Hi all, I just recently acquired NX F Sport 350. Prior to this had number of european premium crossovers from mercedes and alfa romeo.

We had UX in the family that was absolutely fantastic for almost three years and decided to try larger crossover from Lexus.

Couple of positive observations:

1. The ride is very smooth and it absorbs uneven roads very well - major reason we had to sell otherwise brilliant Alfa Romeo Stelvio:

2. Mark Levinson stereo is really good, better than Harman cardon in Alfa or Burmaster in Mercedes:

3. The car has decent power, enough to pass slow traffic:

4. Wind noise is totally absent at any speed:

5. Infotainment is really Coool:

But yhere are major cons that i struggle to get used to:

1. Tyre noise is terrible, especially on noisy tarmac. As equipped the car is on Dunlop Grandtrek AS tyres, 18 inch. Specially asked the dealer to swith with factory equipment 20 inch since I wanter better ride. Is it down to the car or would better tyres solve the problem?


2. Engine is really noisy in an unpleasent way. Kids ask not to push hard because of the noise.

3. Lots pf vibrations felt through steering wheel, seats, floor - very unpremium feel:

4. Overal quality and attention to details is way poor compared to UX, as if it did not go far from the sister Rav 4. Starting with bare door upper frames, extremely thin metal that vibrates when closing doors, creaks when driving on offroad and choise of certain materials:

 

Our tires are runflats. and going up to 20" might only make it worse. There are a few threads on the topic but generally, moving to normal tires will improve the things measurably but you tradeoff now having to buy a spare or rely on fix-a-flat and roadside assistance.

I'm only around 1400 miles into ownership so I have time to think about replacing them with normal tires once they wear out.

 

This may be an irrelevant opinion - but coming from a Honda CR-V to the NX 350h Executive(CAN)/Luxury(US) - the 20" runflats don't sound nearly as loud as the 18" tires on the CR-V. I had switched them out for Michelin Defender (somethingorother) - as the CR-Vs tires were at the end of their life (after only 40K miles - I alternative between winters and all-seasons) - and the ride of the 18" with the "softest and quietest" tires I could find for my CR-V is only marginally better than the NX with 20s and runflats.

That being said, my friend's "regular" 18" NX 350h is a smoother and quieter ride than mine, so it's not the 18" that's the problem it's the tire on them.
Quietness: 18" NX, 20" NX, 18" CR-V
Softness: 18" CRV, 18" NX, 20" NX
Ranked from best to worst

 

Thanks all for replies.

Mine is on non rft 18 inch tyres. So may be it was down to the tyre brand or there is just excessive tyre noise by design in these cars

 

Oh if you don't have runflats then it might just be that NVH is handled so well that you just hear the tires more. I get this riding in family/coworker's Teslas. The car is so quiet and has no engine sound that you really end up hearing the tires and it feels magnified even though at an absolute level even that tire noise is likely less noisy than in any of your older vehicles.

 

This is one of the suspects, I also think that other noises are so low I just hear tyres more