When cars from the 2000s end up being properly nostalgic, I have a feeling the original Infiniti FX will finally get its flowers. It was truly unlike other crossovers at the time, an incredibly hot sight on the street, and really a sort of halo car for Infiniti when it shocked the world by going hand-to-hand with BMW near the Bavarian brand’s peak era. As you can probably tell, I still love the original Infiniti FX, but one incredibly unsightly problem has prevented me from actually putting my money where my mouth is.
In 2003, the Infiniti FX was a revelation, a crossover utility vehicle focused solely on luxury and on-road performance and not on anything else. Keep in mind, the Porsche Cayenne of the time had a proper two-speed transfer case and even the BMW X5 of the time adhered to traditional norms and played up its capability, but the FX35 and FX45 were something different. They were built on the same platform as the Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35, and the result was something that could haul both snowboards and rear ends in equal measure. It even briefly held a record when Car And Driver first tested the V8-powered FX45 model.
Powered by a 315-hp version of the 4.5-liter Q45 V-8, coupled to a five-speed automatic transmission with obedient manumatic override, the FX45 rushes to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15 seconds flat at 93 mph. That makes the FX45 the quickest production SUV we’ve tested since the long-dead GMC Typhoon. The FX45 is even able to show its fat tailpipes to the BMW X5 4.6is and Mercedes ML55 AMG (6.5 seconds each).
Handling and braking are similarly capable. Thanks to firm springs, taut shocks, and thick anti-roll bars, the FX45 responds with singular precision on a twisty road. Body roll is minimal, steering feel is excellent, and the overall handling balance is remarkably neutral when you really start pushing its limits.
It’s hard to convey just how much of a want-one car the FX35 and FX45 were when they came out. They looked fantastic with their “bionic cheetah” design language and available 20-inch wheels, they went like stink for the time, they sounded good, they handled great, and you could get them with loads of equipment from a Bose sound system to a monitor in the headliner. I still want one, but good ones are weirdly hard to find if you aren’t shopping at the top of the market. Not because they’re particularly unreliable or because all of them got clapped out, but because the original FX suffered from a chronic cosmetic issue that’s absolutely hideous.
See, everything was fine and dandy when the FX launched, until this crossover started to spend a bit of time in the sun. Any car out there should be able to withstand the sun reasonably well considering they’re almost exclusively driven outside, but the FX was a bit different. Just a few years after launch, owners reported a strange issue—their dashboards were bubbling like grated cheese under a broiler.
Since many used car dealers of questionable character hide these defective dashboards with dash covers, I’ve found this FX35 up for sale privately in Burnaby, British Columbia. We’re talking about a vehicle from one of the rainiest regions in North America, featuring a reasonable 172,000 kilometers (just under 107,000 miles) on the clock, and judging by the other photographs in the ad, has enjoyed underground parking for at least part of its life, and the plastic headlight lenses still look pretty good, meaning it likely hasn’t seen loads of sun. Nevertheless, the dashboard bubbled.
Loads of owners have similar stories of dashboard problems. In this thread on infinitifx.org, one owner details having two replacement dashboards in three years on their 2006 model, stating “The local dealer in Dallas looked it up and the dashpad was replaced in December of 2007. The dealer didn’t bat an eye and said bring it in and they will fix it again.” That was in 2009.
Another thread of interior woes, this time on the InfinitiScene forum, starts with a rather elegant title: “Anyone NOT affected by the bubbling dash?” It starts with an owner asking if it really affects all FX models, and it winds up as essentially seven pages of complaints detailing issues with bubbling dashboards, with owners chiming in from just about every region.
If this seems like the sort of thing a company gets sued over, you’re right. In 2014, owners in Missouri won a class action lawsuit against Nissan North America for bubbling FX dashboards, with the automaker paying out $2,000 to each claimant as compensation for the defect. However, this wasn’t entirely a win on each front if you consider the possibility of the issue returning. As the Kansas City Star reported:
Attorney Kevin Stanley, who represented consumers, said bubbles appeared on the dashboards of 2003 model year Infiniti FX vehicles, and Nissan North America came up with a replacement dashboard three years later.
