AkiD

I think one of us is confused. There's no "bridged WiFi" between the cell phone and the RX. All data xfer is done via bluetooth. Turn off bluetooth
and you lose everything between the car and the cell phone.

guxu

All I tried to say was it is possible for RX to use WiFi even it does not support WiFi directly. Sorry for the confusion.

I have a Buick that supports WiFi. But it does not do data over Bluetooth. I can make phone calls using Bluetooth in Buick. But I have to turn on phone's hotspot to be able to use Buick's build-in apps. Certainly my Buick has a build-in hotspot too. I am just too cheap to pay the monthly fee

RRUBI1

ravenuer

It's dual control, no passenger, no need to control.

gadgetman1

kolokmee

Lexus calls it the S-Flow mode on our cars. When enabled, the climate control system detects if there are passengers in the front or rear, and will disable or enable the fans as needed.

On the 2016 RX, there is a physical button in the cluster by the temperature control called S-FLOW which controls this mode. On 2017 and later models, Lexus replaced the button with the DUAL button, and moved S-Flow control into the Nav screen as part of the AC display controls.

gadgetman1

qvtruong

ut2sua

My car sale man told me the SOS button will work and someone will provide help when you have an accident (and push the button) even if you don't buy the Enform service after it has expired. I have not had a chance to test that claim.

Scrutator

Yes, it works. My wife accidentally pressed the button.

ravenuer

LOL, my wife wanted to push the button to see if the green light next to it would go out. I convinced her not to....!

ut2sua

This was done when your Enform subscription has expired right? Thanks for the info

rxtimes2

Just to clarify, you pushed the button even though no lights by the button (red or green) were on. Is that correct?

HontoKuro

Hello fellow RX owners

Similar to the roll call intro I did when I picked up my 2015 GS F-Sport in their forums section, I'd figure I do a similar 1st impressions review of our recently purchased 2017 RX350 AWD. Disclaimer this is my wife's daily driver and although I don't drive it daily I have had many opportunities to get a good feel and gauge an opinion for my initial impressions review and provide you some of my personal feedback on this RX. Plus I also drove back our RX in a long road trip back from 2 states away when we purchased it a couple of weeks back, so was nice to get some highway miles on it and get a good feel for the RX on long road trips.

The below impressions/comments are of my own personal opinions and not my wife's (unless noted) and although the "bad" stuff I note may not be necessarily the same feelings, highlights, concerns or even deal breakers for my wife but thought I noted them anyway, so this is certainty subjective. What we do have to compare with is our 20+ years of BMW's ownership of vehicles which we owned/currently own.So although not a direct comparison or apples to apples per say we are comparing some of the differences and ways the Germans do things vs the Japanese. So with my GS and now her RX I guess we can officially say we are fully in the Lexus brand and although we are still new to Lexus vehicles of any kind, both of us still have some opinions and things that we both feel Lexus is far behind in or not as up to date with even some of our older BMW's but in the end I think we both agreed we needed a drama free vehicle experience moving forward especially with a toddler in our household hence the RX purchase, that is enough is enough and the BMW drama in our lives was too much and last thing we need is more unreliable vehicles in our house hence the switch to Lexus. I welcome any thoughts, comments, feedback and just some good old general discussion on my personal thoughts.

Thank you all.

RX350 Specs:
Model Year: 2017 (Non-CPO)
Built Date: 11/2017
Miles time of purchase: 7,350 miles (off lease)
Purchased: 2 weeks ago as of this posting
Color: Matador Red w/ Gray Sapele wood trim with aluminum trim.
Packages/Options:
- AWD
- Luxury Pkg: Semi-Aniline Leather-trim Seats, Power-folding Electrochomic Heated Outside Mirrors Wood & Leather Heated Steering Wheel, 20" Alloy Wheels w/Color Inserts, Rear Door Sunshades, Aluminum Roof Rails, Driver's Seat/Steering/Mirror memory, Illuminated Scuff Plates, Sapele Wood with Aluminum Trim, LED Ambient Illumination
- BSM/IPA/RCTA/Auto Braking
- Panoramic Roof and rails
- Color HUD
- Cold Weather Package: Windshield wiper de-icer, auto-leveling headlamps, headlamp washers and fast-response interior heater.
- Towing Prep Pkg: Engine and transmission oil coolers, heavy-duty radiator and cooling fan.
- Touch Free Power Rear Door
- Heated Steering Wheel
- Triple Beam Headlights
- 12.3" Navigation System/Mark Levinson 15-speaker Premium Audio Package
- Rear Power/Heated Seats
- Accessories Package
- Cargo Package


