2017 RX350 - Long Review
04-03-17, 01:27 PM
#1
9th Gear
Thread Starter
2017 RX350 - Long Review
2017 Lexus RX 350 Fsport, Silver exterior, gray/black interior
The Positives
I will state at the outset that I am a picky car owner. I have owned Toyota/Lexus products since the mid 80's and they have all been reliable and good to drive (I try to choose carefully). When I spend more than $50,000 for anything, I expect it to be excellent. Overall, the RX350 FSport is a very good vehicle, but the RX350 falls shy of my expectations in little, nick picky ways. The RX350 is the most advanced car I have owned, and the most disappointing because of that. It contains great innovations that are just not quite perfected. The disturbing thing is that you want to trust them 100%, but you can’t. If you can’t trust them all the time, you can’t really trust them at all because you don’t know when that 5% exception is going to happen. And, you would expect the FSport version to be for “sporty” people with bikes and kayaks. It isn’t. It is more MAV (mall assault vehicle) than SPORT Utility Vehicle.
The Lexus web site to “build” your RX350 isn’t the greatest. Better to get a full brochure from the dealer. Read all the footnotes in the brochure about every option you intend to get on the car. They are full of surprises as you will see.
Do I like the car? Yes. Would I buy it again? Maybe. I test drove an Audi Q7, BMW X5 and X3, Porsche Cayenne and Macan, Acura MDX and RDX, Toyota Highlander hybrid and the Lexus before I purchased the Lexus. I should have driven them all some more before buying.
My SUV is equipped with most options: FSport package with its special suspension and larger tires, four-wheel drive, panoramic roof, surround view cameras, radar cruise control, heated and ventilated seats, navigation with Mark Levinson sound, lane keeping assist, triple beam adaptive headlights, heads up display. It also has a number of standard safety features like rear cross traffic alert and precollision braking. The owner’s manual is 700 pages and the Nav system manual is another 370. Good luck.
I have about 2,000 miles on the car. I bought it through Costco’s program and got it for $1,700 under invoice and then had to pay about $700 in dealer BS stuff to close the deal (nitrogen in the tires, really?). The RX350 Fsport has a better suspension and handling package than the regular RX350 so it does not suffer from the sloppy handling that affects the regular model. If you get an FSport, it will handle very well. I’ve pushed it hard around turns on hills and it is predictable and controllable at aggressive speeds, but it is not a sports car. Overall gas mileage is running about 20.5 mpg. Acceleration is very good. The seats are comfortable.
Lexus offers a Destination Assistance service where you call from the car, talk to a real person, and he/she will locate your destination and program it into your car’s GPS. It’s quite convenient if you will pay the annual fee. I think it would be most handy in urban settings with heavy traffic where you can’t lose concentration on driving. I used it once after being frustrated by the Nav system finding the wrong restaurant because there are two identically named ones in town.
The triple beam adaptive headlights work really well. The automatic dimming feature is pretty good, but is just a fraction of a second slow in responding so that I usually feel like my lights are on high for just a bit too long when approaching an oncoming driver. The system does not anticipate the way a person can.
The cockpit display is great. The speedometer, tach, and other gages are well laid out and the left side lets you toggle through a number of functions using buttons on the wheel. I like the automatic tire pressure display, and the G force one. I mostly use the one related to mileage.
The key fob that lets you enter the car just by pulling the handle, and lock it just by touching it is truly a nice touch. The fact you can program the steering wheel and seat to your preferences and then tie them to the key you carry so that it knows you from your significant other is clever.
The power lift gate is so much nicer than the manual rear gate I had on my Highlander. However, the rear glass does not open by itself, so if you want to just drop a small item in the back, you have to raise the whole gate to do it. That is mildly irritating. You’ll see what I mean.
The Blind Spot Monitoring system is great. The little icons on the side mirrors are in just the right spot and catch cars coming up at the right times. The system can be tweaked. (Note: BSM contains also the Rear Cross Traffic Alert settings - RCTA.)
Fit and finish are typical of Lexus - first class. The styling will grow on you if you are doubtful about it. Well, maybe not the front grill.
The Mark Levinson sound system is good, but not great. It came with the Nav system.
The Issues
Lexus still has some things to work out on this car.
The eight-speed transmission has at least one too many gears. Think that odd? In Eco drive mode, it seems to hunt back and forth among first, second, and third in quick succession trying to maximize fuel economy. It is mostly annoying as the car can’t seem to make up its mind. I drive in hilly country which exacerbates the problem. On flat lands it might not be as noticeable. As a result, I have set the transmission to Sport mode which solved the hunt and peck shifting, but will eat into fuel economy.
My right knee (I’m 6'1") rests against the center console just behind where it meets the dash and sometimes bumps the underside of the dash. There is not enough padding either place to cushion the knee bone. I’m adding some foam on my own. (Lowering the seat and moving it back to give me knee room change my driving position in a way I don’t like.)
The front dash has some reflective glare, especially from the inside area of the Heads Up Display. I ended up buying black felt and cutting it out to fit over the front edge of the dash all the way across with holes as needed. Problem solved if you like a felt-covered dash.
You are in for a surprise if you buy an FSport with a panoramic glass roof and want a roof rack too. The roof glass opens up and out over the top of the car. As a result, you cannot get Lexus to install roof rack cross bars on the car. You can do it yourself or buy aftermarket racks, but you won’t be able to open the roof without breaking it.
If you want a trailer hitch, Lexus will remove two rear parts, a “performance damper” and a sway bar to install their $800 + hitch. (You paid extra for those two parts when you bought the Fsport package.) Save your money and buy a CURT hitch from etrailers for $130 and install it yourself or let a garage do it. It’s simple and nothing gets removed. Then discover that anything close behind, like a bike rack, triggers the rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) and brakes the car so you have trouble backing up (more later).
The multifunction and navigation screen is large and well positioned and the cursor arrangement for working through menus is pretty decent (you can adjust the cursor touch). It can be distracting while driving as it will definitely draw your direct attention away from the road. The voice recognition feature is decent, but not if you have an unusual word. My Tom Tom GPS is better, and if you think this will be like Siri or Google, guess again. It ain’t.
Your Lexus Nav system may not take you on the same route as Google maps. I have yet to figure out the Lexus logic. You can pair your phone into the car using the Lexus app that you download. This allows you to surf the web to find a destination and plug it into the Nav system. It will eat up your data for as long as you keep the phone connected. This is separate from Blue tooth which can pair the phone and the car for other basic functions.
One nice feature of the display screen is that you can split it to show music, radio, climate, etc. on the right third of the screen. You can also select Nav screens that show not only the map, but also interstate exchanges. There is so much you can access and adjust through the system that you will need two hours playing with it just to discover the possibilities. Don’t hope to remember them all. (Note: some feature adjustments are only available on the steering wheel buttons on the right side using the dash display on the left side.) One one occasion, when I pressed the "Menu" button while driving, it would not display the menu screen and the cursor would not move.
