use Improvement
The Cargo Cover has been called "cheesy" by some reviewers and although its no where as nice as the ones that work like a pull down shade (Murano, Mercedes, etc.), it actually serves its purpose and is pretty easy to access anything underneath and store when not in use. I found it easier than trying to get under the roll style tono cover from the second row and our passengers could easily reach into the ice chest we put right behind the seat. I do agree though that a little more thought could have been put into it though.
The First Aid Kit is minimal and you can find one that has better/more supplies at big box stores and not really worth the cost.
Like with many vehicles, the plastic kick plates are going to take a beating when getting in and out of the vehicle since they are wider than many vehicles. We are going to apply transparant heavy film to protect them. We'll have to see how they work over time.
It would be nice if the steering wheel could move up a bit more. My wife is longer in body than I and found she has to adjust the angle of her arms just a little from her usual driving style.
Depending on how the driver seat is positioned and how long your legs are and how you position your left leg while driving, the parking brake might be a bit close to your lower left leg.
While driving in bright sunlight, I did notice a some glare in the left mirror at times (you could see the reflection of the left dash vent in the mirror).
Infiniti Connection. Not sure if its working right. When attempting to make contact using the icon or on-screen button, if you didn't immediately say what service you wanted, the command prompt will ask you if you need road side assistance, etc. Once it goes through the menu, it disconnects. Seems like a bug to me. It did work when we finally figured out you need to say what you need before it prompts you. Its a nice service and feature however. We also tested the SOS button and it worked as advertised.
Like several forum write ups have mentioned, the Rear Cargo Protector is not Infiniti quality. It is "cheesy" and something we will probably replace when Weathertech or other vendors comes up with something better that is more substantial, however do like the split feature it has with the seats though.
The seating is very comfortable and there is a lot of room. I'm 6' 1" and can fit in the third row seat with just a little head room to spare. The second row is nice. If you have someone with long legs or big feet, we found the person in the seat in front may want to move their seat upward to allow them to stretch their feet under the seat. If your seat is all the way to the floor, their is no room to put your feet under the front seat at all.
Although not always needed, it would nice if Infiniti would offer the double visor system, such as on previous models of the Armada and QX vehicles.
All and all after our first road trip today, we are very pleased with our vehicle and did not come across any issues. The few things we thought could use improvement are really just small things and may be based on our individuality. I can't state enough how happy we were with the whole experience today from the drive-ability to the comfortable seats. We came home with a half a tank of gas left after driving 285 miles and were averaging 20 mpg by the end of trip. We see no reason why we shouldn't be able to average the est. 23 mpg after it has been broken in. We will continue to provide updates as time goes on. During the long waiting period, the worry becomes did we do the right thing and will we have any buyers remorse when it finally arrives. All I can say is the JX has lived up to our expectations and we have absolutely no buyers remorse! We are thankful to all those that have shared their experiences on this forum and encourage JX owners to share their experiences, both negative and positive.
When we decided to purchase the JX35, we wanted an AWD, fully loaded with Emerald Graphite and Wheat interior. Since there were no vehicles meeting our specifications locally and our dealership discouraged us from ordering one from the factory, the sales manager found one just coming off the assembly line but heading to a dealership in New Hampshire. He secured it for us and made arrangements for transport to the PNW. The vehicle should have been here within 3 weeks but it turned into 8 weeks, after our sales manager received a phone call from the NH dealership 6 weeks after the transport company told him our car was on its way, asking, "aren't you going to have this car picked up". The moral of the story is, make sure the dealership confirms your vehicle is picked up by the transport company and get frequent updates when it will arrive.
Our dealership did a very nice job detailing the car and made sure there were no surprises upon our arrival. We wanted to add the tow package but since the dealership had not installed one on the JX yet and could not confirm that it would be identical to what the factory would install, we decided to hold off on that purchase. We are still puzzled why the JX can tow 3,500 lbs. and the new 2013 Pathfinder will tow 5,000 lbs. even though they will be very similar vehicles.We spent three hours with our salesman going over all the features and set up the Infiniti Connection and Infiniti Personal Assistant (more about that later). We printed off a check list from the forum and noted items other members have posted, which proved helpful. We found it helpful to go over the manuals online while we were waiting and highly recommend it to anyone waiting for their vehicle. We found there are several features that are not even posted on the Infinit website, such as the Hill Assist, which is a very nice system if you plan on traveling on hills (it works great...no roll backs when starting up a hill from a dead stop) and the front seat belts automatically roll back when taking them off. Ask lots of questions when taking delivery and test every system as recommended by many on this forum, if for no other reason than to make sure you have everything you asked for on your car.
We added tinting to the driver and right passenger windows to match the rest of the windows. We also added the 3M chip guard, which is something we added to our last two Nissan vehicles and have been very happy with it's results in keeping chips off the hood. Since our dealership did not offer the Infiniti warranty, we found a posting on this forum and purchased the 7 year, 120,000 Elite warranty from Circle Infiniti of New Jersey (thanks to Jugdish and Sherry) with a very substantial savings.
