Am i crazy...

Or is the gas version of the nx the superior riding vehicle, despite conventional wisdom about the heavy battery creating a low COG that improves ride quality?

TL;DR summary: I drive a 2025 NX450h+ with 19" Pirelli WeatherActives, but after spending time in a base NX350 loaner with 18s, I was surprised by how much better it rode—softer, quieter, more traditionally Lexus. I expected the PHEV’s low center of gravity and EV refinement to offer a superior experience, but the extra weight and suspension tuning seem to work against it. My family doesn’t feel a huge difference, but to me the gas NX is more comfortable and relaxing to drive. Am I crazy, or has anyone else noticed this too?


So, i know that there are a lot of different variables that go into the preceived comfort and drive of a vehicle, the biggest being our own perception. I grew up with an understanding of luxury vehicles that i think would be seen as very traditional: soft and quiet. Those big lincoln town cars, the volvo and audi wagons we drove for awhile in my childhood. Comfort is king with us. Speed, for example isn't a metric i care about if the roads i drive on here in downstate ny are too twisty and cracked to be comfortable at high speeds anyway. Highway driving is much better, but i rarely do it for long. So, my family decided together on the 450h+ back in October, as we were coming from a tucson hev; we do have a equinox ev in the garage as well, so it felt silly to have a vehicle that we wouldn't want to use as much due to reduced fuel economy, like taking a step backwards.

When we got the car, my immediate thought was, this is certainly a fine vehicle, but it's not what i was expecting. It didnt fit the memories of the is350 my father used to drive, or the other luxury vehicles I've been lucky to have ridden in over my 3+ decades on earth. Don't get me wrong, phevs and bevs are indeed the future, and it isn't easy to go back to ice vehicles after getting used to an all electric powertrain. I knew ahead of time that the 20 inch run flats were going to be a problem with comfort, so we swapped those out early for 19 inch pirelli weatheractives, intending to split the difference between the stock 18s and the 20s on size. The effect of difference in sidewall amount on tires is well documented, so i expected this swap would fix any lingering issues with the ride.

But, after driving a loaner base nx 350, I'm not so sure the tires size is the only reason the base 350 feels so much more comfortable to drive. Conventional wisdom says a lower center of gravity, afforded by the big heavy batteries down low, makes a big difference in ride quality, but it seems to have the opposite effect of "the car isn't designed from the outset to manage that extra weight", and so a small car that's supposed to feel light and nimble feels a little more...ponderous to drive.

I'm not trying to **** on the car at all, because we love it. We really do, but surely if lexus wants to have so many pt options offered on one model, the suspension needs to be able to scale better with the weight, because the phev pt takes the great lexus feel I'm used to and gives it a stiff character that i don't think the car is set up for. As it stands right now, to me, the car feels very good, but the ride in the base ice version reminds me of what i love so much about lexus to begin with. So much more compliant and quiet, and i can't believe that simply having gone for the stock 18 wheels would have solved the problem on their own; There has to be more to the story. My family, has felt the ride was better with the 19 inch pirellis, but they don't necessarily feel that the base nx is that much better than what we have in rq. Idk. Maybe I'm crazy. Again, just trying to have a discussion, nothing wrong with the car at all otherwise.

Does my experience match up with anyone else's? It is just simple physics, that a firmer tuning is needed to make up for added weight, i guess (i am not an engineer), but i don't think people might be aware how much of a difference, good AND bad, different powertrain options on one model of vehicle can make such a difference. Anyway, Thank you for reading.

 

Interesting read. As I started reading my first thought was "this guy must have had a big Lincoln Towncar at some point" and yup, next sentence you mention it

Where I think the low center of gravity makes the difference is in cornering, not necessarily ride comfort. My wife has a Forester which I drive often too, probably even more than my wife does. Subarus are known for low center of gravity with their engine and AWD design. I had a Crosstrek for a while too that I passed along to my daughter, I think these are great multi-purpose vehicles. However these cars are by no means luxury rides, but they corner extremely well, they feel better than my NX around a quick corner. Not night and day, but still, noticeable.

 

Interesting thoughts. I drove an 350 F Sport when my 450h+ F Sport is in for service and I felt that the 350 was very light. When you step on the gas it goes, but I feel it gets out of control because it's not as planted in comparison to the 450h+. The 450h+ is fast and feels more planted on the ground over the 350. Not sure if you have the non F Sport 450h+ or the F Sport, but I do feel that it has a good balance of firm and bounce. Tires definitely change the ride quality as well. I don't think you are crazy and I always say that you have to drive the car to see if it is for you. Many buy a car and then complain about it but never spent the time to see if the car is for you or not. Some people want speed, some people want comfort, some people enjoy the soft ride. We are all different and have different demands for a car.

 

Lol. To be clear, we didn't have one, but yes, the one vacation we'd take a year, my father didn't want to dive our car to the airport, and the car service we used used town cars 😀.

