can't you paint it?

 

I just returned from my dealer's where I drove the new RX, with a salesman in the passenger seat, for about 20 minutes. I must say, this '10 is quite a few steps up from my '04. Lots of new gadgets, and the NAV is obviously quite a lot more sophisticated than mine, but the big difference to me was how quiet the ride was (including expressways) and how solid the car felt.
With a nice color, I might get one of these.
PS: they had not received any brochures yet, and the salesman did not know which colors were going to be available. On the lot were one in white, one in silver and one in a very hot and very metallic red.
I found the interior very attractive and very functional; the asymmetrical center console is a big improvement over the dull, old-fashioned conventional stack.

 

Day 3: back to the dealer!


For the clear-bra application

It was a good chance to contrast the RX350 with the current-model ES350 they gave me as a loaner during the work. Coming from the RX, the ES steering was a shock. Loose, far too light at highway speeds, and wandering. The RX (new electric steering) is really firm at highway speeds, and totally stable. It feels more in-control.

The pedal+engine+transmission combo is another huge point of difference. The RX's power is much more evident, and not in a bursty way -- power delivery is smooth and strong at any speed, with no coaxing required -- the pedal just immediately translates into acceleration.

Not so with the ES. You need to coax it, and it has to then hunt for the correct gear. I never notice this on the RX, it's just mash and go.


During the drive up, The RX reminded me again just how tossable it feels for such a big vehicle. The structural integrity and suspension keep making me smile. I have to remind myself that it might not stop as quickly as my IS.

 

how's the transmission? the way it downshifts when slowing down, not gassing, down hills etc.. my 09 auto sucks in that aspect.

 

The transmission is essentially transparent; it always seems to be doing the right thing before I notice it needs to be done. I haven't found downshift behavior annoying at all. I've only really noticed it when I was wanting to slow down and lifted my foot but hadn't braked yet -- it was already downshifted (we were descending a bit).

 

I got her back from the dealer yesterday afternoon -- they did a pretty good job on the clear bra. Over half the hood is covered, and the entire front bumper + mirrors.

This morning I ran into my first glitches. I had been reading the nav manual last night, checking out the "natural speech" support, and had chosen a few phrases I wanted to try. So I stopped at the side of the road, and try as I might, I couldn't get a single natural language item to work (or to work as expected).

I'm going to play with it a bit more later today. I was originally missing the point about most of them being function-specific: for example, "what gas stations are nearby" needs to happen from the "destination" screen, so the sequence would be to hit the voice menu twice, say destination, hit it again and say "what gas stations are nearby". I mostly was trying it wrong, but after realizing my mistake a I tried a few of the owners manual examples from the phone menu. When I couldn't get those working either, I just gave up and drove on to work. I'll go back out at lunchtime and try some more.

Another weird thing was that I had plugged in my iPhone when I started out, but was initially listening to XM. After giving up on the nav I switched modes (via the left-side steering wheel "mode" button) to the USB iPhone setting. After doing this, the steering wheel volume controls didn't work -- I had to use the dash *****.

Mileage for the tank is sitting at 19.2 (mixed). It's going up the longer I'm on the highway, so I've got some room to improve there.

 

I should add that after giving up on the natural speech attempts, I did get a destination entered while on the highway. Each "x" is a press of the voice button followed by what I said:
xx "destination"
x "address"
x "redwood city"
x "(street name)"
x "four zero zero"
x "enter"

This worked perfectly every time I tried it. The voice menu presses were to bypass the spoken menu, so you don't have to hear anything except the recognition repeated back.

 

Could there be a settings to enable/disable the "natural speech" function? Just a wild guess here. In my experiences with newer generation NAV on my Infiniti, there is a setting to enable/diable the "Extended Voice Command" function, sort of Inifiniti version of "Natrual Speech". Not as "Natural" as Lexus has been advertising, but much better than old fashion of "Voice Recogenition" for sure. There is also a "Training" section to make individuals voice pattern more easy for system to recogenize.

In any case, thanks for your posting. I am in the process to get one for my wife as her GX is starting to show its age..... 2010 RX is definitely attractive.

 

I was doing it wrong

For the phone item I was mostly trying, the person wasn't in the phone book. And for the other one, I was using a subsection command from the top level.

Finally got it all worked out (I had to reimport my contacts from the iPhone -- the process seems a bit unreliable but they finally all went after reconnecting it and transferring again).

Here's a short, non-shaky Qik video of me trying out the natural speech input:
http://qik.com/video/1081942

 

This sounds easier than the previous version of the destination voice input while driving.

Thanks also for your vid of the natural speech input, seems pretty good! Do you work for Apple or you just have them on speed dial?

 

An update on this: the volume buttons on the steering wheel haven't come back. The iPod mode won't play anymore, either -- it always says connection failed.

I wonder if there's a system reset that can be performed...

 

Turns out it's connected to the iPhone USB audio issues I was having; if there is a connection error, it knocks out the steering wheel volume controls for the rest of the session. Some drives it's fine and some drives it's not... I haven't pinned it down yet. It was fine all day today though.

I finally coaxed the current-tank mileage up just over 26 today by taking it very easy on acceleration and sticking to between 55 and 60 mph (rain-slowed traffic assisted with this). This feels like about the max for this stage of break-in.

 

I almost forgot: one other thing I did today was link the unlock to all doors, so when I grab the driver's door handle, the passenger side unlocks as well. It was nice to not have to visit the dealer to get this adjustment done anymore.

 

I wonder why Lexus didn't make the car iPhone-compatible?

 

I wonder why Apple didn't make the iPhone Bluetooth compatible. (There is no question mark after my statement of wonder.)