It bubbled, too.
A second replacement dashboard came out in 2009, said Stanley, with Humphrey, Farrington & McClain. He said Nissan warranty claims include 80 instances of bubbles on the new dashboards.
“There’s another version of the dashboard that came out in 2012,” Stanley said. “There is at least one report of that dash also bubbling in their warranty records.”
Um, wow. You’d think that after the second revision, things would be sorted, but nope. One other concession Infiniti made to owners in the midst of the suit was extending warranty coverage on the dash pads to eight years and unlimited mileage – fine for owners back in the day, but a problem now that we’re 17 years past the end of production for the first-generation FX. With revised dashboards also failing, it’s difficult to find an original FX that doesn’t look like its interior is suffering from a nasty infection.
These days, a replacement black instrument panel for a pre-facelift FX will run you $1,731.06 from Infiniti’s official online parts store, and that’s not including all the labor required to swap a dash pad. If your pre-facelift FX has a sage interior, you’re looking at $1,323.26 for a dash pad. If you have a facelifted 2006-2008 model, the pad will run you $1,676.80 in black and $1,891.71 in beige. Not a cheap fix, and short of slapping a dash mat over it or paying a premium for flocking or another sort of upholstering, there’s no real way to guarantee this problem will never return. A windshield cover to use when the vehicle’s parked outside helps, but that’s about as far as you can really go.
So, if you come across a first-generation Infiniti FX up for sale with a dash pad, or one in the wild with a bubbled dashboard, wonder no more. They just sorta do that, which is a shame because they’re otherwise great cars.
Top graphic images: Infiniti; Craigslist seller
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I can say I have experienced this. I was looking for a winter beater and found a pretty nice FX35 for what seems like a decent price. it was, the thing had a few pretty normal oldcar issue I was willing to sort myself, but that dash thing was just nuts. It definitely swayed my decision away from it.
Dashskin makes a molded plastic cover for $131.
https://dashskin.com/collections/all/2003-infiniti-fx35-esi1900015
And it’s *Uncle Sam pointing at you* MADE IN THE USA
Absolutely loved these. Don’t they have self healing paint? It has silicone in it and the sunlight will heat it up and fill in small scratches.
Sadly, this problem will likely persist to Infiniti and beyond.
Looks like it caught a case of the Puff-a-lumps 😉
That is one of the rare times I might authorize someone to buy a carpet dashboard cover.
Let’s see. The ’90 Toyota SR5 pickup I bought new and sold in ’95 had a perfectly intact dash. The ’84 Tercel 4×4 wagon I bought used in ’95 and then sold in ’98 had a perfectly intact dashboard. The ’88 SAAB 9000 I bought used in ’98 and sold in ’01 had a perfectly intact dash. The VW Jetta I bought in ’01 and sold in ’16 had a perfectly intact dash.
My first car was a ’68 Datsun 510 and I was quite fond of it. But there was nothing they ever did after that one that worked for me. I thought the early Maximas looked and sounded cool spec-wise. But at the time, I couldn’t afford it.
After the 510, I bought a used ’71 Peugeot 504 and it had some easily resolvable little failures along the way, but it survived through ’86 (and 60K > 150K miles) without significant issues. And its dashboard wasn’t cracked either.
How did Nissan not figure out what pretty much everyone else was doing? Other than SBSD articles here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a distressed dashboard.
That’s the thing that baffles me. I’ve only owned old cars up until a few years ago, and I’ve never seen a problem with a dashboard. I just don’t get it.
Never had a problem with a dashboard either. Some MBA probably got them to change a material or adhesive to something cheaper that they hadn’t used before.