I would say most cars corner better than the nx. That, ofc, isn't why you go with it, but to that point, the steering on the 450h+ feels like it's artificial, like it's fast to make up for the increased weight, but that doesn't translate into any actual better performance. It's a weird feeling. I guess i just feel consistency across all the powertrains could only benefit things, though i know that isn't really possible in a 3 in 1 car like this. I hope the new versions at least can factor the added battery weight in better in its design.

 

The non f Sport.

Agreed. This wasn't our first choice, but it is ultimately the cheapest option that isn't severely compromised in the rear like the ux, or several hundred $ more a month like a rx or es hybrid, so i gladly took it, but i guess I've learned that the desirable aspects of vehicles that i took for a given from Lexus arent universally available anymore, and i should weigh future decisions with that in mind.

 

I have a different experience. I test drove NX350 (gas) and used as a loaner. I found it very similar to Toyota RAV4 comparing to my NX350h. Gas version is very slow; the gas pedal needs to be pushed hard for it to move forward, and its engine is struggling to pick up the speed. Hybrid version is more agile than gas version. Even though the hybrid version engine is also struggling but not as much as gas version. But, as per my experience, Lexus is nor a very agile vehicle anyway. My wife's 2023 Kia Sportage hybrid (only 1.6 L engine comparing to Lexus 2.5L) is much more agile, drives smoother and quieter than Lexus and much faster.

 

I have owned a few Lexus cars over the years & have had a NX 350 F Sport from the day they were released here in Australia. Always enjoyed the handling qualities of IS sedans (non hybrid) and although my NX 350 F Sport is not a sedan, it certainly feels far more nimble than any of the NX hybrids I have driven, of which there have been quite a few.
Fuel economy is not a metric I worry about so I tend to stick with Lexus ICE cars because, in my mind, the NX 350 F Sport handling is far superior to any NX hybrid I have driven. The official weight difference here between F Sport 350 and hybrid cousin is small however, there is a very clear difference with the 350s handling and nimbleness. I don’t know what it is, but the 350 F Sport, for some reason feels far lighter, which in reality could be more my perception than anything else!

 

I can confirm that the NX350 does have this characteristic at parking lot speeds, but after 2 1/2 years of ownership I am convinced this has nothing to do with engine performance (or I've occasionally seen people refer to this as turbo lag, its definitely not this, there is very little on this engine) but rather an electronic throttle safety delay. I have unofficially dubbed it the Dynamic Operator Request for Kinetics Limiter, aka the "DORK Limiter". If I am moving along at lower speeds in lower gears say around 1500rpm 0 boost and apply, say 1/4 throttle it will nicely pick up speed with modest but near instant boost and little fuss, but with little excitement either. Instead, 2/3rds throttle or more, there is a definite electronic delay before the power rolls on somewhat gradually (several hundreds of miliseconds where it feels more like ECO mode on steroids, not an engine suffering to make power). This engine produces a lot of torque and it maxes out low in the power band (the truck version of this engine is tuned for max torque not too much off of idle), if the power were to roll on too quickly in 1st or 2nd gear (which are generally pretty short) I'm thinking there's more than 1 grocery getter that might not handle it very well. This delay I feel is directly related to trying to prevent people from parking in unusual places, such as the rear store room of your local convenience store, or say, on top of your neighbors SUV (the classic "Dork" parking areas, LOL). I say this because in similar situation but say from a dead stop coming off the brake, totally different experience. Also at > parking lot speeds, say cruising along at the same 1500rpm, 0 boost but in 5th or 6th gear, give it the same 2/3 throttle, instant drop to 3rd gear, boost gauge at max in a blink, I can feel my shoulders and head sink noticeably back into the cushion (yea, I probably need to do more sit-ups). I'm still occasionally surprised by it even today. It is a bit of a learning curve to know when and how to apply the throttle at various speeds to get the best response. Grocery getters probably won't notice or care, they are just happy not accidentally driving thru the store front window, but enthusiasts it is a tad of an annoyance at said lower speeds.

A lot of people get excited by the torquey little pulses hybrids of capable of at low speeds. With ~350,000 km of hybrid driving under my belt across several models, I know it and like it too, but it has been over embellished as instant max torque at 0 rpm, which is not the case for conventional hybrids. Sure, MG2 is "capable" of a substantial amount of torque at 0rpm, but only if the engine is already humming along over 5000rpm, otherwise there isn't enough electricity to do so. Certainly can't beat the smooth power delivery though, that is a given.

 

Thank you for your detailed explanation, but since I am driver, not a car engineer or mechanic, I only deal with how the car movement feels to a driver, not what is happening under the hood. When I mentioned that engine is struggling, I did not mean the engine itself per se. I meant the whole thing. As I said when Kia Sportage picks up the speed it does it without extra engine (or whatever around it) noise or delay. Kia just moves forward without delay. I fully realize that such feelings are purely subjective :-)