THE pub lad-chat turned from football to cars. One of the better informed guys proclaimed ‘Well, there's no such thing as a bad car these days - they're all shades of good'.

He wasn't far wrong. With commercial pressures and fierce competition, the real lemons are nearly always weeded out before the design stage, let alone the showroom.

But there are models that suit certain owners better than others. So the selection process is mainly about finding the car that best suits you.

That's one of the reasons that there are so many ‘niche' models around today.

Occupying a very select slot is Infiniti, the prestige arm of Nissan. This is a company where the phrase ‘sales volumes' is rarely uttered and you get a designated staff member to deal with whenever you need attention - in connection with your Infiniti, that is.

There are only a handful of dealers in UK, but within a 150 mile radius your car will be picked up and returned from your home for servicing.

The range concentrates on sports and luxury saloons, posh four-wheel-drives and there's a convertible coupe.

I drove the mighty FX - an awesome looking large SUV with swoopy styling and just about as much road presence as a Hummer, but a lot better looking.

In the Middle East, where Infiniti is big, most FX models are sold with huge 5.0-litre V8s which boast neck-jerking acceleration and give new meaning to gas guzzling.

Over here with fuel prices somewhere in the stratosphere, the smart money is on the 3.0-litre diesel which will top 130mph and hit 62mph in 8.2 seconds.

Even driven hard I managed more than 30mpg and the official combined figure is 42mpg - which is just about double that of the V8.

The refined six cylinder engine has abundant torque with really sporty characteristics making a fun drive despite its considerable size.

Space in the cabin and boot isn't quite a match for rivals like the Audi Q7 or the Range Rover - the boot holds just over 400 litres with rear seats in place and 1,300 litres when they are folded.

The rakish profile and sloping roofline look great but inevitably reduce luggage carrying capacity.

But the practicalities of the FX aren't really how it wins sales - it's more the styling and the fact that despite its off-road credentials it drives more like a giant coupe than a mud-lugging off-roader.

The cabin design is both pleasantly restrained and attractively styled, continuing the theme of smooth, sweeping lines. The quality of materials used is right up there with Audi and Lexus.

The 3.0d GT Premium has a price tag of £50,719, so you expect all the bells and whistles and you get them. Sat-nav, climate control, parking sensors, high-grade leather trim, Bluetooth, it has them all. Surprisingly, perhaps, metallic paint is an extra at £679.