The lane keeping assist (LKA) is just that, an “assist.” It tries to keep you in your lane, but it will let you wander out of it on occasions you cannot always predict. Remember that. It works with two quirks. First, it may take you off onto an exit ramp if you are driving in the right lane and wander in that direction just as you get to the ramp. Seriously, it nearly happened until I caught it. Second, it makes small corrections, but they tend to be just a little more than necessary. The car keeps in the lane by tracking the lines on either side. What it cannot do is figure a center point between the lines and track along it. The result is the car keeps wandering back and forth between the lines of the lane. It’s not jerky, more like a slightly drunken mule on his way home. On a long interstate cruise it may be handy. For shorter drives it is a mixed blessing.
The adaptive cruise control is quite handy if you respect its limitations. It will keep your car a set distance behind the car in front of it and you can choose how close that is. That’s nice. The system will also slow you down suddenly if the car ahead slows. Normally, that’s what it should do. However, if you pull out into the left lane to get past the car that is slowing, your car may still think it is behind the other car and slow you down in the faster lane. It’s not predictable and it’s spooky as well as dangerous because it is just the opposite of what a driver behind you will expect. On two occasions, I have been unable to set the cruise speed. I think there is an intermittent problem.
It will even brake your car to a stop behind a car it is following. In stop and go traffic, you can let the car stop and go with just a touch of the gas to resume forward motion. However, if there is no car that you are following closely enough, and you approach a car stopped at a light, trusting the radar to stop you in time is a big game of “chicken.” The car is supposed to stop under those conditions both from the radar cruise and the Precollision Braking System. At 45 mph, barreling toward a stop light with a car there, I’ve always hit the brakes before the car did. On the open road and stop and go traffic, the feature is a joy.
Visibility out the front and directly out the rear is very good. However, the large “C” pillars at the rear block your vision when you are backing up and turning. That’s when the rear camera and surround view are a help, but still, Lexus let style get in the way of safety. This is a problem every time I back into my garage.
The slope on the rear window is stylish, but robs you of room if you want to put anything high and rectangular or square in the rear section with the second row seats up. I had a Highlander that would hold chests just fine. The Lexus won’t. I knew I was going to give that up, but it still is annoying.
The air conditioning seems to be anemic. We are just getting into warmer weather, but the system does not seem to move enough air to really cool the car like it should when set to “automatic.” I can crank the temp down to below 70 and make up for it by coldness, but the automatic flow setting isn’t quite doing it above that. Ironically, the feature that lets you stop air to the rear seats (SFlow) also seems to reduce the air flow in the front. I can’t prove that, it just seems that way. You can turn it off so you get more flow. Note that when you turn off the ignition, whatever the last setting for SFlow was is programmed to your key fob, otherwise it is an automatic feature.
There is an irritating gap between the turn down visor that keeps out bright sun and the center where the rear view mirror is mounted. It is only about two inches, but it seems that is just where the sun wants to angle in on a drive home. The little black dot screen area that Lexus put on the windshield to help block the sun is not sufficient in size or density. The visor will slide over on its metal rail to cover the gap, but a little extender that many cars have in the visor to cover that space would have been nicer. I put some window tint film on the windshield to fill the gap in.
The rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) is a nice feature which I used by accident. I installed a trailer hitch and a bike rack that mounts into the hitch right behind the rear lift gate. Off I went. When I later went to back up, the RCTA saw the bike rack and braked the car to an instant stop. Now how do I turn off the RCTA? Could not find the answer in the owner’s manual. I slowly pushed down on the gas and kept pushing even after the RCTA had stopped the car and I was able to override it. Called Lexus. RCTA setting is controlled under the Blind Spot Monitor using controls on the steering wheel - not accessible by the main multifunction screen which I tried. Who knew? Not me.
In summary, I upgraded from my ‘08 Toyota Highlander to get the luxury, technology, reliability, and panache of the Lexus. I got those things. I lost some “utility” in the process which I expected. What I also got was a juvenile version of advanced technology - adequate, but not totally refined. The little design flaws that a junior engineer could find and fix are irritating. Lexus can and should do better. Drive it for a few hours and take it home to the garage before you decide to buy.
The Positives
I will state at the outset that I am a picky car owner. I have owned Toyota/Lexus products since the mid 80's and they have all been reliable and good to drive (I try to choose carefully). When I spend more than $50,000 for anything, I expect it to be excellent. Overall, the RX350 FSport is a very good vehicle, but the RX350 falls shy of my expectations in little, nick picky ways. The RX350 is the most advanced car I have owned, and the most disappointing because of that. It contains great innovations that are just not quite perfected. The disturbing thing is that you want to trust them 100%, but you can’t. If you can’t trust them all the time, you can’t really trust them at all because you don’t know when that 5% exception is going to happen. And, you would expect the FSport version to be for “sporty” people with bikes and kayaks. It isn’t. It is more MAV (mall assault vehicle) than SPORT Utility Vehicle.
The Lexus web site to “build” your RX350 isn’t the greatest. Better to get a full brochure from the dealer. Read all the footnotes in the brochure about every option you intend to get on the car. They are full of surprises as you will see.
Do I like the car? Yes. Would I buy it again? Maybe. I test drove an Audi Q7, BMW X5 and X3, Porsche Cayenne and Macan, Acura MDX and RDX, Toyota Highlander hybrid and the Lexus before I purchased the Lexus. I should have driven them all some more before buying.
My SUV is equipped with most options: FSport package with its special suspension and larger tires, four-wheel drive, panoramic roof, surround view cameras, radar cruise control, heated and ventilated seats, navigation with Mark Levinson sound, lane keeping assist, triple beam adaptive headlights, heads up display. It also has a number of standard safety features like rear cross traffic alert and precollision braking. The owner’s manual is 700 pages and the Nav system manual is another 370. Good luck.
I have about 2,000 miles on the car. I bought it through Costco’s program and got it for $1,700 under invoice and then had to pay about $700 in dealer BS stuff to close the deal (nitrogen in the tires, really?). The RX350 Fsport has a better suspension and handling package than the regular RX350 so it does not suffer from the sloppy handling that affects the regular model. If you get an FSport, it will handle very well. I’ve pushed it hard around turns on hills and it is predictable and controllable at aggressive speeds, but it is not a sports car. Overall gas mileage is running about 20.5 mpg. Acceleration is very good. The seats are comfortable.
Lexus offers a Destination Assistance service where you call from the car, talk to a real person, and he/she will locate your destination and program it into your car’s GPS. It’s quite convenient if you will pay the annual fee. I think it would be most handy in urban settings with heavy traffic where you can’t lose concentration on driving. I used it once after being frustrated by the Nav system finding the wrong restaurant because there are two identically named ones in town.
The triple beam adaptive headlights work really well. The automatic dimming feature is pretty good, but is just a fraction of a second slow in responding so that I usually feel like my lights are on high for just a bit too long when approaching an oncoming driver. The system does not anticipate the way a person can.
The cockpit display is great. The speedometer, tach, and other gages are well laid out and the left side lets you toggle through a number of functions using buttons on the wheel. I like the automatic tire pressure display, and the G force one. I mostly use the one related to mileage.
