Home News Lexus RX450h Premier Review and Test Drive

Lexus RX450h Premier Review and Test Drive

20/02/2017

It’s funny how many car manufacturers struggle to shed their reputation from yesteryear, despite their products and company culture shifting dramatically. Whenever I talk to people at out TT events, Lexus is still regarded by many as either something that the old people at the golf course would drive or the transport of choice for Alan Partridge, only the really enlightened ones know the truth.

That truth is, for the last 10 years Lexus has been making some of the most technology laden SUVs and hatchbacks available where only the hippest, iPhone using golf club members would buy them – the game has moved on.

Before taking delivery of the RX450h, my own opinion of the latest breed of Lexus SUVs is that they are the most distinctive available in a market full of samey German design. On arrival it didn’t disappoint.

Where other manufacturers are playing safe, Lexus, I think, have the boldest car designs on sale today. This is especially true when you take their biggest offering, the RX450, as it’s like the automotive equivalent of modernist architecture. That said, this style of design is always divisive and I’m sure many people will prefer the relative plainness of European rivals.

Our Lexus, the RX450h Premier, is not only the biggest Lexus available, it’s also the top of the range model with all the toys plus a panoramic roof. The price for this big slab of Luxury? £59,935.

This price puts the Lexus up against the BMW X5 xDrive40d M Sport – a tough task!

Where the European manufacturers make cars mainly for….Europe, Lexus is first targeting Asia and the US and therefore their engine choices are not quite what we are used to. The power plant for the RX450h is a 3.5l V6 petrol making 259bhp but with an added electric motor providing an additional 165bhp and 335Nm. This equips the RX with a 0-62 time of 7.7 seconds, tops speed of 124, quoted average MPG of 51.4 and, crucially, 127 g/km of CO2.

So, does the petrol/electric hybrid make a good power plant for this type of large SUV? For the most part it works well. Driving round town and on the motorway it’s a very relaxing place to be with the CVT meaning you’ve always got access to the power but without any drama from the engine. Get onto an A road and this combination doesn’t work quite so well with it never feeling like a 7.7 sec to 62 car. Compare this to the BMW mentioned above, with a surge of torque from the diesel engine and 5.9 sec to 62, the Lexus was always going to be on the back foot here.

Of course, if you are buying a large SUV then 0-62 times are unlikely to be high on your agenda, MPG is much more likely a concern. Looking at the real average MPG figures from Honest John suggests that the RX450h actually gets slightly lower MPG than the X5 40d. While this might not matter to company car drivers taking advantage of the tax breaks, private buyers might not be so happy.

Boring numbers aside, when you climb inside the big Lexus then you’ll forget about the facts and figures and more than likely be won over by the fantastic mix of futuristic styling and high quality materials. You expect quality from a £60k car, but you probably don’t expect such bold design.

I had a number of passengers in the RX450h in my week with the car and although quite a few were not taken by the exterior, all of them thought inside was a lovely place to spend time.

It’s worth mentioning a couple of the toys that were on offer inside the big Lexus and two that stood out were the electric windows (really!) and the widescreen infotainment system.

The electric windows have two speeds so that “When you close the electric windows the operation speeds slows just before they shut to reduce wind noise”. This seems a little bit over the top and like a feature that you’d get on a Rolls Royce, but it actually works well.

The more prominent big of technology on show is the massive infotainment system with “haptic feedback force” so that you can feel when you are using the little mouse like device for navigating the screen. I have to say that I didn’t really enjoy using this and found it a bit fiddly. It’s probably something that you’d get used to after a bit more time with the vehicle but I don’t think it’s the best way of controlling a system like this. Outside of this point, the big screen was great and the Mark Levinson audio was right up there with some of the best in car systems I’ve used.

So why would you choose the Lexus over its many rivals? For me it’s because you want something that looks different and you don’t want to drive a dirty diesel. In this post dieselgate world that’s a big plus and one that Lexus must surely be taking advantage of.