2024 Lexus RX review

Yes, Lexus still sells RX models without a hybrid.

Apart from its parent Toyota, no brand is more associated with hybrids than Lexus – in the first half of this year, hybrids accounted for 78.3 per cent of RX sales.

If you prefer your petrol engines un-electrified, though, Lexus will sell you the RX 350. This is the first generation of RX to go without a V6, with 350 now denoting a turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

The RX 350 is available in either F Sport or Sports Luxury trim, both of which feature adaptive suspension. While both have ‘sport’ in the name, it’s the cheaper F Sport that goes for a more overtly dynamic look.

And indeed this does look sporty, with the new-generation RX that hit Australia during 2023 appearing lower-slung than its predecessor.

In this era of 50 shades of grey, if you’re lucky enough to get the option of an actual colour on a new car it’s often blue or red. A lot of those blues can often be quite dull, but not the Deep Blue of the RX. It’s a rich finish that really makes the RX pop.

The RX 350 F Sport has many of the F Sport Dynamic’s styling elements, but with a price tag more than $20,000 cheaper and no hybrid system to speak of.

It’s far from the most popular RX, but is it being unfairly overlooked?

How much does the Lexus RX cost?

Pricing for the Lexus RX kicks off just above $90,000 before on-road costs.

To see how the RX stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool.

What’s the Lexus RX like on the inside?

The RX’s cabin is attractive and well-appointed.

Material choices are excellent for the most part. There’s hard plastic at the base of the dash and doors, but there’s an extremely soft dash top, suede on the dash, roof and doors, leatherette on the sides of the centre console, and metallic paddle shifters.

There’s some gloss black trim, like seemingly every car in 2024, but it’s used sparingly with metallic trim spread more extensively on the centre console and to accent the dash.

Also adding to the ambience is some discreet ambient lighting.

Our tester had a black interior, but the F Sport can also be had with a two-tone ‘dark rose’ and black which is frankly much more interesting. The Sports Luxury offers even more interior finishes.

You press a button behind the exterior handle to open the door, and there’s a similar operation to exit the vehicle. Why Lexus did this we don’t know, but this slightly different approach to door operation at least feels high-quality.

Also different for the sake of being different is the steering wheel switchgear. We understand the logic behind the touch-capacitive switches, which allow the four arrow buttons on each side of the hub to effectively control eight functions visible in the head-up display, but it means simple things like skipping a track take an extra button push.

The infotainment system is the latest Lexus system… which is a version the latest Toyota system. Lexus didn’t even get a particularly unique skin.

It looks crisp and modern, and has anchored climate control shortcuts in the absence of physical buttons for these functions. You do still get a pair of knobs for temperature adjustment though, and another for volume control.

Overall, it’s a massive improvement over the old Lexus system. The cameras are good, with the surround-view camera featuring a transparent chassis mode, while Apple CarPlay is wireless. Android Auto still requires a cable to connect, though.

The digital instrument cluster looks a little older, but it’s still easy to read. By default it has a round central gauge, which changes when you engage Sport mode to include a bar-type tachometer. Sadly, there’s no map view like you’ll find in an Audi.

If you’re using Google Maps while smartphone mirroring, your turn-by-turn instructions will appear in the cluster.

There’s a wireless phone charger plus four USB outlets up front – three USB-C and one USB-A.

The front seats are excellent. Not only do they have power adjustment, heating, and ventilation, they have lovely suede bolsters that hug you in.

Other thoughtful touches include lock settings that allow you to open any door to unlock the car, and seat heating and ventilation that will activate upon startup if you had it on when you switched the car off.

In terms of storage, there’s a spacious centre console bin with a lovely soft lid that can be opened from either side.

There’s a comfortable second-row bench, though the panoramic sunroof impinges on headroom and those measuring 180cm or taller will find their hair brushing the roof.

The roof also fades in slightly at the sides and impacts headroom for the outboard occupants.

In terms of amenities there are separate temperature controls, a fold-down centre armrest, bottle holders that fit 1L bottles like those up front, and another two USB-C outlets.

There are three top-tether and two ISOFIX anchor points for child seats.

Open the tailgate and you’ll find 612L of space, as well as a 120V outlet. There are also buttons to drop the second row, which expands total storage capacity to 1678L.

Under the boot floor sits a space-saver spare.

To see how the RX stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool.

What’s under the bonnet?

Hybrid power dominates the RX lineup, but the petrol on test here is still available as an alternative.

To see how the RX stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool.

How does the Lexus RX drive?

While the RX 350 nameplate is familiar, gone is the 3.5-litre V6 in favour of a turbocharged 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine.

It’s down a bit of power (16kW) on the old mill, but there’s a sizeable 60Nm more torque. Not only that, peak torque is available lower in the rev range – from 1700rpm to 3600rpm, instead of at 4600rpm with the V6.

Claimed 0-100km/h time is 7.6 seconds, which sounds about right. The powertrain is responsive, well-matched with an eight-speed automatic transmission that shifts smoothly and without fuss. There’s no delay off the line or any unseemly turbo lag.

Sounds great, right? Well, the problem is it doesn’t actually sound great.

The engine note isn’t befitting of a Lexus, sounding coarse and strained even though this engine is peppy and the overall level of sound deadening in the car is quite good. Get on the highway, for example, and wind and tyre noise is minimal.

Given Toyota has been culling non-hybrid petrol options from its local lineup, we wouldn’t be surprised if Lexus starts doing the same. That would be a shame as, despite the charmless sound it makes, this is quite a good engine.

We appreciate the greater flexibility of this powertrain compared to the old V6, but we just wish it sounded as good as the engine it replaced. Even some fake sound á la Genesis’ Active Sound Design would be something.

