Lexus RX or BMW X5?

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This is the new Lexus RX, and it’s not only the most popular thing in Lexus’s lineup, but it’s a benchmark to the luxury crossover segment. But this new generation is an important transition for the nameplate. It’s a complete transition away from n/a engines to more modern and more efficient turbos and hybrids

And with it comes more power as well

Well….not in this base powertrain RX350

But for the first time we have a performance minded RX500h Performance

The big power RX500 brings 366 hp and and 406 lbft

And it’s the most powerful RX ever, but yanno what, the fastest most powerful RX ever is still slower than the slowest X5 from BMW

My point being, this new RX is still a luxury-first vehicle

What we have here, though is the base powertrain RX350 which brings a 2.4T 4 cylinder pumping out 275 hp and 317 lbft. It also gets an 8 speed automatic and this one has AWD which means 0-60 is good for just about 7 seconds

But the RX has never been about hp or 0-60. It’s a bout luxury and comfort and wafting from place to place

The damping is soft
The brake has a gradual build rather than a bite
The visibility is great
The cabin is quiet and airy

It’s one of those cars where the thing that makes it good isn’t going to be on a spec sheet, you can’t brag about it to your friends

It’s genuinely something you just get in and feel relaxed

Another thing that helps you feel relaxed is the fact that the car is 2.4 inches shooter overall, but the wheelbase is 2.4 inches longer. The car feels more stable, you get less NVH, and it feels very solid.

So all is right with the world

The RX is still soft and easy

It still swaddles you in luxury and manages to give you a relaxed feeling behind the wheel

The main difference is that now it does all the same things with a little better fuel economy and a little fully electric range in same cases, and in almost all cases, more power

And in every single case…it does all these things with a weird face, let me show you what i mean

And then there’s the packaging itself.
I’ve always been a fan of the materials and build od Lexus’
And here is no different
It’s solid and feels expensive in here
And then you get unique fabric materials on your seats, door card, and even on your speaker covers which I haven’t seen before so that’s really cool
The front passengers have plenty of space
There’s loads of storage and one of the cupholders even has a height adjustment
The doors on the outside and inside are operated by electronic releases which feel solid and satisfying
And you get luxuries like heated and cooled seats
Heated steering wheel
And those items have an auto setting just like you’d see from the typical climate controls
Full transparency the auto setting runs a bit warm for my liking, but you can adjust to what suits you
But speaking of the climate controls they’re screen operated and they’re too slow to respond so i find myself scrolling past the number i want and then having to watch closely on the way back
And then we might as well talk about the tech
You have a great HUD\
And the touch buttons on the steering wheel are sensitive so if you rest your fingers no them it shows what you’re doing in your HUD which is a genuine innovation with improved safety benefits
You have a reasonable digital cluster though it doesn’t really change so not sure i see the point
And then you have the upgraded 14 inch infotainment screen with
Wireless car play
It’s sharp the graphics are nice
But then there’s the 360 camera where you get the useless egg
And the normal 360 cameras are the familiar toyota resolution that doesn’t work in a luxury product in my opinion
Your driver assist suite is pretty solid, not industry leading but good enough to be helpful
But that leads me to the most irritating thing about this car.
Behind the steering wheel is a driver monitor BUT if you ever drive with your hand at the top of the wheel whenever you turn at all the car will ding at you
EVEN IF THE DRIVER MONITOR IS TURNED OFF
Maybe its a user error thing but i tried like 4 times to get it to stop. No luck
But the rest of the cabin is nice
You have a nice LC style shifter
You have a clean design
You have an offroad drive mode for some reason
No sport or eco mode, but you get an offroad mode..weird
You have a nice pano roof
You have spacious rear seats
You have heated and cooled rear seats
Your trunk is big and practical and you have buttons to fold the seats back there
But the buttons won’t bring the seats back up