jginnane

This is a terrific thread. I may be among the few who picked the Z as a "fallback" to the EX35, though,

For six months I looked up and down the East Coast for an EX that DIDN'T have AWD. Reason -- because on our Yukon and M-Class, 4WD/AWD just tends to make you sloppy, and I'd find the actual number of days needed down here on the NJ shore was fewer than 10 a year. AWD makes a car 10% heavier, 10% more expensive, and 10% more maintenance. And in the case of the EX35, the idea was to get lighter and more responsive than the "big brother" FX35.

We searched dealers and inventories from Nov 2008 to April 2009. Infiniti still hasn't introduced a 2009 EX model, and the vast bulk of what we saw had been built in late 2007. A dozen dealers told us we couldn't get RWD east of the Mississippi.

Finally test-drove a RWD EX35 in West Palm Beach in early April. But it was used ... and the selling price didn't reflect that. I was sold on the engine and transmission, but still didn't want to go with an Infiniti coupe or sedan, because these were too close to my wife's TL.

Rather than keep looking at station-wagon configurations, and having been disappointed by Infiniti's overall response, we briefly considered the Honda Insight and 3rd-gen Prius. The first didn't have enough; the second, with the options we'd want, put the price into the mid-30s.

It was at that point that I said -- "We don't really need a back seat, do we?" And since we decided to hold on to the Yukon for another year, we have a fallback for the bigger hauling chores.

Once Congress finalizes this $4500 clunker credit, we may replace the Yukon with a Honda Fit or the like. The only requirement I have is that the roof be strong enough to carry a 16' canoe on a Thule rack.