The 2010 Infiniti FX35 is a sporty mid-size crossover SUV that seats five passengers and now comes standard with Bluetooth connectivity and a USB port. As a midsize luxury SUV, the 2009 Infiniti FX35 is known for sporty performance, distinctive styling and cutting-edge technology.

The term crossover vehicle covers a lot of ground these days, and the Infiniti FX35 shows how far that idiom is being pushed. Typical crossovers are vehicles such as the Toyota RAV4 or Honda Pilot-they're based on car platforms and lack the low-range transfer cases and robust Paris-Dakar durability of truck-based SUVs, but they wear truckish, blocky sheetmetal.

You sure can't say that about this Infiniti FX35. Yes, at 65.0 inches high, it does stand some seven inches taller than a Ford Taurus station wagon. And at 189.1 inches long, it is about eight inches shorter than the Taurus wagon. So the FX does possess proper SUV proportions.

It looks brawny as well, but in the bulging, muscular fashion of a Dodge Viper rather than the square-shouldered idiom of a Caterpillar tractor. Moreover, its greenhouse is tidy, rakish, and sleek, and this particular FX35 didn't even have four-wheel drive. Instead, it funneled every bit of its 280 horsepower to its rear tires.

Like its bigger brother, the FX45, which is the quickest non-turbocharged SUV we've ever tested, the FX35 is geared purely for grappling with the pavement. Although it wears standard 18-inch tires instead of the 20s found on the 45 (20s are optional on the FX35), the 265/60VR-18 Bridgestone Potenza RE92s provide sufficient grip for the FX to corner at 0.80 g and stop from 70 mph in 181 feet. Makes it easy to believe the FX chassis is related to the FM platform used by the Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35.

Equipped with Nissan's ubiquitous 3.5-liter V-6, which develops 280 horsepower in this iteration, the FX35's pace is surprisingly close to that of the FX45, which has a much more powerful 315-hp V-8. We measured the sprint to 60 in 7.1 seconds and the quarter-mile in 15.5 seconds at 91 mph (6.3 and 15.0 in the FX45). Top speed was an ungoverned 137 mph, enough to see off most expensive German sedans with their 130-mph governors.

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