On Thursday I finally picked up my new NX - just for fun I thought I'd share my first impressions and observations on the off chance someone might find them helpful or interesting.

First, the subject of today's discussion:


This is an NX350. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

This is my shiny new NX350, non-hybrid, non-F sport. Cloudburst Gray with the Palomino interior, it has the Premium package with the 14" navigation and 20" wheels added on, along with a dealer tint job. Between playing with it immediately after taking delivery and a Memorial Day weekend road trip to visit my folks in the next state over, I've put about 450 miles on it so far. Some early thoughts, both positive and less so:

POSITIVE

• I love this vehicle. Just wanted to get this out first in case there's any confusion later on. Not even a hint of buyer's remorse yet. It's not perfect, but it's really really good.
• Performance is solid. It doesn't lay down the numbers some of its competitors do, but for my needs it's more than adequate. Merging onto the Alpharetta Autobahn is a snap, and it's easy to end up at 90+ if you aren't paying attention. I haven't had a chance to stress the handling, but all indications so far are that it's all good.
• I'm happy with the interior comfort. I'm 5'8" and, uh, 'portly', and I can tell I will be able to drive this car all day. The seats are supportive and have plenty of adjustment, and front legroom is good. My 5'8" non-portly son can sit behind me with more than adequate legroom as well. Neither of us are blessed with height obviously, but my 6'+ salesguy was able to ride along with me on the test drive with plenty of headroom room as well.
• I'm really liking the Lexus Interface. It only missed the "Hey Lexus" wakeup phrase once, and it never failed to correctly interpret my requests. That doesn't mean it could do everything I asked of course - the expression on my son's face when I said "Hey Lexus...fire passenger ejection seat" was pretty good, before the car admitted it had no idea what I was asking.
• The safety and driver assistance tech seems to work well. I'm coming from an '04 RX where the most advanced technology is that the CD player can take six CDs instead of just one, so I suppose I am easily wowed here. Still...after a bit of fiddling and manual reading and road testing I'm starting to get the hang of it. With everything turned on I did about a hundred miles yesterday without touching the pedals once, which was really cool. Blind spot monitoring is effective and well-calibrated, and I even gave the rear cross-traffic system an unintentional test, which it passed with flying colors. Very pleased here.
• Gas mileage so far has been about 25mpg. This is in line with the EPA estimate, which is surprising since (a) the car isn't fully broken in yet, and (b) I wasn't exactly observing the posted speed limits on the highway. My old RX has been closer to about 20mpg the last few years, so this is a welcome boost.

BONUS POSITIVE

• I was driving my wife around the day after I got it, showing her some of the tech features. As we were about to drive by my son's school she somewhat sarcastically asked me if it is smart enough to warn me of school zones. Not two seconds later the "Approaching school zone - prepare to slow down" alert popped up on the display.

LESS SO

• The engine is a little buzzy, particularly when pulling away from a complete stop. It definitely doesn't sound premium - even my wife commented on it, and she typically doesn't pay attention to such things. Once you're at speed the buzz goes away, and even a little bit of radio is enough to cover it up at low speed, but still. Seems like Lexus could have done better here - do the NX's competitors have this issue?
• I am experiencing some of the same phone related issues as others. Some of it may be my fault, as I haven't fully read the manuals yet, but still. This was all set up at the dealer so it should work. Hopefully an upcoming software update will resolve things and make this seamless.
• That big display really shows fingerprints. It's OK once the display is up and running, but when you first get in the car it looks like a two year-old has been playing with it. I'm going to have to keep a cloth in the car to do regular wipedowns.
• Sometimes it's not enough to have your foot on the brake, you have to be on it harder than a certain threshold. I don't recall what I was wanting to do or adjust, but a couple of times I had the car complain that my foot wasn't on the brake, when it was. Pressing harder made the problem go away, but...really?
• The 'thematic illumination' is pretty weak. It's only $100 as an option so it's doesn't really matter, but I was surprised at how subtle it is.
• The gas tank is only 14 gallons. I suppose that helps dull the pain when filling up from empty at the pump, but I'd personally like another couple of gallons in there - two more gallons would let me make a round trip from the parents' place in Alabama without absolutely having to fill up.
• Finally, the seating position and vehicle dimensions are such that it is difficult for me to use the drive-thru ATM at my bank. I don't have this problem with my RX, my wife's Highlander, or my beater F-150, but it's uncomfortable to use in this car. I'm going to try playing with the seat height adjustment to see if it helps.

PROBLEM
I did mention that I have encountered my first actual problem already. We were coming back from the lake yesterday when I activated the windshield washer to wash away some bug remains that had appeared, so I decided to hit the rear window washer as well, just to see. I did, and it started raining inside the cargo area! I was so surprised that I asked my son to observe as I activated it again, just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. This isn't water seeping around the hatch seals, it is coming from inside the vehicle. My guess is that there's a cracked fitting where the line from the washer reservoir up front meets the nozzle, or maybe a small split in the line itself. It's not a huge volume of water and it only happens while the washer is activated, but it still renders the washer unusable. If I can see how to remove the interior trim without damaging it I might try to fix it myself, only because I don't want to take the time to go back to Lexus for something so (hopefully) trivial. But seriously...WTF Lexus?