Initial Positive Impressions (The Good)
* Overall package and standard offerings compared to competition i,e. X5, XC90, Q7, GLE etc. (we test drove and compared all the models) Lot of +/- from all SUV's but RX price vs.packages (standard vs optional) offering was overall more appealing.
* Interior cabin fit and finish. I feel this is where Lexus really shines. The materials are excellent and use of different shapes, textures, soft leather, stitching, even majority of plastics are soft and overall cabin layout for an SUV is easy to use (minus infotainment). Although the Volvo was our other favorite interior cabin unfortunately the no hard buttons and crash and blackout of UI screen during test drive was a major turn off not to mention way too much piano black gloss finish. But my wife and I really liked the overall interior of the Volvo which she said was very sexy compared to the rest. Whatever that means lol.
* Overall space/seat comfort and Rear passenger space. All the SUV's had really good size and had ample interior spaces but the RX was by far the most comfortable to sit on and just felt the most "airy" if that makes sense and it may had to do with the light interior color too. The Luxury seats and various adjustment really tailor to anyone's body shape and contour. This is why we my wife went with the Luxury version vs F-Sport variant. She felt the seats were much more comfortable and adjustable. Audi Q7 I believe was the largest in terms of interior space and was very solid but didn't have that "luxury cabin" feel to it as the Volvo and RX did. BMW and Audi and had more of a "sport" enthusiast interior cabin whereas the GLE was more old school classy Mercedes which was nice but was already looking very outdated compared to the rest. Although I preferred the BMW and Audi interiors due to their more driver centric layout in the end the more luxurious feel and look of RX won my wife over.
* Very comfortable and quiet ride. Sexy, classy yet sophisticated without making a statement (my wife words anyway)
* The 360 camera/surround view. Finally Lexus jumped on board. I don't understand why Luxury SUVs don't come standard with this option. It's one of those features once you have it you never want to go missing with it.
* Triple Beam LED lights we feel make the RX really look amazing and will age very well compared to the standard Bi-LED HID headlights in the RX. Compared to most of the SUVs out there today the RX with standard HID's although are great in terms of light output they just make the RX look outdated in our opinion. I know this is subjective but we feel the triple beams really stand out and in many ways conceal that huge Predator grill up front and break up the design nicely.
* We like the cool adjustable cup holder vertical adjustment.
* Panoramic Roof. Again don't understand why you wouldn't get this option, it really makes the cabin feel spacious and really stand out. When we test drove an RX with the standard roof it just looked odd and out of place especially considering the size of the SUV.
* Massive pocket doors with the swing out flap. This is awesome thinking/design and until you start using it makes sense and is easy to insert and grab things in/out of there.
* The color HUD. It's massive and provides lots of useful information and almost makes up for the terrible infotainment system...almost.
* Driver visibility - Excellent all around
* Probably one of the best radar cruise control systems we've tested and actually heavily used in our road trip back home.
* Overall scores/reliability history. Perhaps the major driving force and decision to jumping on the Lexus bandwagon. Only time will tell since we are new to the brand, but can't imagine they will become the money pits our BMW's have become or known for.


