Fire0nic3FX
Member
Sorry I'm a little bit late on posting this up. I wrote a full review on how the JX drives and had it saved on my computer:
[FONT=&]Ok here is my little review on how this JX drives:
1. So how quiet is it inside?
First thing driving this JX is that you notice the interior is ultra quiet. And when I mean ultra quiet I'm talking about Lexus LS type of quiet. I think it's almost comparable to my FX with the extra sound deadening I added, but the exhaust is also silenced on the JX where as the FX is has a louder exhaust obviously cause it's targeted to be on the sporty luxurious side while the JX is targeted to be a family vehicle. Who the hell wants a loud exhaust on a grocery getter? The motor though still sounds like a good ole VQ motor though when you step on it.
Just for reference the motor is not the same in the JX as the 2nd gen FX. The JX still uses old stuff with the updated VQ35DE where as the 2nd gen FX uses the VQ35VHR. Still a great motor though. It idles really quiet. I only feel a little bit of vibration from into the cabin as you accelerate. And when idling that's a different story which I will get to later on a issue I noticed.
2. How does it ride in term of plushness or stiffness?
Let me just say it rides EXACTLY like a 2nd gen FX. I don't know about the FX50 since it has an adaptive suspension but on the FX35 the ride is not too soft and not too firm, but just right in between. You ride comfortably in the JX just like the 2nd gen FX, but you also get some road feedback within the cabin which is a good thing. It doesn't ride floaty though. You feel bumps depending on the road surface condition. A little bit of feedback is a good thing.
Another thing to make note of is that the JX35 uses a Macpherson strut front suspension and the 2nd gen FX uses a double wishbone suspension with front and rear shock absorbers and multilink rear. Two different suspensions but they ride almost the same. The JX35 I had also came with the optional 20" polished forged aluminum wheels. The bigger the rim the more you will feel bumps.
3. How does it handle?
This is what really surprised me is how well it handles. I'm pretty sure the JX I got was AWD. But it handled really good for a big vehicle. It doesn't exactly handle as well as an FX in sharp turns but it's alot better than most other SUV's I've driven out there. Even though the FX and JX ride similar this is where you start noticing a slight difference between the both. When driving the JX and you make sharp left and right turns the car "sways" into the turn a little too much. I blame it's size for this nothing you can really do about it. The FX rides on a sports car platform and has wider tires and difference suspension tuning so this may contribute to the difference. But I'll admit it does well for what it is. I promise if you go test drive one that's the first thing that will surprise you though is the handling for a vehicle of it's size.
The steering is loose though compared to the FX. It feels very light compared to the FX's stiff steering. It also has a good turning radius.
[/FONT] 5. How is the power?
I can honestly say the JX has more than enough power for what type of vehicle it is. Like I said people buying these cars probably won’t really care too much about power and more of along the lines of, “is this going to get me from point a to point b all the time”.
Some issues I've noticed on the JX:
When sitting in park the idle can't maintain itself. The RPM needle is bouncing up and down and it makes the car quiver. And it's not random it does it all the time. The RPM kept bouncing down from 800 all the way down to a low 350 RPM which is VERY low. The engine sounded like it was going to cut off. It actually had me a little worried. If you put it into drive it stops doing it. Weird?
Rattles!!! The entire top portion of the dash has annoying clicking rattles. What makes it annoying is that you don't even need to drive over uneven road surfaces or bumps to get them to rattle. It does it all the time even when driving over smooth surfaces. I've pin pointed about 3-4 difference areas that rattle:
annoying click deep inside of the dash
rubbing noise from the A pillar on the driverside
passenger door ticking noise while driving
some thump sound from the rear seats I'm not too sure where it's at though
With the car being as quiet as it is inside, it makes these noises more obvious since you hear them better. I read up on some stuff on other sites and quite a hand full of others have had the same issues. I think they have a software update for that idling issue if I'm not mistaken. The other issues with the rattles would need to be padded to get rid of them.
Another quality issue was the passenger side window switch panel was already PEELING! It had a giant bubble of paint and it was peeling. Here is what it looked like:
What I want to know is how the hell does that pass quality control?? It must of happened after it was built or maybe even before it was built and the engineers didn't seem to care and just put the switch panel on anyways lol.