The key fob that lets you enter the car just by pulling the handle, and lock it just by touching it is truly a nice touch. The fact you can program the steering wheel and seat to your preferences and then tie them to the key you carry so that it knows you from your significant other is clever.
The power lift gate is so much nicer than the manual rear gate I had on my Highlander. However, the rear glass does not open by itself, so if you want to just drop a small item in the back, you have to raise the whole gate to do it. That is mildly irritating. You’ll see what I mean.
The Blind Spot Monitoring system is great. The little icons on the side mirrors are in just the right spot and catch cars coming up at the right times. The system can be tweaked. (Note: BSM contains also the Rear Cross Traffic Alert settings - RCTA.)
Fit and finish are typical of Lexus - first class. The styling will grow on you if you are doubtful about it. Well, maybe not the front grill.
The Mark Levinson sound system is good, but not great. It came with the Nav system.
The Issues
Lexus still has some things to work out on this car.
The eight-speed transmission has at least one too many gears. Think that odd? In Eco drive mode, it seems to hunt back and forth among first, second, and third in quick succession trying to maximize fuel economy. It is mostly annoying as the car can’t seem to make up its mind. I drive in hilly country which exacerbates the problem. On flat lands it might not be as noticeable. As a result, I have set the transmission to Sport mode which solved the hunt and peck shifting, but will eat into fuel economy.
My right knee (I’m 6'1") rests against the center console just behind where it meets the dash and sometimes bumps the underside of the dash. There is not enough padding either place to cushion the knee bone. I’m adding some foam on my own. (Lowering the seat and moving it back to give me knee room change my driving position in a way I don’t like.)
The front dash has some reflective glare, especially from the inside area of the Heads Up Display. I ended up buying black felt and cutting it out to fit over the front edge of the dash all the way across with holes as needed. Problem solved if you like a felt-covered dash.
You are in for a surprise if you buy an FSport with a panoramic glass roof and want a roof rack too. The roof glass opens up and out over the top of the car. As a result, you cannot get Lexus to install roof rack cross bars on the car. You can do it yourself or buy aftermarket racks, but you won’t be able to open the roof without breaking it.
If you want a trailer hitch, Lexus will remove two rear parts, a “performance damper” and a sway bar to install their $800 + hitch. (You paid extra for those two parts when you bought the Fsport package.) Save your money and buy a CURT hitch from etrailers for $130 and install it yourself or let a garage do it. It’s simple and nothing gets removed. Then discover that anything close behind, like a bike rack, triggers the rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) and brakes the car so you have trouble backing up (more later).
The multifunction and navigation screen is large and well positioned and the cursor arrangement for working through menus is pretty decent (you can adjust the cursor touch). It can be distracting while driving as it will definitely draw your direct attention away from the road. The voice recognition feature is decent, but not if you have an unusual word. My Tom Tom GPS is better, and if you think this will be like Siri or Google, guess again. It ain’t.
Your Lexus Nav system may not take you on the same route as Google maps. I have yet to figure out the Lexus logic. You can pair your phone into the car using the Lexus app that you download. This allows you to surf the web to find a destination and plug it into the Nav system. It will eat up your data for as long as you keep the phone connected. This is separate from Blue tooth which can pair the phone and the car for other basic functions.
One nice feature of the display screen is that you can split it to show music, radio, climate, etc. on the right third of the screen. You can also select Nav screens that show not only the map, but also interstate exchanges. There is so much you can access and adjust through the system that you will need two hours playing with it just to discover the possibilities. Don’t hope to remember them all. (Note: some feature adjustments are only available on the steering wheel buttons on the right side using the dash display on the left side.) One one occasion, when I pressed the "Menu" button while driving, it would not display the menu screen and the cursor would not move.
The lane keeping assist (LKA) is just that, an “assist.” It tries to keep you in your lane, but it will let you wander out of it on occasions you cannot always predict. Remember that. It works with two quirks. First, it may take you off onto an exit ramp if you are driving in the right lane and wander in that direction just as you get to the ramp. Seriously, it nearly happened until I caught it. Second, it makes small corrections, but they tend to be just a little more than necessary. The car keeps in the lane by tracking the lines on either side. What it cannot do is figure a center point between the lines and track along it. The result is the car keeps wandering back and forth between the lines of the lane. It’s not jerky, more like a slightly drunken mule on his way home. On a long interstate cruise it may be handy. For shorter drives it is a mixed blessing.
The adaptive cruise control is quite handy if you respect its limitations. It will keep your car a set distance behind the car in front of it and you can choose how close that is. That’s nice. The system will also slow you down suddenly if the car ahead slows. Normally, that’s what it should do. However, if you pull out into the left lane to get past the car that is slowing, your car may still think it is behind the other car and slow you down in the faster lane. It’s not predictable and it’s spooky as well as dangerous because it is just the opposite of what a driver behind you will expect. On two occasions, I have been unable to set the cruise speed. I think there is an intermittent problem.
It will even brake your car to a stop behind a car it is following. In stop and go traffic, you can let the car stop and go with just a touch of the gas to resume forward motion. However, if there is no car that you are following closely enough, and you approach a car stopped at a light, trusting the radar to stop you in time is a big game of “chicken.” The car is supposed to stop under those conditions both from the radar cruise and the Precollision Braking System. At 45 mph, barreling toward a stop light with a car there, I’ve always hit the brakes before the car did. On the open road and stop and go traffic, the feature is a joy.
Visibility out the front and directly out the rear is very good. However, the large “C” pillars at the rear block your vision when you are backing up and turning. That’s when the rear camera and surround view are a help, but still, Lexus let style get in the way of safety. This is a problem every time I back into my garage.
The slope on the rear window is stylish, but robs you of room if you want to put anything high and rectangular or square in the rear section with the second row seats up. I had a Highlander that would hold chests just fine. The Lexus won’t. I knew I was going to give that up, but it still is annoying.
The air conditioning seems to be anemic. We are just getting into warmer weather, but the system does not seem to move enough air to really cool the car like it should when set to “automatic.” I can crank the temp down to below 70 and make up for it by coldness, but the automatic flow setting isn’t quite doing it above that. Ironically, the feature that lets you stop air to the rear seats (SFlow) also seems to reduce the air flow in the front. I can’t prove that, it just seems that way. You can turn it off so you get more flow. Note that when you turn off the ignition, whatever the last setting for SFlow was is programmed to your key fob, otherwise it is an automatic feature.
There is an irritating gap between the turn down visor that keeps out bright sun and the center where the rear view mirror is mounted. It is only about two inches, but it seems that is just where the sun wants to angle in on a drive home. The little black dot screen area that Lexus put on the windshield to help block the sun is not sufficient in size or density. The visor will slide over on its metal rail to cover the gap, but a little extender that many cars have in the visor to cover that space would have been nicer. I put some window tint film on the windshield to fill the gap in.
The rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) is a nice feature which I used by accident. I installed a trailer hitch and a bike rack that mounts into the hitch right behind the rear lift gate. Off I went. When I later went to back up, the RCTA saw the bike rack and braked the car to an instant stop. Now how do I turn off the RCTA? Could not find the answer in the owner’s manual. I slowly pushed down on the gas and kept pushing even after the RCTA had stopped the car and I was able to override it. Called Lexus. RCTA setting is controlled under the Blind Spot Monitor using controls on the steering wheel - not accessible by the main multifunction screen which I tried. Who knew? Not me.
In summary, I upgraded from my ‘08 Toyota Highlander to get the luxury, technology, reliability, and panache of the Lexus. I got those things. I lost some “utility” in the process which I expected. What I also got was a juvenile version of advanced technology - adequate, but not totally refined. The little design flaws that a junior engineer could find and fix are irritating. Lexus can and should do better. Drive it for a few hours and take it home to the garage before you decide to buy.
Last edited by TopDog; 04-06-17 at 09:23 AM. Reason: Better info from Fast Ford
04-06-17, 08:36 AM
#2
Hey nice review!,
I ended up turning some of the safety assist things off when the car was new. I have since turned them back on and adjusted them to my habits. The LKA thing is good if I wander, but I do not expect it to keep me on the road.
The air conditioning settings can be changed by turning off the S flow button. I find on hot days it works better that way.
I bought the F sport but did not buy it thinking it was a BMW for handling. Purely cosmetic...expect for the suspension which should be much stiffer. But I guess they balance it out for the masses.
Your Visor does have an extender. Pull it out from the little snap thing and slide it over. That should help fill the little opening.
The transmission was great in eco....at least before the hesitation issue was resolved. Before the TSB this car had 3 too many gears. At least that is fixed and driving as I would expect an 8 speed. Bit too shifty for me but acceptable.
The car does brake for you. I suspect in the game of chicken your common sense will hit the brakes first....however, it does work. Been there!
Backing into the garage I find that by adjusting my mirrors to move in and down when in reverse help a lot. Easily programmed..
Good luck with the new machine, have fun and enjoy!
I ended up turning some of the safety assist things off when the car was new. I have since turned them back on and adjusted them to my habits. The LKA thing is good if I wander, but I do not expect it to keep me on the road.
The air conditioning settings can be changed by turning off the S flow button. I find on hot days it works better that way.
I bought the F sport but did not buy it thinking it was a BMW for handling. Purely cosmetic...expect for the suspension which should be much stiffer. But I guess they balance it out for the masses.
Your Visor does have an extender. Pull it out from the little snap thing and slide it over. That should help fill the little opening.
The transmission was great in eco....at least before the hesitation issue was resolved. Before the TSB this car had 3 too many gears. At least that is fixed and driving as I would expect an 8 speed. Bit too shifty for me but acceptable.
The car does brake for you. I suspect in the game of chicken your common sense will hit the brakes first....however, it does work. Been there!
Backing into the garage I find that by adjusting my mirrors to move in and down when in reverse help a lot. Easily programmed..
Good luck with the new machine, have fun and enjoy!
Last edited by FastFord; 04-06-17 at 10:06 AM.
04-06-17, 09:31 AM
#3
9th Gear
Thread Starter
Thank you very much for your post.
I did some checking on the SFlow and found how the visor works and adjusted my review based on your input.
The mirror thing happens automatically which is fine, but I am making a 150 degree sweeping curve into my garage and that makes looking out the rear better. If I were backing straight in, it would be fine.
What's the TSB you mentioned about the transmission. I don't have "hesitation" per se, just annoying shifting. Is yours a 16 or 17?
I did some checking on the SFlow and found how the visor works and adjusted my review based on your input.
The mirror thing happens automatically which is fine, but I am making a 150 degree sweeping curve into my garage and that makes looking out the rear better. If I were backing straight in, it would be fine.
What's the TSB you mentioned about the transmission. I don't have "hesitation" per se, just annoying shifting. Is yours a 16 or 17?
04-06-17, 10:04 AM
#4
Here is the hesitation thread...
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ost-159-a.html
Long story short. There is/was a hesitation with the tranny. TSB has fixed it for most owners. Only affects certain vin numbers. Your 2017 is probably not affected, but if you have this issue, get the dealer to check the ECU TCU load for your RX. Check out the thread, it's very long and TSB info starts around page 16 or so.
150 degree curve to garage, wow can't help you there!
Good luck and have patience with all the features. I'm on vehicle number 56 and kinda old school. I appreciate the safety features and know its better than my old Datsun 240Z . The old guys here know what I'm talking about, turn a button, flick a switch, something happens. Now it's menu after menu, WTF does this do...Heck I still have a flip phone!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ost-159-a.html
Long story short. There is/was a hesitation with the tranny. TSB has fixed it for most owners. Only affects certain vin numbers. Your 2017 is probably not affected, but if you have this issue, get the dealer to check the ECU TCU load for your RX. Check out the thread, it's very long and TSB info starts around page 16 or so.
150 degree curve to garage, wow can't help you there!
Good luck and have patience with all the features. I'm on vehicle number 56 and kinda old school. I appreciate the safety features and know its better than my old Datsun 240Z . The old guys here know what I'm talking about, turn a button, flick a switch, something happens. Now it's menu after menu, WTF does this do...Heck I still have a flip phone!
04-06-17, 12:40 PM
#6
Yup the old ones were something else....At least I could fix most things on them.
04-07-17, 03:59 AM
#7
2017 Lexus RX 350 Fsport, Silver exterior, gray/black interior
The Positives
I will state at the outset that I am a picky car owner. I have owned Toyota/Lexus products since the mid 80's and they have all been reliable and good to drive (I try to choose carefully). When I spend more than $50,000 for anything, I expect it to be excellent. Overall, the RX350 FSport is a very good vehicle, but the RX350 falls shy of my expectations in little, nick picky ways. The RX350 is the most advanced car I have owned, and the most disappointing because of that. It contains great innovations that are just not quite perfected. The disturbing thing is that you want to trust them 100%, but you can’t. If you can’t trust them all the time, you can’t really trust them at all because you don’t know when that 5% exception is going to happen. And, you would expect the FSport version to be for “sporty” people with bikes and kayaks. It isn’t. It is more MAV (mall assault vehicle) than SPORT Utility Vehicle.
The Lexus web site to “build” your RX350 isn’t the greatest. Better to get a full brochure from the dealer. Read all the footnotes in the brochure about every option you intend to get on the car. They are full of surprises as you will see.
Do I like the car? Yes. Would I buy it again? Maybe. I test drove an Audi Q7, BMW X5 and X3, Porsche Cayenne and Macan, Acura MDX and RDX, Toyota Highlander hybrid and the Lexus before I purchased the Lexus. I should have driven them all some more before buying.
My SUV is equipped with most options: FSport package with its special suspension and larger tires, four-wheel drive, panoramic roof, surround view cameras, radar cruise control, heated and ventilated seats, navigation with Mark Levinson sound, lane keeping assist, triple beam adaptive headlights, heads up display. It also has a number of standard safety features like rear cross traffic alert and precollision braking. The owner’s manual is 700 pages and the Nav system manual is another 370. Good luck.