It’s just one of the elements of the Lexus RX’s dynamics that makes this car feel a bit confused.

You mightn’t expect this, but on a spirited mountain drive the RX is actually surprisingly fun. The centre of gravity feels low and so body roll in the corners is well-contained, while the steering may lack a little in feel but offers nice weighting even outside of Sport mode.

In regular driving, though, the ride can feel unsettled. It doesn’t clomp over bumps, but there’s just a bit too much bob and float – particularly for something with an F Sport badge.

Engage sport mode and you can feel the adaptive dampers firm up a bit, and yet there’s still too much body movement.

I don’t think anybody is expecting an RX to be some hardcore sports SUV, but I would expect a ride that feels more buttoned-down.

There’s no physical switch for drive mode selection, apart from Trail Mode which is designed to control wheelspin on rough roads.

To toggle to the other drive modes you need to use the touchscreen, though there is at least a shortcut in the dropdown menu.

Fuel economy was so-so. We averaged 11L/100km on a loop consisting of inner-city, suburban and highway driving, and consumption climbed to 12.4L/100km over the course of a week – admittedly with a heavy urban skew.

The RX’s driver assist systems work well, with the combination of Lexus’ Lane Tracing Assist and adaptive cruise control making highway driving effortless.

The regular lane-keep assist doesn’t feel like it’s constantly tugging on the wheel, simply giving you a slight nudge if it detects you’re stepping out into another lane.

The driver attention monitoring can be a bit fussy, warning you to pay attention whenever it can’t see your full face – for example, while you’re blowing your nose. However, we have certainly dealt with worse systems than this.

One minor annoyance we had with the RX, though, was its inability to remember your auto hold setting. This feature doesn’t default to on upon startup.

What do you get?

There are four distinct trim levels in the local Lexus RX range.

RX Luxury equipment highlights:

• Bi-LED headlights
• LED daytime running lights, fog lights
• Heated exterior mirrors with driver’s side auto-dimming
• Rear privacy glass
• 19-inch alloy wheels with bright machined finish
• Roof rails
• Power tailgate
• 14-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Wired Android Auto
• Wireless Apple CarPlay
• 12-speaker Panasonic sound system
• Satellite navigation
• DAB+ digital radio
• Lexus Connected Services
• Five x USB-C outlets, two x 12V, one x USB-A
• 8-way power front seats with two-way power lumbar
• Heated front seats
• Leatherette upholstery
• Tri-zone climate control
• Power-adjustable steering column
• Auto-dimming rear-view mirror
• Paddle shifters
• Ambient lighting

RX F Sport adds:

• 21-inch gloss black alloy wheels
• Bi-LED headlights
  • BladeScan technology
  • Adaptive high-beam
  • Dynamic auto-levelling
  • Cornering lights
  • Headlight cleaners
• F Sport exterior appearance package with unique bumpers, grille
• Adaptive suspension
• Aluminium monobloc six-piston calipers
• Hands-free power tailgate
• Surround-view camera
• Dimpled leather-wrapped steering wheel
• F Sport scuff plates
• F Sport shifter
• F Sport instrument cluster
• Heated and ventilated front sport seats
• Aluminium pedals
• Easy access driver’s seat
• Touch-sensitive steering wheel controls
• Multi-colour ambient lighting
• 21-speaker Mark Levinson sound system
• Active Noise Control
• Wireless phone charger
• Rear door sunshades
• Smart key card

RX Sport Luxury adds (over Luxury):

• Bi-LED headlights with adaptive high-beam
• 21-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels
• Surround-view cameras
• Adaptive suspension
• Heated and ventilated front seats
• 21-speaker Mark Levinson sound system
• Active Noise Control (RX350 only)
• 10-way power front seats with semi-aniline leather upholstery
• 4-way lumbar support and memory
• Heated steering wheel with woodgrain trim
• Power-folding and reclining rear seats
• Heated and ventilated outboard rear seats

RX 500h F Sport Performance adds (over F Sport):

• Enhancement Package(s)
• Matte black 21-inch alloy wheels
• Black aluminium monobloc front calipers
• Piano black bumper side moulding
• Body-coloured rocker trim
• Active Sound Control
• Dynamic Rear Steering

Lexus offers Enhancement Packs on most RXs, and on the RX 350 F Sport there are two available. Our tester came equipped with the $3000 Enhancement Pack 1 which adds a panoramic sunroof.

You can also opt for the $4100 Enhancement Pack 2, which includes this plus a digital rear-view mirror, semi-automatic parking assist, and a heated steering wheel.

Is the Lexus RX safe?

The Lexus RX has a five-star safety rating from ANCAP, based on testing conducted in 2022.

Standard safety equipment includes:

• Autonomous emergency braking
• Intersection collision avoidance support
• Emergency steering assist
• Lane departure warning
• Lane Tracing Assist (lane centring)
• Blind-spot monitoring
• Rear cross-traffic alert
• Driver attention monitoring
• Speed sign recognition
• Surround-view camera
• Front and rear parking sensors

How much does the Lexus RX cost to run?

To see how the RX stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool.

CarExpert’s Take on the Lexus RX

It’s clear why the Lexus RX is so popular as a hybrid.

The electrified powertrain is considerably thriftier than this turbo four, without being much slower.

We love how flexible the turbo four is, but we’re not as enamoured with how it sounds. The hybrid isn’t exactly sonorous, but at least it can run on pure electric power at lower speeds which aids both refinement and fuel economy.

The RX 350 F Sport’s ride also disappoints, feeling a bit unsettled. At least there’s no impact harshness, while the RX’s handling is surprisingly composed.

Regardless of whether you’re buying the RX 350 F Sport or another RX, you get the same strong suits, including a high-quality cabin and modern (at last) infotainment.

We’d just steer you towards a RX 350h.

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