We took a 45 minute trip on the freeway last night which was surprisingly quiet considering the concrete pavement areas are pretty rough from winter driving with vehicles using studded tires and tire chains. The cruise control works awesome and will absolutely spoil you on crowded highways since you don't have to constantly adjust the speed settings. The radar does its job very well. The Brake Assist works well and is a nice system to have especially when driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic. You still need to pay close attention to the car in front of you but once you are used to it, your right foot will appreciate not going back and forth between the brake and gas peddle. The Blind Spot Intervention system is something I will never do without on any future vehicle. It works well and is nicely integrated with the Lane Departure system. Merging onto heavy traffic is made so much easier since you know when a vehicle is in your blind spot and if you turn your head away from the car in front of you while merging, the Brake Assist may save your bacon if the vehicle in front of you stops short.
We haven't tried the AWD system yet but feel confident that it will work as designed. Since our vehicle was slated for a New England dealership, Bridgestone Mud/Snow tires came with the vehicle, which should work well in the Pacific Northwest. Note to everyone, depending on where your vehicle is originally slated for, you may end up with different brand tires. What I did notice during the original test drives on a JX with 18" and 20" Michelin tires vs. the Bridgestone tires, is that the ride on our JX seems even quieter.
Today was the big test and we took a 285 mile drive, which included city, freeway and mountain roads. The ride was incredibly smooth and quiet. We used all the features including the Rain Sensor windshield wipers (which will also spoil you). These were my wife's must have and I have to say she was right. It was nice to not have to worry about turning them off and on or constantly adjusting them depending on the amount of rain coming down. On somewhat windy roads, we traveled the speed limit which averaged 60 mph and found the JX handled the road very well, better than expected since many of the critics complained about body roll, we sure didn't experience that. There is more than enough power and although it will never beat a sports car in a race, the ride is incredible. We had two adults in the middle seats and they enjoyed the ride and had no complaints. The upgraded Bose system with iPod integration is awesome and very easy to use. The Theater package is a luxury that many won't purchase but we like having it for our rear seat passengers or for those times when your sitting at the cell phone lot at the airport waiting to pick up passengers on a delayed flight. There is plenty of room for luggage/cargo. We typically will keep the third row seat in the flat position .
Items That We Found That Could Use Improvement
The Cargo Cover has been called "cheesy" by some reviewers and although its no where as nice as the ones that work like a pull down shade (Murano, Mercedes, etc.), it actually serves its purpose and is pretty easy to access anything underneath and store when not in use. I found it easier than trying to get under the roll style tono cover from the second row and our passengers could easily reach into the ice chest we put right behind the seat. I do agree though that a little more thought could have been put into it though.
The First Aid Kit is minimal and you can find one that has better/more supplies at big box stores and not really worth the cost.
Like with many vehicles, the plastic kick plates are going to take a beating when getting in and out of the vehicle since they are wider than many vehicles. We are going to apply transparant heavy film to protect them. We'll have to see how they work over time.
It would be nice if the steering wheel could move up a bit more. My wife is longer in body than I and found she has to adjust the angle of her arms just a little from her usual driving style.
Depending on how the driver seat is positioned and how long your legs are and how you position your left leg while driving, the parking brake might be a bit close to your lower left leg.
While driving in bright sunlight, I did notice a some glare in the left mirror at times (you could see the reflection of the left dash vent in the mirror).
Infiniti Connection. Not sure if its working right. When attempting to make contact using the icon or on-screen button, if you didn't immediately say what service you wanted, the command prompt will ask you if you need road side assistance, etc. Once it goes through the menu, it disconnects. Seems like a bug to me. It did work when we finally figured out you need to say what you need before it prompts you. Its a nice service and feature however. We also tested the SOS button and it worked as advertised.
Like several forum write ups have mentioned, the Rear Cargo Protector is not Infiniti quality. It is "cheesy" and something we will probably replace when Weathertech or other vendors comes up with something better that is more substantial, however do like the split feature it has with the seats though.
The seating is very comfortable and there is a lot of room. I'm 6' 1" and can fit in the third row seat with just a little head room to spare. The second row is nice. If you have someone with long legs or big feet, we found the person in the seat in front may want to move their seat upward to allow them to stretch their feet under the seat. If your seat is all the way to the floor, their is no room to put your feet under the front seat at all.
Although not always needed, it would nice if Infiniti would offer the double visor system, such as on previous models of the Armada and QX vehicles.
All and all after our first road trip today, we are very pleased with our vehicle and did not come across any issues. The few things we thought could use improvement are really just small things and may be based on our individuality. I can't state enough how happy we were with the whole experience today from the drive-ability to the comfortable seats. We came home with a half a tank of gas left after driving 285 miles and were averaging 20 mpg by the end of trip. We see no reason why we shouldn't be able to average the est. 23 mpg after it has been broken in. We will continue to provide updates as time goes on. During the long waiting period, the worry becomes did we do the right thing and will we have any buyers remorse when it finally arrives. All I can say is the JX has lived up to our expectations and we have absolutely no buyers remorse! We are thankful to all those that have shared their experiences on this forum and encourage JX owners to share their experiences, both negative and positive.
does it also help with cleaning road tar and other road dirt from your vehicle? Never had it before.