I have about 2,000 miles on the car. I bought it through Costco’s program and got it for $1,700 under invoice and then had to pay about $700 in dealer BS stuff to close the deal (nitrogen in the tires, really?). The RX350 Fsport has a better suspension and handling package than the regular RX350 so it does not suffer from the sloppy handling that affects the regular model. If you get an FSport, it will handle very well. I’ve pushed it hard around turns on hills and it is predictable and controllable at aggressive speeds, but it is not a sports car. Overall gas mileage is running about 20.5 mpg. Acceleration is very good. The seats are comfortable.
Lexus offers a Destination Assistance service where you call from the car, talk to a real person, and he/she will locate your destination and program it into your car’s GPS. It’s quite convenient if you will pay the annual fee. I think it would be most handy in urban settings with heavy traffic where you can’t lose concentration on driving. I used it once after being frustrated by the Nav system finding the wrong restaurant because there are two identically named ones in town.
The triple beam adaptive headlights work really well. The automatic dimming feature is pretty good, but is just a fraction of a second slow in responding so that I usually feel like my lights are on high for just a bit too long when approaching an oncoming driver. The system does not anticipate the way a person can.
The cockpit display is great. The speedometer, tach, and other gages are well laid out and the left side lets you toggle through a number of functions using buttons on the wheel. I like the automatic tire pressure display, and the G force one. I mostly use the one related to mileage.
The key fob that lets you enter the car just by pulling the handle, and lock it just by touching it is truly a nice touch. The fact you can program the steering wheel and seat to your preferences and then tie them to the key you carry so that it knows you from your significant other is clever.
The power lift gate is so much nicer than the manual rear gate I had on my Highlander. However, the rear glass does not open by itself, so if you want to just drop a small item in the back, you have to raise the whole gate to do it. That is mildly irritating. You’ll see what I mean.
The Blind Spot Monitoring system is great. The little icons on the side mirrors are in just the right spot and catch cars coming up at the right times. The system can be tweaked. (Note: BSM contains also the Rear Cross Traffic Alert settings - RCTA.)
Fit and finish are typical of Lexus - first class. The styling will grow on you if you are doubtful about it. Well, maybe not the front grill.
The Mark Levinson sound system is good, but not great. It came with the Nav system.
The Issues
Lexus still has some things to work out on this car.
The eight-speed transmission has at least one too many gears. Think that odd? In Eco drive mode, it seems to hunt back and forth among first, second, and third in quick succession trying to maximize fuel economy. It is mostly annoying as the car can’t seem to make up its mind. I drive in hilly country which exacerbates the problem. On flat lands it might not be as noticeable. As a result, I have set the transmission to Sport mode which solved the hunt and peck shifting, but will eat into fuel economy.
My right knee (I’m 6'1") rests against the center console just behind where it meets the dash and sometimes bumps the underside of the dash. There is not enough padding either place to cushion the knee bone. I’m adding some foam on my own. (Lowering the seat and moving it back to give me knee room change my driving position in a way I don’t like.)
The front dash has some reflective glare, especially from the inside area of the Heads Up Display. I ended up buying black felt and cutting it out to fit over the front edge of the dash all the way across with holes as needed. Problem solved if you like a felt-covered dash.
You are in for a surprise if you buy an FSport with a panoramic glass roof and want a roof rack too. The roof glass opens up and out over the top of the car. As a result, you cannot get Lexus to install roof rack cross bars on the car. You can do it yourself or buy aftermarket racks, but you won’t be able to open the roof without breaking it.
If you want a trailer hitch, Lexus will remove two rear parts, a “performance damper” and a sway bar to install their $800 + hitch. (You paid extra for those two parts when you bought the Fsport package.) Save your money and buy a CURT hitch from etrailers for $130 and install it yourself or let a garage do it. It’s simple and nothing gets removed. Then discover that anything close behind, like a bike rack, triggers the rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) and brakes the car so you have trouble backing up (more later).
The multifunction and navigation screen is large and well positioned and the cursor arrangement for working through menus is pretty decent (you can adjust the cursor touch). It can be distracting while driving as it will definitely draw your direct attention away from the road. The voice recognition feature is decent, but not if you have an unusual word. My Tom Tom GPS is better, and if you think this will be like Siri or Google, guess again. It ain’t.
Your Lexus Nav system may not take you on the same route as Google maps. I have yet to figure out the Lexus logic. You can pair your phone into the car using the Lexus app that you download. This allows you to surf the web to find a destination and plug it into the Nav system. It will eat up your data for as long as you keep the phone connected. This is separate from Blue tooth which can pair the phone and the car for other basic functions.
One nice feature of the display screen is that you can split it to show music, radio, climate, etc. on the right third of the screen. You can also select Nav screens that show not only the map, but also interstate exchanges. There is so much you can access and adjust through the system that you will need two hours playing with it just to discover the possibilities. Don’t hope to remember them all. (Note: some feature adjustments are only available on the steering wheel buttons on the right side using the dash display on the left side.) One one occasion, when I pressed the "Menu" button while driving, it would not display the menu screen and the cursor would not move.
The lane keeping assist (LKA) is just that, an “assist.” It tries to keep you in your lane, but it will let you wander out of it on occasions you cannot always predict. Remember that. It works with two quirks. First, it may take you off onto an exit ramp if you are driving in the right lane and wander in that direction just as you get to the ramp. Seriously, it nearly happened until I caught it. Second, it makes small corrections, but they tend to be just a little more than necessary. The car keeps in the lane by tracking the lines on either side. What it cannot do is figure a center point between the lines and track along it. The result is the car keeps wandering back and forth between the lines of the lane. It’s not jerky, more like a slightly drunken mule on his way home. On a long interstate cruise it may be handy. For shorter drives it is a mixed blessing.
The adaptive cruise control is quite handy if you respect its limitations. It will keep your car a set distance behind the car in front of it and you can choose how close that is. That’s nice. The system will also slow you down suddenly if the car ahead slows. Normally, that’s what it should do. However, if you pull out into the left lane to get past the car that is slowing, your car may still think it is behind the other car and slow you down in the faster lane. It’s not predictable and it’s spooky as well as dangerous because it is just the opposite of what a driver behind you will expect. On two occasions, I have been unable to set the cruise speed. I think there is an intermittent problem.
It will even brake your car to a stop behind a car it is following. In stop and go traffic, you can let the car stop and go with just a touch of the gas to resume forward motion. However, if there is no car that you are following closely enough, and you approach a car stopped at a light, trusting the radar to stop you in time is a big game of “chicken.” The car is supposed to stop under those conditions both from the radar cruise and the Precollision Braking System. At 45 mph, barreling toward a stop light with a car there, I’ve always hit the brakes before the car did. On the open road and stop and go traffic, the feature is a joy.