Car manufacturers always experiment with materials. Otherwise we wouldn’t even have plastics in cars and would still be using wood, metal and cardboard that cars had back 100 years ago. Sometimes new combinations are needed to reduce costs, to improve on crash tests, to give a more premium feel, etc. You only notice these material changes when they don’t hold up, like in this case.
It’s not like Nissan didn’t figure it out. My 2003 Pathfinder has a spotless dash still. It’s just that the combination of materials they used for this particular Infiniti suffered unexpected degradation.
Another example is BMW and other German manufacturers which are notorious for using a soft touch plastic layer that rots with heat+humidity and plastics that can’t handle thermal cycles in engine bays and become brittle.
What is inexcusable is that their 2nd and 3rd attempts at fixing the bubbling dash also failed.
Username checks out.
Nissan must have asked Chrysler who made the dash for the second gen Ram and used them.
Sorry I got to it is the fastest SUV we tested, no list of what vehicles they tested so useless.
Considering it was 2003 they listed it’s only competition, the X5 and Cayenne.
I bought a FX-45 in 03 a few months after they came out, silver with brick interior, it really was like a GTR wagon with a v8. That car drew more attention than about anything on the road when I first bought it, there were a few times I almost got hit by people staring at it driving beside me. Put 150k on it over ten years my wife actually cried when we traded it in for her A6. It was a truly impressive vehicle for its time especially after I found the right tires for it. I never personally had the dash issue but the leather they used sucked as well, there were lots of complaints about leather bubbling and peeling.
I bought my Isuzu Vehicross new in 2002 to this day I have people following me asking is it new despite having a 1978 design and wanting to buy it. No issues to date that didn’t result from deer or poor repair shops. Always clarify what rights you have with insurance company sponsored shops. It took 4 weeks longer than estimated however between the insurance company and the shop they covered the rental car for 6 weeks and became quite submissive once I got really pissed
The exact same thing has happened with the series 4 Y61 (2007-2016) Nissan Patrols, especially when optioned with the black interior.
My ’04 was garaged, dash treated with Lex@l, hard core babied. Infiniti stopped replacing my dashes in 2018 after the 2nd new one also developed smallpox. MAJOR ISSUE when the dash VIN tag fell down into the crack because the new dash melted, and couldn’t hold the dash VIN tag any more. Made my baby look like a stolen Infiniti. First and last Infiniti, due to other issue of them no longer producing ECUs after 10 years.
I’m with you here Thomas, these were cool then and they’re still cool now. It’s hard for younger enthusiasts to believe but if you hopped in a time machine and arrived in the 2000s Infiniti would be like Hansel-so hot right now. The original G35 could go toe to toe with a 3 series whether Bimmer fanboys want to admit it or not-and when the FX came out there was nothing like them on the road.
Nowadays pretty much every luxury marquee will sell you a hot-rodded crossover that’ll put sports cars from 10 years ago to shame, but back then this was it. It completely changed the market. They went totally outside the box with the styling as well.
These don’t look all that outlandish compared to what we see today, but when they launched luxury SUVs were hyper conservative. I actually think the styling has aged pretty damn well, because you could tell someone who doesn’t know cars that it’s a current model and they’d probably believe you.
Ugh. It’s sad to think about how far Nissan has fallen in the last decade. As an elder millennial cars like the FX are becoming nostalgic for me. I remember reading all the glowing reviews in car publications at the time and being excited when I saw them in the wild, particularly this orange color. My roommate’s step mom sophomore year of college had one (albeit in black) and I remember feeling cool as hell hopping out of it on the main street of our college town.
Maybe I’ll go take a peek and see if I can find any nice ones. Unfortunately I doubt it, due to the dashboard issue and the fact that nearly every Japanese car from this era with a V6 or V8 has long since fallen victim to tooners.
Agree to disagree. I don’t know anyone who ever thought Infiniti was cool back when they were new in the 2000s. Back then they were seen as a car for people who couldn’t buy a lexus or an acura. I’m not sure where the rosy colored glasses are coming from.