Initial Negative Impressions (The Bad):
* Coming from BMW's phenomenal and easy to use modern iDrive systems, It felt like we went back 15 years with this Lexus system. In fact it's the worst "infotainment" system we have ever used, period. BMW iDrive is leaps and bounds better and so ahead of Lexus in this area which we found to be very surprising coming from a such advanced technology country like Japan. The mouse thing cursor thing is just worst invention and way to use this system and lack of scroll wheels, poor UI, sub-menus for simple changes, poor factory navigation graphics, poor implementation of simple gestures or soft button layouts etc.. Audi had the next best infotainment system and came in close second or tie in our tests followed by Volvo, Mercedes and lastly the RX. I know I stated this for my GS but now that my wife has used it, she also agrees that it is terrible and not easy to use compared to our iDrive system.
* Lack of Apple Car Play and Android Auto
* Lack of USB ports in the rear! Really Lexus...really? How in the world do you sell and SUV that is targeted to mostly women or family with kids and not have any USB ports in the rear?
* Rear Cargo space smaller than the competition. This is where we felt the RX fell short compared to the rest. I didn't have actual dimensions but the RX seemed to have the smallest cargo area. The Q7 and X5 definitely shined here and were massive compared to the RX.
* Back to handling/drive experience: This is where I disagree with my wife although she loves the feel and drive of the RX to me it was by far the most boring and fluffiest of all SUVs we cross shopped. In fact it drove just what I always envisioned Lexus in the past cars were -- no personality, boring and plush but quiet and luxurious. But hey it's her DD and not mine so she's happy and that's why I drive the GS. Compared to the more sport/car like drive of the X5 and Audi and even Volvo to an extent RX is well blah. Even the F-Sport didn't make much a difference that we tested and other than slight different throttle response there body roll was terrible around corners and suspension didn't feel any different to my drive test experience.
* Lane Keep Assist - Worthless? Compared to my BMW which actually moves you into position and makes great adjustments, the Lexus LKA felt like a Gen 1 system hit or miss and most of time alerted like crazy but didn't do much of anything. Not great at all and we just shut it off altogether. This needs more work.
* Sluggish engine. I don't know if it's the transmission but gear hunting often occurs at higher RPM's and although relatively smooth shifts I feel the RX could use more gears or better torque or perhaps a better tuning. Something off about this engine.
* Mark Levinson system - I am still unsure on this and may move it to the good within time. I don't have it on my GS so was looking forward to hearing this on my wife's RX but honestly I really can't tell much of a difference other than being louder but not what I expected considering the hype around this package. I was expecting much deeper and cleaner bass output including midrange but I honestly it's almost hard to tell the difference between the ML system and the standard one. I will play some CD's and see if I can tell the difference with non stream and digital files, more on this and subject to change.

The Ugly
* I will say it again. The bad Enform UI and overall infotainment system. I digress, we will move on now, ok maybe not. Please Lexus please give us Apple or Android Auto to save this terrible system!
* Heated steering wheel. Just like a stated for my GS, this is just bad and shame on Lexus engineers for giving us a half a$$ heated steering wheel. No only is it partial but it's not even warm enough. This is terrible implementation for such a reputable Luxury car brand. Hell our 10+ year old BMW steering wheel not only give us full 360 coverage but are warm up fast and ale to adjust heat settings. By the time I feel anything from Lexus I am already arrived at my destination and average at best.
* Rear Touch Free Door - I think Lexus was trying to be different here and got too cute. At 1st we though this was a great must have/ cool feature but after using it for a couple of weeks now in real world scenarios, this is just as useless and often a hit or miss. Often times it takes forever to register anything and stays closed, sometimes when we don't want to use it then it opens up by accident, then at times when we wave or put our hand/elbow/arm whatever body part it takes forever to register and then it decides to open. By that time it would have being much easier to press our key fob or manually open it. I wish they would have just giving us the kick method option which would have being much better or better sensitive sensor and open times.
* The copied Nissan Rouge "floating roof-line" design. I can't tell you how many times, we've driving past one and said oh look another RX oh no wait, its a Rouge.


I will certainly update this list over the course of ownership in the upcoming months/years but for now is what I can conjure up with. I welcome your thoughts? Agree or disagree with some of my statements? Love to hear other's opinions especially from those with much longer ownership.

RGSW

Rear Touch Free Door works much better on the 2018 than it did on my 2016. I had the same thots as you did on the 2016,; however, the 2018 works as planned almost all the time.
As for USB in rear seat area, I purchased a converter for the 12V outlet for about $5.