 

Omg

Wtf?!?!

This is crazy

 

Is it leaking inside the headliner? If so, I'd have them replace the entire headliner. It that gets wet, it'll stain and possibly develop mold.

 

I feel the same thing about the "buzzy" engine at startup. Kind of makes me think we're in a RAV4 instead of a Lexus.

The message about pressing the brake harder is probably from the "feature" that shuts off the engine when you're stopped.

I guess we should use the back window washer soon to make sure we don't have that issue. But not very soon. I just washed it.

 

great write up.. If the vehicle is "raining on the inside", it may make sense to take that extra time and take it to the dealership... I'm going to try my wife's to ensure she doesn't have that issue as well...

I'm going to keep reading the forums to see what you're referring to w/ the "phone issue" because I'm ALWAYS hearing myself echo when I talk to her through her car.. Is that what you're describing?

 

All turbo 4s buzz be it MB, BMW or Audi etc... it's just nature of a 4 banger...you should hear how bad the BMW 4 bangers sound.
Only when you get to the inline 6 (turbo or not) does it sound better especially at low rpm

But ya the touchscreen is a finger print magnet, but it is a big screen...sorry to hear about your leak.. should be easy enough to fix!

No issues with the few calls I've made in the car though not sure because I wasn't familiar with system or not. When I was on phone and turned volume **** up (to increase phone call volume), it turned radio up! I had to fudge around and change call speaker to BT for it to work normal again (no media volume and **** controlled phone call volume) . Not sure if I had changed source inadvertently earlier or what. But calls after I didn't have issues

 

Washer potential leaking inside....Take it to the dealer. Do not try removing headliner..DO NOT REMOVE HEADLINER!!!

Brake thing, I like it especially when you know the light is about to turn green, a little light brake application and the engine shut off does not activate. You'll get used to it.

Buzzing noise at start up, yup agree it could be better. Coming from a large V8 I thought it was just the 4 banger typical noise.

Great write up, enjoy all the cool and frustrating features!

 

Yep - seems to be common. We're trying a new phone for my wife since here's is rather old but I'm not sure it will help.

 

I'd definitely try that rear washer out...I can't imagine this is anything other than a case of one-off bad luck on my part, but who knows?

As for the phone, the audio quality is great according to my wife, who is the only person I have called from the car so far. She says I sound fine, and I don't hear any echoes on my iPhone 12. The problems I am referring to are the issues people have had with the phone reliably connecting to the car on startup - sometimes mine does, sometimes it doesn't.

 

LOL, no worries! The water isn't coming from the headliner, it's coming from behind the plastic trim on the inside of the hatch. I could probably get that trim off if I wanted to, but it occurred to me that it's unlikely to be a fitting I could replace myself, so all I'd accomplish is spending time to satisfy my curiosity before ultimately taking it to the dealer anyway. So I'm just going to let Lexus deal with it.

Thanks! Interior precipitation aside, I'm greatly enjoying the car so far.

 

Thanks for sharing, Dorsai! Chuckled out loud at the bit about the school zone.
Is this a Canada or Japan car?

 

Canada. Until it started raining inside, I hadn't seen anything to make me think Canadian assembly was in any way inferior to Japanese. And realistically it's probably a one-in-a-million screwup that could happen anywhere in the world.

 

I was out of town for a week so I haven't had a chance to take the car in to Lexus until today. I just got the call from the service advisor, and he says that while it's not leaking inside the headliner, they will have to take the headliner down in order to make the repair - so the car will be in over the weekend and I should get it back Monday. I'll update when I get it back and report on what the exact problem was.

Meanwhile, at least I know they're actually working on it - I've been getting alerts from the app, telling me that the doors are unlocked, the hatch is open, etc etc.

As an aside, they gave me a shiny new '22 ES350 as a loaner. It's a sweet ride to be sure, but the infotainment differences between the ES and the NX are night and day. The whole cockpit area is smoother, sleeker, and better organized in the NX. Good job Lexus!

 

Seems like the QA guys at the TMMK have been asleep at the wheels. They didn't bother to test the rear wiper washer?

 

Apparently not?

Now it gets even better...I got a call from the service guy today, apparently the car is so new that the needed part isn't even in the system! He said it will take 4-5 days to get the part into the system, then it will take longer for there to be a 'release date' (by which I assumes he means availability) for the part, and then finally they can get the part to the dealer. He says I'll be in the loaner for a couple of weeks. That ES350 is a nice car, but I really don't want it for two weeks - I'm going to see if I can get my car back tomorrow, and just bring it back when the part is in hand. It's not like the rear washer is a critical feature that I absolutely must use, after all.