Had a stroll inside my local Lexus dealership just to see what they had on the lot. One of their demonstrator's was a USB NX300h Luxury.

So being nosey, I had a look at every angle in detail, touching and feeling everything just for the sake of it.

Thats when I realised there was no centre seatbelt in the rear so I asked the dealer and he pulled it out from the ROOF!!! The actual belt comes out of the roof and there are 2 latches, a large one and a smaller one.

The holder for the small latch needs to be pulled out of the middle of the left rear seat base and the small latch fits in there. Then the large latch fits into the normal holder on the middle seat. see below where the small holder in the base of the seat is:


And you get a mess like this:




Id certainly recommend you guys to check it out because its a major PITA. Its uncomfortable if you have 3 in the back, I got my daughter and 2 sons in there and they were complaining that it doesnt feel right.

Oh and I decided to drive it with the 3 in the back. Obviously, the belt moves so its pretty annoying as well as distracting when looking out of the rear. Another thing is, its right in the middle! I got frustrated to the point I took my son to take the belt off and put it back in the roof to which he replied - "I cant get it out".

That brings me onto another problem - make sure you have a pen handy as the small latch has a little hole you need to press to take it off!

Who came up with this stupid idea? They ended up making a simple seatbelt a very complicated affair! Why didn't they just use one like in the RX? Thats a 3 point seatbelt and doesn't have any problems!

Come on Lexus - you make a good all round vehicle and add idiotic things like this to it!?

 

I'll check it out when I get mine. Seems overly complex for sure.

 

I believe that's the same implementation in my parent's RAV4.

 

That doesn't look correct. I would really be surprised if that is the proper way to use the middle belt.

 

I am not doubting what the OP saw, but those pictures are from two different cars. The color of the seats are different as well as the materials on them. Just pointing that out.

 

Two different cars, same sh....., I'm with rayaans, thats an annoying technical solution if somebody wants to use with 3 persons in the back.

"That brings me onto another problem - make sure you have a pen handy as the small latch has a little hole you need to press to take it off!"
I'we spoken with my dealer, and he said to take the small latch off from the roof you can use the key of the car. You don't need a pen.

 

Thanks God, my childrens are big now, but with two chidren seats (ISOFIX) on the back, you can't use the seatbelt in the middle. This is not the quality and value in use, what I could accept from Lexus.

Actually (we use the car with max.4 persons) I can live with this technical solution.

 

Yes, you are correct. The second picture with cloth seats are from a Rav4 if i recall correctly. But - the mechanism is exactly the same.

Here is a quote from Parkers review of the NX300h "There’s plenty of space aboard for five adults, although fitting child seats can be a faff with the rear-centre seatbelt overlapping the nearside rear passenger." Available - http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/review...ad-test/64730/

I found that it was an issue even without child seats as I couldn't be bothered switching my daughter's seat from the RX into the NX for the sake of a 5 minute drive and it was just generally uncomfortable for them in the back.

Its easy to take it out of the roof - just pull the small latch out first, then the larger latch. I was referring to when you're taking the belt off and putting it back into the roof. You need something small to get the smaller latch out of the holder in the seat. You could always pull out your key from the fob but its just an extra hassle that didnt need to be there, especially when most cars have 3 point seatbelts in the car currently and hardly any of them come from the roof!

Its just another rattle waiting to happen too? If anyone knows the logic behind this, I would happily listen because ATM, im completely confused as to how this new system is better than on other SUV's

 

I am glad you pointed out the issue of seatbelt for the rear centre seat. I also wondered how the middle seat belt works when spotting it on the ceiling.

It is indeed a stupid design shared by RAV4, not only the current generation but the last generation as well.

There is a video which demonstrates clearly how to use the middle seatbelt in a RAV4.


And it seems to be impossible to install 3 child restraints (Post #7)

http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/sho...-the-RAV4-work

Probably it is some kind of safety requirement for this category of SUV?? Maybe the middle seat is too narrow to have the normal seatbelt in a SUV??

Note that the current generation CR-V also has this similar middle seatbelt arrangement as you can see from the picture where the middle seatbelt is concealed in the ceiling

http://www.torquenews.com/1574/2015-...l-connectivity

 

WTF?!?! Thanks for posting this info and especially the RAV4 video so we could see what the heck this system is.

What a stupid design! I don't think I have 3 people in the back seat too often but if I did I would probably have to skip the NX based on this design.

I'm actually kind of floored about how ridiculous this system is.

Don't mean to over react (sorry - too late ;o). ) but if we end up with the NX I can picture myself showing people the goofiness of that seatbelt system and they would remember that more than anything else about the car.

Well, I guess it's better to know about this before test driving one so I'm not surprised.

Thanks again - good info to know.

Not sure how others feel but this would definitely be a problem if we regularly hauled 3 people in the back seat. Luckily we don't so it's more of just an oddity I guess but I am shaking my head trying to figure this out.

 

it is not physically possible to put 3 car seats next to each other there, they wont fit, there is too little space. You would need something with 3 separate seats, definetly not Rav4.

I really sold a lot of Rav4s back in the day and I never heard this complaint, probably because there is generally not enough space for this to be real 5 seater vehicle. As you can see in the demo video, that dude sits down and there is no way for two other grown people to fit there.

 

How is it possible to have three people seated in the back if the middle seat belt buckles into that latch that is in the middle of the outboard seat? Seems like it would be unforgettable for the guy behind the driver

 

I was wondering how I was going to say that. Excellent choice of words. Pulitzer prize please.

 

Its possible. It just uncomfortable as my son informed me. Another thing to note is that, due to the angle of the belt coming down from the roof, its especially uncomfortable for young ones as it has a tendency to cut into their neck. My daughter had a little rash from the seatbelt because of the angle and there's no holders for the middle seat which are needed for the young ones. Cant remember if they're on the side ones though because I forgot to check

 

Interesting. This is a pretty small sample size but it looks like there aren't too many cross shoppers of the RAV4 and NX based on this thread alone

We would have seen a lot more folks commenting on the RaV4 setup by now.

Sorry for the previous post's overreaction but that is a weird setup. I tried to explain it to my wife and she seemed confused as well. When I reminded her we typically don't have more than 2 people back there anyway she shrugged her shoulder, said 'weird' and then - 'let's not worry about it then'.

Near miss . . .