Infiniti FX45

The story

In a parking lot full of upright boxes, the FX looked ready to pounce. Nissan's designers grafted the hefty lower body of an SUV to the low roof and raked glass of a sports GT, then filled the arches with 20-inch wheels when a BMW X5 rode on 17s. Underneath sat the rear-drive FM platform shared with the 350Z and G35, and the FX45 added the Q45 flagship's 4.5-liter V8, rear-biased all-wheel drive and a 54:46 weight split. Car and Driver timed it at 6.3 seconds to 60 mph, quicker than the X5 4.6is and the ML55 AMG, and recorded 0.87 g of grip from a 1,950 kg (4,299 lb) crossover.

On a road that twists and dips it stays improbably flat, though the heavy steering says little and a jumpy throttle makes traffic a chore. The low-profile tires pound over broken pavement, the rear window is a mail slot and the fuel bills never stop. The cheaper, softer FX35, a full second slower, became the one people bought. The FX45 gave way to the stronger FX50 in 2008, and nearly every coupe-roofed performance crossover since has followed the trail it blazed.