Second Drive
More than 10 years ago, Lexus created the RX300, a luxury SUV built on a Camry platform. In doing so, the automaker demonstrated to the world that an SUV needn’t spring from a body-on-frame truck and helped bring the word “crossover” into the lexicon. The world responded by buying the smooth-riding Lexus RX at a staggering pace, encouraging automakers everywhere to rush their own car-based luxury sport-utes to market.
In our case, the RX came across mostly as a snore. The handling could have been better, and sportiness was absent; the RX had the flavor of buttered noodles, reminding us of another Lexus, the dull ES sedan. Nevertheless, we had to admit the RX was refined, easy to live with, and seemingly engineered to relax the driver in a way that escapes most crossover utility vehicles.
The third generation of the RX arrives at dealers as you read this, and although Lexus has declined to turn it into a sports car, the final product will continue to appeal to current owners and may win over customers interested in downsizing their sport-utes.
The new RX sticks to the formula that made it a success (Camry-based, leather-lined, quiet, and refined, with controls that feel as if they’re filled with churned butter), but Lexus has improved nearly every piece and part. The interior is slightly more attractive and more comfortable. But, really, was a new and easy-to-use joystick control that eliminates the previous RX’s touch screen really necessary? Maybe not, but it works remarkably well.
Minor gains—five horsepower and six pound-feet of torque—from the RX350’s 3.5-liter V-6 aren’t viscerally apparent, perhaps because of a 420-pound weight gain of the all-wheel-drive version, which now tips in at a swollen 4550 pounds. But a new six-speed automatic that replaces last year’s five-speed box helps mitigate the added weight, although Toyota expects the RX350 will need an additional 10th of a second to go from zero to 60 mph. What may matter more to potential buyers is that fuel economy for the new all-wheel-drive RX350 is up 1 mpg in the city, to 18, and up 2 mpg on the highway, to 24 (front-drive models are rated at 18 mpg city and 25 highway).
The hybrid RX400h is renamed the RX450h for 2010. The corporate 3.5-liter V-6 makes its first appearance in the hybrid RX and now runs the more efficient Atkinson cycle. Compared with the old 3.3-liter, the gas engine is up 37 horsepower, to 245; the 167-hp electric motor carries over, as does the 68-hp rear-axle-mounted motor that provides all-wheel drive. The interplay of the electric motor and the gasoline engine has been greatly smoothed out so that the rubber-band power delivery of the previous generation is now gone. Brake-pedal feel is similarly transformed from twitchy and touchy to smooth and gradual. EPA fuel economy improves to 28 mpg city and 26 highway (27 mpg highway for front-drive versions).
Exterior styling evolves the shape of the previous generation, which is to say no one will mistake the RX for a Hummer H1. The updated look is just one of the many enhancements for 2010. The new RX350 and the newly named RX450h hybrid are quieter, more powerful, more fuel efficient, and possibly a smidge sportier despite the weight gain. It’s progress that won’t cause the driver to light a cigarette after a torrid drive, but it’s the best RX yet.