Visibility out the front and directly out the rear is very good. However, the large “C” pillars at the rear block your vision when you are backing up and turning. That’s when the rear camera and surround view are a help, but still, Lexus let style get in the way of safety. This is a problem every time I back into my garage.
The slope on the rear window is stylish, but robs you of room if you want to put anything high and rectangular or square in the rear section with the second row seats up. I had a Highlander that would hold chests just fine. The Lexus won’t. I knew I was going to give that up, but it still is annoying.
The air conditioning seems to be anemic. We are just getting into warmer weather, but the system does not seem to move enough air to really cool the car like it should when set to “automatic.” I can crank the temp down to below 70 and make up for it by coldness, but the automatic flow setting isn’t quite doing it above that. Ironically, the feature that lets you stop air to the rear seats (SFlow) also seems to reduce the air flow in the front. I can’t prove that, it just seems that way. You can turn it off so you get more flow. Note that when you turn off the ignition, whatever the last setting for SFlow was is programmed to your key fob, otherwise it is an automatic feature.
There is an irritating gap between the turn down visor that keeps out bright sun and the center where the rear view mirror is mounted. It is only about two inches, but it seems that is just where the sun wants to angle in on a drive home. The little black dot screen area that Lexus put on the windshield to help block the sun is not sufficient in size or density. The visor will slide over on its metal rail to cover the gap, but a little extender that many cars have in the visor to cover that space would have been nicer. I put some window tint film on the windshield to fill the gap in.
The rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) is a nice feature which I used by accident. I installed a trailer hitch and a bike rack that mounts into the hitch right behind the rear lift gate. Off I went. When I later went to back up, the RCTA saw the bike rack and braked the car to an instant stop. Now how do I turn off the RCTA? Could not find the answer in the owner’s manual. I slowly pushed down on the gas and kept pushing even after the RCTA had stopped the car and I was able to override it. Called Lexus. RCTA setting is controlled under the Blind Spot Monitor using controls on the steering wheel - not accessible by the main multifunction screen which I tried. Who knew? Not me.
In summary, I upgraded from my ‘08 Toyota Highlander to get the luxury, technology, reliability, and panache of the Lexus. I got those things. I lost some “utility” in the process which I expected. What I also got was a juvenile version of advanced technology - adequate, but not totally refined. The little design flaws that a junior engineer could find and fix are irritating. Lexus can and should do better. Drive it for a few hours and take it home to the garage before you decide to buy.
The Positives
I will state at the outset that I am a picky car owner. I have owned Toyota/Lexus products since the mid 80's and they have all been reliable and good to drive (I try to choose carefully). When I spend more than $50,000 for anything, I expect it to be excellent. Overall, the RX350 FSport is a very good vehicle, but the RX350 falls shy of my expectations in little, nick picky ways. The RX350 is the most advanced car I have owned, and the most disappointing because of that. It contains great innovations that are just not quite perfected. The disturbing thing is that you want to trust them 100%, but you can’t. If you can’t trust them all the time, you can’t really trust them at all because you don’t know when that 5% exception is going to happen. And, you would expect the FSport version to be for “sporty” people with bikes and kayaks. It isn’t. It is more MAV (mall assault vehicle) than SPORT Utility Vehicle.
The Lexus web site to “build” your RX350 isn’t the greatest. Better to get a full brochure from the dealer. Read all the footnotes in the brochure about every option you intend to get on the car. They are full of surprises as you will see.
Do I like the car? Yes. Would I buy it again? Maybe. I test drove an Audi Q7, BMW X5 and X3, Porsche Cayenne and Macan, Acura MDX and RDX, Toyota Highlander hybrid and the Lexus before I purchased the Lexus. I should have driven them all some more before buying.
My SUV is equipped with most options: FSport package with its special suspension and larger tires, four-wheel drive, panoramic roof, surround view cameras, radar cruise control, heated and ventilated seats, navigation with Mark Levinson sound, lane keeping assist, triple beam adaptive headlights, heads up display. It also has a number of standard safety features like rear cross traffic alert and precollision braking. The owner’s manual is 700 pages and the Nav system manual is another 370. Good luck.
I have about 2,000 miles on the car. I bought it through Costco’s program and got it for $1,700 under invoice and then had to pay about $700 in dealer BS stuff to close the deal (nitrogen in the tires, really?). The RX350 Fsport has a better suspension and handling package than the regular RX350 so it does not suffer from the sloppy handling that affects the regular model. If you get an FSport, it will handle very well. I’ve pushed it hard around turns on hills and it is predictable and controllable at aggressive speeds, but it is not a sports car. Overall gas mileage is running about 20.5 mpg. Acceleration is very good. The seats are comfortable.
Lexus offers a Destination Assistance service where you call from the car, talk to a real person, and he/she will locate your destination and program it into your car’s GPS. It’s quite convenient if you will pay the annual fee. I think it would be most handy in urban settings with heavy traffic where you can’t lose concentration on driving. I used it once after being frustrated by the Nav system finding the wrong restaurant because there are two identically named ones in town.
The triple beam adaptive headlights work really well. The automatic dimming feature is pretty good, but is just a fraction of a second slow in responding so that I usually feel like my lights are on high for just a bit too long when approaching an oncoming driver. The system does not anticipate the way a person can.
The cockpit display is great. The speedometer, tach, and other gages are well laid out and the left side lets you toggle through a number of functions using buttons on the wheel. I like the automatic tire pressure display, and the G force one. I mostly use the one related to mileage.
The key fob that lets you enter the car just by pulling the handle, and lock it just by touching it is truly a nice touch. The fact you can program the steering wheel and seat to your preferences and then tie them to the key you carry so that it knows you from your significant other is clever.
The power lift gate is so much nicer than the manual rear gate I had on my Highlander. However, the rear glass does not open by itself, so if you want to just drop a small item in the back, you have to raise the whole gate to do it. That is mildly irritating. You’ll see what I mean.
The Blind Spot Monitoring system is great. The little icons on the side mirrors are in just the right spot and catch cars coming up at the right times. The system can be tweaked. (Note: BSM contains also the Rear Cross Traffic Alert settings - RCTA.)
Fit and finish are typical of Lexus - first class. The styling will grow on you if you are doubtful about it. Well, maybe not the front grill.
The Mark Levinson sound system is good, but not great. It came with the Nav system.
The Issues
Lexus still has some things to work out on this car.
The eight-speed transmission has at least one too many gears. Think that odd? In Eco drive mode, it seems to hunt back and forth among first, second, and third in quick succession trying to maximize fuel economy. It is mostly annoying as the car can’t seem to make up its mind. I drive in hilly country which exacerbates the problem. On flat lands it might not be as noticeable. As a result, I have set the transmission to Sport mode which solved the hunt and peck shifting, but will eat into fuel economy.
My right knee (I’m 6'1") rests against the center console just behind where it meets the dash and sometimes bumps the underside of the dash. There is not enough padding either place to cushion the knee bone. I’m adding some foam on my own. (Lowering the seat and moving it back to give me knee room change my driving position in a way I don’t like.)