Nah, they were cool. No other manufacturer had a v6 rwd platform with that power output, and the G35 coupe was cool as hell.
-a millennial
Probably because Infiniti had been in the US market since the early 90s or late 80s.
You must of been around non car people. Enthusiasts looked at Infiniti back then as the BMW of the high end Japanese brands especially in regards to handling. No one I knew including myself that bought one bought it because it was cheaper than competitors. The FX out performed everything else in its class as well as having most all of the newest tech that they didn’t have.
They still are! Have you seen the new QX80? Oof, really good looking SUV
Another vote for they were cool. It was Japan’s answer to BMW and they were toe-to-toe where it mattered.
This is 100% wrong take. The nissan Maxima and the infinitis in the 90s up to around 2006-7 were sportier takes than anything from Honda or Toyota save maybe a NSX/Supra. Stock for stock offerings the nissan products absolutely focused more on performance.
Luckily the VK45 has almost zero aftermarket support. Other then exhaust, which granted the VK45 does sound great unrestricted. If your V8 swapping a Z or something, everyone just goes VK56. As they are way cheaper and plentiful, and the block is the same. So, market is focused exclusively on 56. And if you’re going FX, go V8.
Meh… if that’s the worst issue these have, it wouldn’t bother me. I would just get a dash cover for under $200. I’m not gonna spend over $1000 to replace it with the same crap supplied by the OEM.
Hell… I would probably have some fun with it and get something like this:
https://www.carcoverplanet.com/2010-infiniti-fx35_designer-velour-dashboard-cover.html
Or this:
https://www.carcoverplanet.com/2010-infiniti-fx35_mossy-oak-velour-dashboard-cover.html
Will they do the Cheetah print in assorted silvers, to go with the Bionic Cheetah exterior?
Have no idea but it sounds like a great idea to me!
My significant other has a 2003 FX35 that she has had since new, garage kept in the PNW. It has the beige interior, I haven’t noticed any bubbles at all on the dash. It is a fantastic vehicle, handles great decent power, comfortable. It’s at 170,000 miles. Not the best for mpg. She’d like to get something new, but hasn’t seen anything that grabs her attention like when she first seen the FX.
Another example of how Ghosn and his ilk kill companies. They cut everything possible to maximize short-term profits and their bonuses while selling garbage to consumers.
Ghosn engineered this Nissan/Renault/Infiniti turnaround of the early 2000s. It went wrong after, but he should get credit for these models (he’s despicable in many other ways)
Ghosn’s only focus was on cutting costs. That provided the illusion of a turnaround but mortgaged the future of Nissan by reducing quality and product development. The “turnaround” was a fraud.
Exactly the same thing his apprentice Carlos “not pictured above” Tavares did at Stellantis.
There are just soooo many examples, it is hard to keep track at this point.
I live in Pittsburgh area, where the sun shines 2? months a year. I did worry about the soft touch door panels on my ’10 Acura TSX. I kept them clean and wiped with Meguiars regularly, never had more than a hint of peeling. Car was always outdoors, never garaged.
I assume this was common supplier issue. Lexus also had various recalls for its sticky dash for the same timeframe 03-18, for models such as the IS and ES.
I’ve seen it on a few LS430s and it was common on LS460s until around 2012/13.
I owned a 77 Camaro where the dash pad’s outer layer had become sticky and contracted, curling up and detaching near the windshield. I tried taking it out, heating it and clamping it to try and get it back to its original shape, but it would just curl back up soon after I installed it. At the time, pre-internet, that was not an easily replaceable part.
My console armrest on my 94 Thunderbird did that. It was like a yearly job of taking it off, regluing it, and reclamping it into shape before it shrunk again. You’d know it shrunk too much when it would stop the console from opening.
I had the glove box warp on an ’84 Lincoln, the fix for that was a piece of polished stainless C-channel hammered over the top lip
Wow, that’s gross. Similar to the soft touch plastic degradation in my wife’s old Mk 4 Golf, but way worse.
