Short Take Road Test
For the middle-class—and middle-aged—the hugely popular Lexus RX350 is the crossover of choice. It offers lavish comfort, lots of room, designer-label good looks, and the requisite premium badge right up front. The same traits apply to its hybrid brother, the 2010 Lexus RX450h.
The RX is in its third generation, but this is just the second-generation RX with hybrid technology, and the meat of the mixed powertrain is carried over wholesale from the last RX400h. The same rear-driveshaft-less all-wheel-drive system remains available, for example. There is one big change: The 3.3-liter V-6 has had its displacement enlarged to 3.5 liters, and the result is 27 more horsepower from the combined system, to 295. There are three electric motors in all-wheel-drive models: one in the transmission that acts as the starter and helps recapture braking energy; a second unit with 167 hp that helps propel the front wheels; and a 68-hp motor that drives the rear wheels only when additional traction is necessary. (Acquiring the third motor adds $1590 to the base price of a $42,535 front-drive RX450h.) The rear electric motor is connected to the front-wheel-drive transaxle only by electronic wiring, a clever arrangement that eliminates the need for a transfer case and driveshaft. It’s one reason this hybrid model weighs just 382 more pounds than the 4853-pound, gas-fired RX350. The majority of the additional bulk comes from the 37-kW battery pack.
No Fatal Flaws
Despite a fourth-place finish in a recent comparison of luxury crossovers, the RX does impress. As with the RX350 we tested earlier this year, it was a struggle to find anything even resembling a deal-breaking fault in the serene RX450h. Operation is an exercise in being totally pampered. The electric steering is light but responsive. The ride is mesmerizing. The handling is not tuned for back-road strafing but for boulevard cruising. The interior sparkles with chrome and wood and the softest of leathers and textures.
But the continuously variable transmission, a kind of one-gear tranny, will not win anyone over. This is nothing new. A more serious complaint can be found with the infotainment control, or rather the learning curve associated with mastering it. As this is the newest RX, it uses a free-floating, mouse-type knob thing—think really big “eraser style” control, like the ones found in old laptop keyboards—that directs a pointer on the navigation display. To acquire said knob, you will have to check the box next to the $2400 Premium Plus package and the $2440 box for the navigation system. Although the ergonomics are great (the knob and the thumb clicker are right where the driver’s hand falls), the control can be a bit wonky to get a handle on. But once you hit the plateau on the learning curve, the system works without flaw. There are detents communicated through the knob when going from one screen selection to the next (in the manner of BMW’s iDrive) that allow the driver to operate some of the menus without removing eyes from the road ahead. If different is good, then this system is great, but it takes getting used to.
Other notable options include a 15-speaker Mark Levinson sound system for $1610 and the Luxury package that, despite its high price of $4700, is well worth it. This package includes high-tech LED headlamps, 19-inch wheels, and some of the softest leather we have felt since Connolly went belly up in 2002, and that includes the stuff in the Rolls-Royce Phantom drophead coupe. Safety bits include standard stability control that can’t be fully switched off and causes a lame 0.77-g skidpad figure. Airbags protect the occupants’ faces (front), hips (side), heads (curtain), and legs (knee). The second-row guests are protected by seatbelts and curtain airbags only.
We’d Probably Opt for the Nonhybrid RX
A hybrid is not designed for straight-line performance, but we tested it, and darned if we would fail to report it. The 0-to-60 dash is just off the standard RX350’s mark of 6.8 seconds, standing at 7.1. The “h” trails the RX350 in the quarter-mile test, too, but by only 0.2 second at 15.5. Surprisingly, the RX450h’s quarter-mile time is identical to that of the BMW X3 xDrive30i, which was the slowest of the quintet in that comparo we mentioned before. The only real black mark from the test session came in braking performance. It took the RX450h 190 feet to stop from 70 mph, 15 more than the RX350. But our test vehicle was a pre-production example and the panic braking might not have been dialed in all the way, so we will hold off in condemning this result as pitiful and settle instead for pre-pitiful.
Is the hybrid worth the cost premium of roughly five grand over the 350? We managed 25 mpg over about 500 miles. That would have been good enough for best in test in the comparo, but it is well below the EPA rating of 30 mpg in the city and 28 on the highway. The RX350 averaged 21 mpg in the comparison test. Both Lexus models had all-wheel drive, and assuming both would cost the same to maintain (oil changes, repairs, etc.) and would use identically priced fuel, it would take 231,026 miles for the hybrid to “break even” with the RX350. But during that long accumulation of mileage, the “h” would burn 1760 fewer gallons of premium gasoline. And considering that Toyota/Lexus has put more than a million hybrids on U.S. roads, most of which are far more efficient than the RX, it’s clear the automaker is serious about reducing the gasoline needs of this country. Or making a profit. One or the other, really.
When it comes to hybrid versions of cars, or SUVs like the RX seen here, we tend to recommend a good old-fashioned internal-combustion engine sans electric motors and droning CVTs. The same goes for the RX. But in a world of ever-growing concerns for all things green, the RX might be one of the more attractive statements this side of the Fisker Karma.