The front dash has some reflective glare, especially from the inside area of the Heads Up Display. I ended up buying black felt and cutting it out to fit over the front edge of the dash all the way across with holes as needed. Problem solved if you like a felt-covered dash.
You are in for a surprise if you buy an FSport with a panoramic glass roof and want a roof rack too. The roof glass opens up and out over the top of the car. As a result, you cannot get Lexus to install roof rack cross bars on the car. You can do it yourself or buy aftermarket racks, but you won’t be able to open the roof without breaking it.
If you want a trailer hitch, Lexus will remove two rear parts, a “performance damper” and a sway bar to install their $800 + hitch. (You paid extra for those two parts when you bought the Fsport package.) Save your money and buy a CURT hitch from etrailers for $130 and install it yourself or let a garage do it. It’s simple and nothing gets removed. Then discover that anything close behind, like a bike rack, triggers the rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) and brakes the car so you have trouble backing up (more later).
The multifunction and navigation screen is large and well positioned and the cursor arrangement for working through menus is pretty decent (you can adjust the cursor touch). It can be distracting while driving as it will definitely draw your direct attention away from the road. The voice recognition feature is decent, but not if you have an unusual word. My Tom Tom GPS is better, and if you think this will be like Siri or Google, guess again. It ain’t.
Your Lexus Nav system may not take you on the same route as Google maps. I have yet to figure out the Lexus logic. You can pair your phone into the car using the Lexus app that you download. This allows you to surf the web to find a destination and plug it into the Nav system. It will eat up your data for as long as you keep the phone connected. This is separate from Blue tooth which can pair the phone and the car for other basic functions.
One nice feature of the display screen is that you can split it to show music, radio, climate, etc. on the right third of the screen. You can also select Nav screens that show not only the map, but also interstate exchanges. There is so much you can access and adjust through the system that you will need two hours playing with it just to discover the possibilities. Don’t hope to remember them all. (Note: some feature adjustments are only available on the steering wheel buttons on the right side using the dash display on the left side.) One one occasion, when I pressed the "Menu" button while driving, it would not display the menu screen and the cursor would not move.
The lane keeping assist (LKA) is just that, an “assist.” It tries to keep you in your lane, but it will let you wander out of it on occasions you cannot always predict. Remember that. It works with two quirks. First, it may take you off onto an exit ramp if you are driving in the right lane and wander in that direction just as you get to the ramp. Seriously, it nearly happened until I caught it. Second, it makes small corrections, but they tend to be just a little more than necessary. The car keeps in the lane by tracking the lines on either side. What it cannot do is figure a center point between the lines and track along it. The result is the car keeps wandering back and forth between the lines of the lane. It’s not jerky, more like a slightly drunken mule on his way home. On a long interstate cruise it may be handy. For shorter drives it is a mixed blessing.
The adaptive cruise control is quite handy if you respect its limitations. It will keep your car a set distance behind the car in front of it and you can choose how close that is. That’s nice. The system will also slow you down suddenly if the car ahead slows. Normally, that’s what it should do. However, if you pull out into the left lane to get past the car that is slowing, your car may still think it is behind the other car and slow you down in the faster lane. It’s not predictable and it’s spooky as well as dangerous because it is just the opposite of what a driver behind you will expect. On two occasions, I have been unable to set the cruise speed. I think there is an intermittent problem.
It will even brake your car to a stop behind a car it is following. In stop and go traffic, you can let the car stop and go with just a touch of the gas to resume forward motion. However, if there is no car that you are following closely enough, and you approach a car stopped at a light, trusting the radar to stop you in time is a big game of “chicken.” The car is supposed to stop under those conditions both from the radar cruise and the Precollision Braking System. At 45 mph, barreling toward a stop light with a car there, I’ve always hit the brakes before the car did. On the open road and stop and go traffic, the feature is a joy.
Visibility out the front and directly out the rear is very good. However, the large “C” pillars at the rear block your vision when you are backing up and turning. That’s when the rear camera and surround view are a help, but still, Lexus let style get in the way of safety. This is a problem every time I back into my garage.
The slope on the rear window is stylish, but robs you of room if you want to put anything high and rectangular or square in the rear section with the second row seats up. I had a Highlander that would hold chests just fine. The Lexus won’t. I knew I was going to give that up, but it still is annoying.
The air conditioning seems to be anemic. We are just getting into warmer weather, but the system does not seem to move enough air to really cool the car like it should when set to “automatic.” I can crank the temp down to below 70 and make up for it by coldness, but the automatic flow setting isn’t quite doing it above that. Ironically, the feature that lets you stop air to the rear seats (SFlow) also seems to reduce the air flow in the front. I can’t prove that, it just seems that way. You can turn it off so you get more flow. Note that when you turn off the ignition, whatever the last setting for SFlow was is programmed to your key fob, otherwise it is an automatic feature.
There is an irritating gap between the turn down visor that keeps out bright sun and the center where the rear view mirror is mounted. It is only about two inches, but it seems that is just where the sun wants to angle in on a drive home. The little black dot screen area that Lexus put on the windshield to help block the sun is not sufficient in size or density. The visor will slide over on its metal rail to cover the gap, but a little extender that many cars have in the visor to cover that space would have been nicer. I put some window tint film on the windshield to fill the gap in.
The rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) is a nice feature which I used by accident. I installed a trailer hitch and a bike rack that mounts into the hitch right behind the rear lift gate. Off I went. When I later went to back up, the RCTA saw the bike rack and braked the car to an instant stop. Now how do I turn off the RCTA? Could not find the answer in the owner’s manual. I slowly pushed down on the gas and kept pushing even after the RCTA had stopped the car and I was able to override it. Called Lexus. RCTA setting is controlled under the Blind Spot Monitor using controls on the steering wheel - not accessible by the main multifunction screen which I tried. Who knew? Not me.
In summary, I upgraded from my ‘08 Toyota Highlander to get the luxury, technology, reliability, and panache of the Lexus. I got those things. I lost some “utility” in the process which I expected. What I also got was a juvenile version of advanced technology - adequate, but not totally refined. The little design flaws that a junior engineer could find and fix are irritating. Lexus can and should do better. Drive it for a few hours and take it home to the garage before you decide to buy.
one complaint.
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04-07-17, 05:28 AM
#8
Lexus Test Driver
What an awesome review, thanks for taking the time to post it... It will definitely help others look out for things they may never have thought of as they are looking to purchase an RX. I know I will probably refer back to it as we get closer to returning our 3RX..
04-07-17, 12:17 PM
#9
2017 Lexus RX 350 Fsport, Silver exterior, gray/black interior
The eight-speed transmission has at least one too many gears. Think that odd? In Eco drive mode, it seems to hunt back and forth among first, second, and third in quick succession trying to maximize fuel economy. It is mostly annoying as the car can’t seem to make up its mind. I drive in hilly country which exacerbates the problem. On flat lands it might not be as noticeable. As a result, I have set the transmission to Sport mode which solved the hunt and peck shifting, but will eat into fuel economy.