Other than some of the few quality issues I loved the car. Was sad to see it go back....
[FONT=&]Ok here is my little review on how this JX drives:
1. So how quiet is it inside?
First thing driving this JX is that you notice the interior is ultra quiet. And when I mean ultra quiet I'm talking about Lexus LS type of quiet. I think it's almost comparable to my FX with the extra sound deadening I added, but the exhaust is also silenced on the JX where as the FX is has a louder exhaust obviously cause it's targeted to be on the sporty luxurious side while the JX is targeted to be a family vehicle. Who the hell wants a loud exhaust on a grocery getter? The motor though still sounds like a good ole VQ motor though when you step on it.
Just for reference the motor is not the same in the JX as the 2nd gen FX. The JX still uses old stuff with the updated VQ35DE where as the 2nd gen FX uses the VQ35VHR. Still a great motor though. It idles really quiet. I only feel a little bit of vibration from into the cabin as you accelerate. And when idling that's a different story which I will get to later on a issue I noticed.
2. How does it ride in term of plushness or stiffness?
Let me just say it rides EXACTLY like a 2nd gen FX. I don't know about the FX50 since it has an adaptive suspension but on the FX35 the ride is not too soft and not too firm, but just right in between. You ride comfortably in the JX just like the 2nd gen FX, but you also get some road feedback within the cabin which is a good thing. It doesn't ride floaty though. You feel bumps depending on the road surface condition. A little bit of feedback is a good thing.
Another thing to make note of is that the JX35 uses a Macpherson strut front suspension and the 2nd gen FX uses a double wishbone suspension with front and rear shock absorbers and multilink rear. Two different suspensions but they ride almost the same. The JX35 I had also came with the optional 20" polished forged aluminum wheels. The bigger the rim the more you will feel bumps.
3. How does it handle?
This is what really surprised me is how well it handles. I'm pretty sure the JX I got was AWD. But it handled really good for a big vehicle. It doesn't exactly handle as well as an FX in sharp turns but it's alot better than most other SUV's I've driven out there. Even though the FX and JX ride similar this is where you start noticing a slight difference between the both. When driving the JX and you make sharp left and right turns the car "sways" into the turn a little too much. I blame it's size for this nothing you can really do about it. The FX rides on a sports car platform and has wider tires and difference suspension tuning so this may contribute to the difference. But I'll admit it does well for what it is. I promise if you go test drive one that's the first thing that will surprise you though is the handling for a vehicle of it's size.
The steering is loose though compared to the FX. It feels very light compared to the FX's stiff steering. It also has a good turning radius.
[/FONT] 5. How is the power?
I can honestly say the JX has more than enough power for what type of vehicle it is. Like I said people buying these cars probably won’t really care too much about power and more of along the lines of, “is this going to get me from point a to point b all the time”.
Some issues I've noticed on the JX:
When sitting in park the idle can't maintain itself. The RPM needle is bouncing up and down and it makes the car quiver. And it's not random it does it all the time. The RPM kept bouncing down from 800 all the way down to a low 350 RPM which is VERY low. The engine sounded like it was going to cut off. It actually had me a little worried. If you put it into drive it stops doing it. Weird?
Rattles!!! The entire top portion of the dash has annoying clicking rattles. What makes it annoying is that you don't even need to drive over uneven road surfaces or bumps to get them to rattle. It does it all the time even when driving over smooth surfaces. I've pin pointed about 3-4 difference areas that rattle:
annoying click deep inside of the dash
rubbing noise from the A pillar on the driverside
passenger door ticking noise while driving
some thump sound from the rear seats I'm not too sure where it's at though
With the car being as quiet as it is inside, it makes these noises more obvious since you hear them better. I read up on some stuff on other sites and quite a hand full of others have had the same issues. I think they have a software update for that idling issue if I'm not mistaken. The other issues with the rattles would need to be padded to get rid of them.
Another quality issue was the passenger side window switch panel was already PEELING! It had a giant bubble of paint and it was peeling. Here is what it looked like:
What I want to know is how the hell does that pass quality control?? It must of happened after it was built or maybe even before it was built and the engineers didn't seem to care and just put the switch panel on anyways lol.
Other than some of the few quality issues I loved the car. Was sad to see it go back....
