He means the RX can send power to the rear wheels in more situations than just front wheel slippage. It also sends power to the rear wheels under acceleration, then goes back to FWD once underway. It does this to reduce torque steer and for better traction while accelerating, then into FWD to improve fuel mileage.

 

Roger that! Thanks. My personal experience indicates that our Rx system is a little slow at sending power to the rear under acceleration, as I can spin the front for a second before the system kicks in. Ok, it's not a jeep, but at least we don't keep the Rx in the shop much.

 

People make mistakes.
Lexus doesn't list any RX as (2WD).
The choices are Front Wheel Drive (FWD) and All Wheel Drive (AWD).
The Carmax clerks may simply be thinking (FWD) means Four Wheel Drive and perpetuating internet errors in those cases.

80% of Craigslist ads are used car dealers who are probably doing the same.
They don't personally own the vehicles, they're just checking boxes on a screen.

 

Yeah I find the RX awd very weak at anything but some packed snow on the the road. Uphill and some ice you might as well be driving a 2wd car, the system only works if your front left tire has some traction.

 

AWD in the RX is tuned for fuel economy not the capability. Lexus has GX/LX (full-time 4WD with lockable torsen) for anyone who wants/needs a real system.

 

Hi guys! I am a new member of the Lexus family and just wanted to share my experience and ask for advise.
List of mistakes:
- Decided to use local dealership without checking reviews
- Was alone, without any support or second opinion;
- Trusted sales guy;
- Did not made sales guy to sign his statements;
- Did not write prices before moving to the Finance department for the final sign off;
- Did not checked twice sales guy statements, for ex. CPO cars are the same as new, even better because those cars were checked twice by Quality Control;
- Did not leave immediately after sensing that something wrong is going on, but waited for the whole day until dark when it was not possible to check the vehicle...
- Did not read this blog prior to purchase.

Result? Looking for comfort, I've bought a huge and expensive headache: overpaid price, car has some dents that dealership just buffed to make it look right, car has two different sets of tires after 16000 on speedometer (is it OK for CPO?), drive is loud. Despite all issues,it was somehow OK, until recent discovery from the blog. 4 Wheel drive was my first requirement for the car. It's what I asked for, and made it very clear by asking few times about , and it's what I've been assured of... Sales guy told me that my car has full time wheel drive, that I do not need to push any button to activate this functionality. Apparently it was not true... Problem is, that I do not want to go through the winter with the FWD car... never done it before (had Pathfinder and Subaru), do not want to do it now...
By any chance would you have any suggestions? Is it too late? Should I just try to sell the car, loose money, have a good lesson, and never have any business with Lexus ever again, or situation could be corrected somehow? Please advise.
Thanks!!!

 

When I was looking at used RXs a while ago, I found the best way to tell AWD from FWD is to decode the VIN:
http://www.decodethis.com/

 

I can't advise you regarding selling the car or not, but I would add this:
Post the name and city of the dealer, so others can avoid him.

 

Excellent suggestion.

 

Dont feel bad we all make mistakes.

And regarding your statements i think you have FWD? Well let me tell you this i have driven both FWD and RWD cars in the snow and FWD i good enough in snow. Heck my current car is a RWD with all seasons and i have no prblem driving in light snow. It doesn't matter what kind of car you have..if you have bad tires even an AWD wont perform well. Id replace all four tires if i were you. Because mix match tires are the worst in snow.

 

RX350 is FWD (front wheel drive) Standart. it will switch to AWD (All wheel drive) i thinks only to get traction and when cornering . Thats it !

 

Guys, thank you very much for your advises and support! Sorry it took me so long. Had to spent whole day at the dealership, and feel great that I did not revealed it's name before ... Good news here that after some negotiations and with a little bit more money, now I am driving a brand new 2015 RX-350 So, here the name of the dealership - Woodfield Lexus, Schaumburg, IL. I highly recommend it. Please let me know if you need references, I'll be glad to provide names of the people who helped me so much today.

 

AWD and 4WD are not two different animals, it only differs in the goal to be reached. At the one extreme you can look at an example like the Steyer Pinzgauer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinzgau...errain_Vehicle. This vehicle has all the off-road hardware you can imagine: manually lockable diffs, 3-speed transfer case etc. etc. Here it is about off-road traction. The RX has the other extreme in four wheel traction. Everything is done electronically and for a good reason: it is all about on-road traction at much higher speeds than the Pinzgauer can achieve. The guy in the Pinzgauer is most probably in the army where he has undergone training in off-road driving and he has usually enough time to decide which combination of locked diffs will help him to traverse knee-deep mud. The guy in the Lexus is usually not qualified to decide what will work best not to go into a slide on a wet road at 120Kmh, he has in anyway not the time to decide that at that speed, so the computer does it for him. Now you can say that a Land Rover Range Rover also has computerised real off-road selection abilities. Trust me the Pinzgauer is the tool you're reaching for if you are in real trouble.

So in both cases drive to all four wheels is the common denominator, the purpose is what differs. The RX can do things the Pinzgauer can forget about and vice-versa. Is the AWD RX better than the FWD RX? I would rather be in a vehicle with drive to all four wheels in any situation where traction is at stake.

 

Did you get FWD or AWD? Just curious.
Ray A.