Miles to date: 23,630 miles
Months in fleet: Nine
Most crossovers exist for the primary purpose of hauling around families and their gear in complete comfort. Not our EX35. Throughout its time in our fleet, it has proved popular among singles and couples, but disappointing to those with more people to cart around. This trend was made clear once again this month as the EX went on two road trips and left two rather different impressions on its drivers.
First up was a senior Web editor Phil Floraday, who went with his sister on a meandering three-and-a-half day drive to Maine. Initially one of the EX's biggest detractors (back in January he likened it to Chevy Chase's Wagon Queen Family Truckster), he returned from his adventure an unabashed enthusiast.
"About 1200 miles into the trip, I still wasn't tired of driving. The seats are incredibly comfortable, the stereo is surprisingly good, and it drives like a regular sedan. We actually ditched the interstate and stuck with two-lane roads for an entire day through Vermont, New Hampshire, and up the lovely Route 1 in Maine. I found the EX to be as "tossable" as anything else built on Nissan's FM platform. The automatic transmission is calibrated well and I enjoyed the manual shift feature for controlling speed on some of the major downhill sections of highway in Maryland and West Virginia on the way home.... Read full article