Just picked up our 2025 RX 500H yesterday, after trading in our 2018 RX FWD. The 2025 350h was noticeably much slower than our old car, so we picked this model specifically for the performance. Put 200 miles on day one, and our first impressions are very positive, (although the seats don't feel as comfy). Our build has all the bells and whistles and I'm a little overwhelmed by all the configurable tech. Are there any posts or web sites that list best practices, tips and how-to for configuring the car's features? Similar to web sites that recommend how to configure Windows for your PC.

 

Northside Lexus has a couple of VERY good, comprehensive "Deep Dive" YouTube videos on the RX, explaining the features and tech.

Pop some popcorn and have a six-pack on hand, they are each several hours LONG.


Fortunately, each video is chapterized, so it is easy to go back and review the features in a few months, after you forget what you watched.

 

2025 RX 500h 0-60 5.9 sec.
2025 RX 350h 0-60 7.4 sec.
2018 RX 350 0-60 7.7 sec.

 

I've seen times that were a little different, but yours may be correct. it defiantly 'felt" slower; maybe it's my boomer bias against 4 cylinders. LOL

 

Thank you, these videos will be a big help.

 

Melissa makes wonderful tutorials.

Your first impression that the 350h was slower than the '18 is very likely the difference between
your fully broken in car and a brand new one. You wouldn't run a marathon in new shoes, right?
A quick trip around the dealership in a stone-cold demonstrator will always come off stiff and slow.

The statistic panel was just to tease you, you certainly don't have to justify buying the 500h to anyone, enjoy!

 

Trying to compare a vehicle with a conventional transmission to one with a hybrid eCVT power train is going to be deceptive. The steps in a traditional transmission as it shifts give the false impression of greater acceleration compared to the smooth stepless acceleration of the hybrid eCVT.

Many people are absolutely certain that the current RX350 is much quicker than the RX350h, but instrumented tests show them to be almost identical. The same holds true for the RX500h and RX450h+ with the two having almost identical performance and handling stats.

 

Most RX buyers couldn't care less about a one or two second difference in 0-60.

 

I think you are right about historical core Lexus demography. However, neither the 500H nor the 450H+ buyers are necessarily aligned with that historical, core Lexus demography - who are looking for the cheapest Lexus "appliance" to get from Point A to Point B, at the lowest cost possible.

 

Congrats on the 500h, it's a great vehicle, and love mine. The Youtube videos from Northside are probably the best ones. Some things off the top of my head:

• Look into configuring your MID to how you like it, there's endless possibilities, and you can configure 3 subsections, and have 3 'pages'. There's also a horizontal bar that's like your rev gauge if that's preferable
• Look into HUD options too, lots of customization there
• There's a shortcut on the main head unit display that basically gets your shortcut of everything, including driving mode and quick climate settings, oh and driving assists
• I tend to like to manually control my AC, and depending on the Climate concierge is on, may need to toggle A/C on or off if you really want the AC off.... at least that's my experience on the NX so I have been used to that.
• I'm getting great gas mileage based on how I drive in normal, and don't use sport or Eco mode, around 25-31mpg per trip/drive. If you care about being more eco conscious, try having the meter closer to the 1st to 2nd third of the gauge to maintain speed. Sport mode is fun though, and you can customize your drive setting too (i.e. firmer suspension, tighter steering, while having a normal or eco throttle). Car upon each trip I believe by default every time you turn off the car, will display the EV ratio and other metrics, until you open the door and all of that disappears. Been finding that with the car warmed up, it usually stays in EV mode with gentle throttle up to 30ish mph - good for suburban/neighborhood driving while coming back in from a highway or main road.
  • I don't really bother resetting the trip averages every time I fill it up, or on board
• Proactive driving assist - according to many from different dealers upon delivery, it may be turned off in yours. My dealer turned it off, and the rational was that since many people avoid potholes, customers didn't like it interfering, which was odd to me. Since I like the tech, have been driving with it on about one month. I don't like how it slows/deccelerates since it tanks my mpgs since I pulse/glide, so only have the 'deceleration' option turned off. But I have it on the low setting, no issues so far. I have the center MID configured to where it'll display all different detections with the Proactive Driving Assist
• Don't use the digital key in the Lexus App if you're not using it - believe it does drain battery, used to carrying the key fob anyways
• Pair different drivers to the different key fob along with profiles
• Lexus App will do this analysis on each of your driving trips if you opt into it, might be worth checking into it if this is what you really want. It's called "Drive Pulse & Tips" I think under the Find tab. It will record your trips and tell you metrics of hard accelerations, braking, etc. and give you scores.
• If your car is garaged and don't drive that often (I drive like 1 or 2 times a week), might be worth looking into a battery tender due to all the 12V issues. Also a 12V bluetooth battery monitor if you get paranoid like me.
• Biggest recommendation is read up on how to jump the 12v from the front of the hood with the access and how to get access to the car when it's completely dead with all the electronic locks. If towed, all wheels are locked when dead and cannot be put into neutral.
• If you drive and have passengers or share the car and they need to get out - ensure the car is in P or Neutral, otherwise they won't be able to get in or hear an audible unlock. Familiarize the lock indication on the doors and position, since everything is electronic and takes some getting used to. I was being picked up in the NX which has the same setup with the doors/locks, and looked like an idiot waiting to get in since the doors would not unlock. Turns out that car needed to be in P or in N so that doors would unlock, don't believe you can have the doors unlock while in D or D/M mode. Might need to retest this for sanity check
• I like the electronic shift and how it works, obviously be familiar with how it works and with muscle memory. I don't ever take my vehicles for automated car washes, so only bring this up if you need to pop the car into N, takes like a second hold directly to the left
• No pins under the rear emblems if you want to debadge if that's preferable
• Highly recommend ceramic tints (Xpel Prime XR+) especially for that panoroof

Lastly enjoy the 500H for all that it's worth!

 

“Proactive driving assist?” Not familiar with this exact term for a feature on the car, I have a 2022 NX 350 H with all the bells and whistles but nothing with those words, can you explain please.

 

Ah with the NX, I think that feature even though the hardware is there, wasn't really introduced on the NX until 2024 and up. We have a 2023 NX350h too and it doesn't have it. You're not missing out that much though. Paraphrasing off the top of my head, but with everything on and at the default setting, on the RX, it can detect people/objects/bikes on the side and slightly swerve to get out of the way. Believe it can also nudge you back into the lane. And also correct steering while on curves. It's different than the pre-collision system from what I understand since it will actively brake for you (without your foot on the brake) if you're coming up too close to a car. I personally didn't like that since it was too intrusive for me, so just turned that off. In my experience so far, it hasn't really corrected steering for me out of the blue. If PDA is triggered or detects objects, it'll throw an icon on the dash/HUD from what I remember. It's good that the feature is there once you fully understand how it works, like a safety bubble.

Found that video from Lexus corporate:

 

Thank you. This was very helpful

 

Up until now all the sensors and systems were "reactive". Something got too close, low speed or high speed, and the car would react.
The new Proactive Driving Assist tries to act more like an experienced human driver and predict what might happen.
It appears that we are Beta Testing the features that true Autonomous cars will need. Advanced Park to enable hands off Parking is another.

 

ME! And Sport mode lessens even that.