The Lexus RX invented the luxury crossover segment way back in 1998 and now it's back with an
all-new fifth generation for 2023. what's up folks I'm Dave undercover editor-in-chief of
autolist.com a sister company to CarGurus the RX is the most popular vehicle Lexus makes by a wide
margin and it's the most popular luxury crossover in its segment it's been completely redesigned
for this model year with new engines available new features inside and as you can see some new colors
so is it up to the challenge of staying ahead of the pack or are the rivals closing in let's go
find out but before we go any further like And subscribe to this channel so you can get alerts
on all of our future updates now because the RX is the most popular thing that Lexus sells they
wanted to be careful not to alienate new buyers and existing buyers with this redesign so let's
go over some of the highlights the spindle Grill carries over although now they're calling it
spindle body it's a little more integrated into the vehicle itself this one what we're testing
here is the f-sport so that means that this lower fascia is is going to be a little more aggressive
than it will be just on the base model the hood has been pushed a little bit lower and then these
a-pillars have been pushed further back to give the vehicle a little more of a sporty appearance
now in terms of Dimensions this new RX does look a little smaller than the previous generation but
Lexus says it's not overall the wheelbase itself has been stretched 2.4 inches to give it better
handling but the length is exactly the same as the outgoing generation this new version is also an
inch wider and about half an inch shorter moving closer to the back you still have the floating
roof design that Lexus had on the previous generation and these wheels are 21 inch alloy
wheels because this is the f-sport model base versions will get a 19 inch wheel and then at
the rear you're seeing some design elements that Lexus IS incorporating across its lineup today
namely you have this horizontal light bar you also have the Lexus badging this is sort of new badging
and then if you're curious about this color Lexus is calling it Grecian water it's a cool color not
sure about that name all right so let's talk about powertrains the version we're spending most of our
time with today is the base it's the RX 350. so previously it used to have a V6 now that
has been thrown out and you get an all-new 2.4 liter turbocharged four-cylinder this one makes
275 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque if you compare that to the previous generation V6 you're
down on horsepower a little bit but you are up on torque all RX 350s will have an 8-speed automatic
transmission and your choice of either front-wheel drive or optional all-wheel drive the switch from
the old V6 to this new turbocharged 4 means that both the all-wheel drive and the front wheel drive
models get a gain of about two miles per gallon in City Highway and freeway driving since this is
an all-wheel drive model that we're testing it gets 21 miles per gallon in the city 28 in the
highway and 24 combined Lexus is also launching this new RX with your choice of one of two new
hybrid powertrains the Lexus 350h will have 246 total horsepower while the performance oriented
500h will have 366 total horsepower and both of those Hybrid models are all-wheel drive only and
then sometime in 2023 Lexus is going to launch the RX 450h and that will be a plug-in hybrid
version of this crossover in terms of sales Lexus says that this gas version the non-hybrid 350 will
make up about 70 percent of all of its total RX sales but what do you guys think to us that seems
a little high we would expect more people to opt for the hybrids at least let us know your thoughts
in the comments below so the interior of this RX has been completely overhauled and generally we
really like it some of the highlights include this screen this is a new 14 inch color touch screen
infotainment system it controls the Wireless Apple carplay wireless Android auto this is a
system that Lexus has been introducing into more of its recent models and it's really nicely laid
out and executed the screen is really bright and crisp it's also very responsive to your commands
that's a nice touch another thing that I like is that Lexus kept physical buttons for some of the
climate control you can control the temperature here for the passenger and the driver and you've
got some of your defrost buttons down here you also have a physical volume knob that's a nice
touch I feel like too many automakers these days are going to all touch screen so it's good to see
that it's worth noting that this 14 inch screen is optional in most trims base models will get
a 9.8 inch screen but the functionality and the look is largely the same all models of RX will
get a digital seven inch display in the instrument panel and this is customizable and can show you a
variety of different readouts Lexus is also built in quite a bit of utility in this cabin that's
really nice you've got cup holders here there's a nice little feature is the actually the base
of this cup holder you can push down if for some reason whatever you're putting there is deeper so
that's a nice little feature so your cup doesn't tip over you've got Wireless smartphone charging
down here and then extra Cubbies and then you have a smattering of usba and USBC chargers for
your smartphones there's also a number of tech goodies you can get on the RX the one we're in
right now has a color heads up display that's a nice feature some trims do offer a digital
camera based rear view mirror and although our tester doesn't have it it just has a standard
moon roof you can get a panoramic moonroof on some trim levels so there's really a lot to
like in this new cabin of the RX there are a few things that I don't love they're little nitpicks
though for one there seem to be buttons just sort of spread out throughout the entire cabin and if
you've seen our video on the LX you'll notice that was also a thing that bothered us in that
model so you've got buttons for the seat controls and odometer settings over here you've got camera
buttons here down here I have a certain mode for an EV driving which this is the hybrid so it has
that option but what's frustrating is that while there's an EV button there aren't physical buttons
for the different Drive modes to get to that you need to go through several different menus
on the screen the caveat there is that Lexus does allow you to program some of the buttons
on the steering wheel so you can do functions with just one touch this includes adjusting the climate
control temperature adjusting the fan speed and as I mentioned you can program this to adjust to
a preset drive mode finally you may have noticed this mounted on top of the steering wheel this is
an infrared camera and it's a driver monitoring system and it works in two different situations
one is just when you're normally driving down the freeway if you are distracted if you look away it
will just ping an alert to say hey get your eyes back on the road it will also work when you're
using the rx's traffic jam assist now that's a system that you'll use in traffic to allow you to
do hands-free driving at relatively low speeds but you still need to be paying attention and that's
