Once I'd called into question the FX's sportiness, I found it harder to justify its drawbacks. Always a bold design statement, the FX's sleek shape takes a toll on interior space. Thankfully, the supportive, comfortable front seats have generous legroom, 44.7 inches. The backseat is snug, and the legroom measurement of 34.6 inches is small even among sporty competitors like the Cayenne and X5. In practice, however, the ample front-seat legroom means there's some flexibility. We even found that a rear-facing infant seat (always a difficult test) left the front passenger plenty of room. (See the Cars.com Car Seat Check.)

Perhaps the boldly styled BMW X6 is the most appropriate model to compare, with 1.3 inches more backseat legroom but 1.3 inches less headroom. Like the FX, the X6 sacrifices cargo volume, totaling 20.1 cubic feet behind the backseat and 51.2 cubic feet with the seat folded. The FX has 24.8 and 62 cubic feet, respectively, which is within roughly 1 cubic foot of the Cayenne in both figures. The more conservatively styled X5 improves on them all, with 35.8 and 75.2 cubic feet. (See them compared.) Without a doubt, the hatchback design and a total of five seats provide a usable cargo area in all these models, but once you compare them with typical crossovers, the shortcomings are clear.