If you want a trailer hitch, Lexus will remove two rear parts, a “performance damper” and a sway bar to install their $800 + hitch. (You paid extra for those two parts when you bought the Fsport package.) Save your money and buy a CURT hitch from etrailers for $130 and install it yourself or let a garage do it. It’s simple and nothing gets removed. Then discover that anything close behind, like a bike rack, triggers the rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) and brakes the car so you have trouble backing up (more later).
The eight-speed transmission has at least one too many gears. Think that odd? In Eco drive mode, it seems to hunt back and forth among first, second, and third in quick succession trying to maximize fuel economy. It is mostly annoying as the car can’t seem to make up its mind. I drive in hilly country which exacerbates the problem. On flat lands it might not be as noticeable. As a result, I have set the transmission to Sport mode which solved the hunt and peck shifting, but will eat into fuel economy.
If you want a trailer hitch, Lexus will remove two rear parts, a “performance damper” and a sway bar to install their $800 + hitch. (You paid extra for those two parts when you bought the Fsport package.) Save your money and buy a CURT hitch from etrailers for $130 and install it yourself or let a garage do it. It’s simple and nothing gets removed. Then discover that anything close behind, like a bike rack, triggers the rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) and brakes the car so you have trouble backing up (more later).
There is a TSB that should fix the transmission issue. At least, it has for me.
There is no need to remove any Performance damper or sway bar to install the OEM hitch. That was for 3RX F-Sport. 4RX is the same for F-Sport or non F-Sport. The OEM hitch is installed under the bumper cover and replaces the original Bumper re-enforcement (Aluminum) with the Steel Hitch.
04-11-17, 06:16 PM
#10
Rookie
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: NC
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Great review, thanks. Been in our '07 400h for a long time and love the size and comfort. Been eyeing the new model for over a year but can't get our arms around several issues.
Size: significantly larger than the older style we own, and too much truck feel compared to that older style.
Doors: took one overnight during service yesterday. Got to the office and went to close the door. HUGE doors compared to the earlier model. Asked the guys at Lexus about features to pull it closed (we have an A8L, with it), not yet on the RX, but on the LS. Would help. I estimate the door slab from window to lower sill must be at least 6-7" more than the older style. It's not that it's too heavy, it's just big as hell compared to the '07.
Comfort: it was fine driving (base model), and I've had the F-Sport too but wife hated the seats. The base was fine around town but I still felt like I was in a Ford Excursion taking up nearly the entire lane, and it was a bit more sluggish than I'm used to. I'm sure we'd get used to it.
But our needs are basic, this is a 3rd vehicle. Would love to find one that same size. NX is too smallish. RX now feels too big. Been in an X3, Q5, Macan and Cayenne. Liked 'em all, but the Lexus 'feel' is what we want - the comfort, the features, etc. Can't seem to find that sweet spot just yet.
Anyone else test drive something that hit the mark, and might be a few inches slimmer than the new RX?
Size: significantly larger than the older style we own, and too much truck feel compared to that older style.
Doors: took one overnight during service yesterday. Got to the office and went to close the door. HUGE doors compared to the earlier model. Asked the guys at Lexus about features to pull it closed (we have an A8L, with it), not yet on the RX, but on the LS. Would help. I estimate the door slab from window to lower sill must be at least 6-7" more than the older style. It's not that it's too heavy, it's just big as hell compared to the '07.
Comfort: it was fine driving (base model), and I've had the F-Sport too but wife hated the seats. The base was fine around town but I still felt like I was in a Ford Excursion taking up nearly the entire lane, and it was a bit more sluggish than I'm used to. I'm sure we'd get used to it.
But our needs are basic, this is a 3rd vehicle. Would love to find one that same size. NX is too smallish. RX now feels too big. Been in an X3, Q5, Macan and Cayenne. Liked 'em all, but the Lexus 'feel' is what we want - the comfort, the features, etc. Can't seem to find that sweet spot just yet.
Anyone else test drive something that hit the mark, and might be a few inches slimmer than the new RX?
04-11-17, 07:05 PM
#11
Intermediate
it took us a year to finally accept the extra 5 inches. Frankly impressed with how the RX feels, both driving and interior layout.
IMO, Does not feel like any previous RX, almost like driving a car. And we compared it to the new BMW5 series and GS.
IMO, Does not feel like any previous RX, almost like driving a car. And we compared it to the new BMW5 series and GS.
04-12-17, 03:45 AM
#12
Great review, thanks. Been in our '07 400h for a long time and love the size and comfort. Been eyeing the new model for over a year but can't get our arms around several issues.
Size: significantly larger than the older style we own, and too much truck feel compared to that older style.
Doors: took one overnight during service yesterday. Got to the office and went to close the door. HUGE doors compared to the earlier model. Asked the guys at Lexus about features to pull it closed (we have an A8L, with it), not yet on the RX, but on the LS. Would help. I estimate the door slab from window to lower sill must be at least 6-7" more than the older style. It's not that it's too heavy, it's just big as hell compared to the '07.
Comfort: it was fine driving (base model), and I've had the F-Sport too but wife hated the seats. The base was fine around town but I still felt like I was in a Ford Excursion taking up nearly the entire lane, and it was a bit more sluggish than I'm used to. I'm sure we'd get used to it.
But our needs are basic, this is a 3rd vehicle. Would love to find one that same size. NX is too smallish. RX now feels too big. Been in an X3, Q5, Macan and Cayenne. Liked 'em all, but the Lexus 'feel' is what we want - the comfort, the features, etc. Can't seem to find that sweet spot just yet.
Anyone else test drive something that hit the mark, and might be a few inches slimmer than the new RX?
Size: significantly larger than the older style we own, and too much truck feel compared to that older style.
Doors: took one overnight during service yesterday. Got to the office and went to close the door. HUGE doors compared to the earlier model. Asked the guys at Lexus about features to pull it closed (we have an A8L, with it), not yet on the RX, but on the LS. Would help. I estimate the door slab from window to lower sill must be at least 6-7" more than the older style. It's not that it's too heavy, it's just big as hell compared to the '07.
Comfort: it was fine driving (base model), and I've had the F-Sport too but wife hated the seats. The base was fine around town but I still felt like I was in a Ford Excursion taking up nearly the entire lane, and it was a bit more sluggish than I'm used to. I'm sure we'd get used to it.
But our needs are basic, this is a 3rd vehicle. Would love to find one that same size. NX is too smallish. RX now feels too big. Been in an X3, Q5, Macan and Cayenne. Liked 'em all, but the Lexus 'feel' is what we want - the comfort, the features, etc. Can't seem to find that sweet spot just yet.
Anyone else test drive something that hit the mark, and might be a few inches slimmer than the new RX?
how nice it was. It was just as quiet as the RX the ride was comparable and the V6 was actually stronger than the RX. I had no issues in the three years I owned it and the size was perfect. To be honest with the vibration and drone im getting with my RX
I would have been better off getting another Chevy.
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MstrWayne
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03-26-13 08:50 AM