I feel like VWs of the late ’90s/early ’00s were so notorious for this because it happened earlier in their lifespans, but at least in those cars it was just soft-touch paint—you could peel it off! Stuff like these Infiniti dashes, or the interior door pulls in my BMW E90, even though they might have lasted a little longer initially, were way worse because they just degraded into a goo that’s impossible to eradicate.
My Solara has a similar issue, as do several Avalons and ESs. I’ve found that keeping the dash out of the sun is key, so yeah, a giant tinfoil windshield screen, and park it in the garage.
The only other solution might be, as some below suggest, to have the dash panel wrapped in something better by a pro.
The IP and center consolde of my 2002 Sportcross got sticky after several years (and I used a sunshade when it wasn’t parked indoors). There was supposed to be a recall issued, but when that had expired when my car got affected.
I was shopping for one of these for winter duty a few years back. That was when I discovered this issue with the dash. Also when I started using the silver windshield screen in my g37 and keep the dash sprayed with 303 UV spray. Not same car but, paranoia.
Since the replacements probably also have the same issue, the best solution would be to take the dash off and have an upholstery shop make a nice stitched leather or pleather cover for it. Problem solved!
Is there anything that can be done to prevent plastics from doing this? I’ve had this same problem with trim on other cars, old screwdrivers, kitchen knives, expensive VOIP conference phones, bicycle handlebar grips, etc. I can’t keep all my tools and bikes in the freezer without upsetting the missus.
One reason I drive Toyota, not Lexus. The lower trims seem to have more rugged/durable materials over the long haul.
My old ’03 Taco held up pretty well but my wife’s ’00 Corolla had all sorts of issues inside. The interior window trim strip delaminated, the little cloth inserts on the door cards disintegrated. I noticed this same thing on other Corollas of the same era. The car never gave us a single problem under the hood though.
Probably heavily depends on the car. My Grandma had a first gen LX that stayed absolutely perfect, whereas my 80 Series Land Cruiser had crumbling plastic bits all over. My 91 Toyota pickup? Perfect. The Land Cruiser and Toyota Pickup were both from the same region, with similar miles. To be fair, I think the Cruiser spent 90% of its life in direct sunshine.
With a pro detail my ’14 Camry would look near new, same with our ’07 Corolla. My ’05 MDX has seat covers over the old leather but otherwise is ship shape inside.
Blocking UV is pretty key. I have a 95 Chevy K2500, which are pretty legendary for crumbling plastic bits. Mine are perfect. It spent the first part of it’s life in a garage, then a barn, and I keep it under a carport with a sunshade in at all times. I use sun-shades in ALL of my cars to keep the dashboard as crack free as possible, even though I live in a pretty gray and sad part of the country.
The glove box door in Acura RLs like mine (05-12) do this also, the worst part is it becomes sticky once it starts to emulsify or however it’s breaking down. I had my door re-covered in a synthetic leather with a grain that’s close enough to factory.
“Have we considered…just hear me out…making the dashboard out of the same material as our other cars?’
“And this is why you get paid the big bucks, Yoshi!”
I had an ’03 G35 up until 2019, and the dash never had any issue like this. And this car had spent its entire life in the blazing Austin sun. Really makes you wonder why the FX interior guys weren’t talking to the G interior guys.
Seriously, were they using a different supplier just for the FX, and did they someone give that supplier full ownership of the molds and IP so that they had no choice? Really weird
I mean, when Rover had issues like this in the Sterlings, you expected it, a British car that can’t deal with being outside in sunlight seems reasonable
Ha ha ha. I went to Liverpool last year to install our machines at Ford (fun fact: nobody knows there is a Ford factory, but taxi drivers will find it if you tell them to take you to Jaguar factory) and there were about 4 days out of 7 weeks when sun was out.
We had safety meetings and warnings about a “heat wave” when sun was out and it reached 84°F.
I miss UK’s heat waves. Chicago’s heat waves suck so much