what this driver monitoring system is looking out for now before I go to the rear seats and show you
the space back there as I go to get out I want to show you one more feature that this new RX has now
this is basically an electronic door Lexus calls it digital latch we first saw it on the smaller
NX by Lexus basically it just means that rather than pulling a handle to get out of the car I just
push this button and it lets me out now there is a safety feature built in if for some reason the
car were to lose power you can pull the same lever twice and the door will open now this electronic
latch is actually part of a larger safety system in this RX that uses the vehicle's sensors as
you've parked it to look for oncoming traffic or maybe pedestrians or cyclists so you don't open
your door into them as they're passing by now in terms of rear seat space you've got a lot to work
with I'm 6'1 I've got the driver's seat adjusted to where I would keep it so basically I'm sitting
behind myself and as you can see plenty of leg room room for my knees and room for my head Lexis
hasn't released figures for the interior space but they do say it should be a little bit bigger
than the outgoing generation one thing to note is that this generation of RX currently doesn't offer
a third row of seats the previous generation did it was the RXL and gave you a little more
functionality in the back not so this time around you've also got some other nice features back here
the particular trim we're in now offers heated and cooled rear seats that's a first for the RS
X you also have some USB charging ports down here nice little cup holders in the center armrest and
a little extra storage space here now in terms of cargo area Lexus says that there's a little
bit more back here than there was in the previous generation of RX and as you can see you've got a
lot of very useful space and that's really nice although I will point out that the height is eaten
into a little bit by the profile of this car just something to consider and if you need more cargo
space the rear seats are split 60 40 so you can fold those down just with the touch of a button
finally there are two things about this hash that I really like for one look how high it
opens as I mentioned I'm six foot one a lot of SUVs or crossovers like this I'm always bumping
my head this opens up nice and high that's a nice touch also and this is a feature I love this lock
and walk button will delay the closing of the door for up to 90 seconds so what that means
is you can hit the button and then you have 90 seconds to grab everything that you need
out of here with your hand and then walk away the door will close behind you and lock the whole car
all right now some driving impressions as I mentioned the model that we grabbed has the
base engine so that's the 2.4 liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes 275 horsepower
it replaces a V6 and you kind of feel the difference while you're driving it there's a
little bit of Turbo lag to this engine that you're not going to find on any naturally
aspirated V6 so I do miss that but otherwise it does feel like it has a healthy amount of power
I also really love this transmission this is an eight-speed automatic really fast shifts really
nicely timed I'm definitely impressed by that so that's great so as you saw earlier this is the
f-sport version so in addition to some exterior upgrades and the different Wheels this also has
a suspension that's an Adaptive suspension so when you go into the different Drive modes and
adjust between Eco or Comfort or sport it's also going to tune the suspension accordingly and no
matter what setting you have it in the suspension is actually really comfortable it's compliant and
also gives you just a nice edge of sportiness too another thing I'm really enjoying about this RX
is how well it keeps out the road and the wind noise and you would expect that right this is a
luxury crossover so you would hope that would be the case but yeah it absolutely delivers on that
front really enjoying cruising down the freeway at 80 miles an hour and you would never even know it
lots of really enjoying these seats there's great bolstering on the side they're well
padded certainly lots of comfort there and again you would expect that in a luxury SUV
in terms of competitive set Lexus says that this new RX will go up against the Acura MDX the BMW
X5 the Mercedes-Benz GLE and the Volvo XC90 so how does it compare to those well for one it's going
to feel smaller than pretty much any of those but particularly the Acura MDX that's a big crossover
it's got three rows of seats so if you need space the RX may not be the way to go compared to the
BMW or the Mercedes this RX is going to feel a little less luxurious it just doesn't have the
Posh the build quality the materials as those German Brands so that's something to consider
but the flip side is this RX is also cheaper than either of those models when it comes to the Volvo
XC90 that model does have a third row of seating so if that's important keep that in mind otherwise
I think we would choose the RX over the Volvo this is just a newer experience it handles better it's
got a little more modern styling and amenities inside so the lrx gets our knot in that case
in terms of safety features all new RX models come standard with Lexus safety system 3.0
that includes features like automatic emergency braking road sign assists Lane departure alerts
with steering assist Lane tracing assist automatic high beams an adaptive cruise control with curve
management which will effectively slow the vehicle down as you go around tighter curves other safety
features include Advanced park assist the digital latch doors that we showed you earlier and traffic
jam assist in terms of trims both the RX 350 and the 350h will have the standard base model
then a premium premium plus and a luxury version the RX 350 the non-hybrid version also gets the
f-sport which we were testing today finally the RX 500h is one package only the f-sport performance
all-wheel drive in terms of pricing Lexus hasn't yet announced what the new RX will actually cost
but we expect it to start around fifty thousand dollars all right folks there you have it our
review of the all-new 2023 Lexus RX Pros well we really like that there's a variety of powertrains
available either a base turbocharged 4 you can get a hybrid a Performance Hybrid and a little
bit later there'll be the plug-in hybrid we also like the redesign infotainment system it looks
good it works well that's been great and of course inside you get the quiet comfortable ride that you
would expect from a Lexus cons well it's smaller than many of its Rivals and there's no third row
version available so that's a little bit of a Miss especially for a lot of families that are looking
for that optional third row sometimes we also didn't love that the driver monitoring system
was Super Active although you can defeat it and finally this new turbocharged 4 in the base model
does give up a little bit of horsepower to the V6 that it replaces so for reviews or listings
of this new RX or anything else you're shopping for be sure to check out cargurus.com and if you
have a car to sell check out CarGurus instant Max cash offer which will give you top dollar
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