What was tested? 2011 Lexus RX 350 ($37,975). Options: Comfort package ($1,950), luxury package ($4,900), premium stereo ($1,610), navigation system ($2,465), parking assist ($500), cargo net ($59). Price as tested (including $875 destination charge): $50,334.
Pros: It's the category leader for a reason. It combines great attention to detail, nice technology and a luxurious experience with a long reputation for reliability.
Cons: It's starting to lean toward a firm, sporty ride, and the joystick controller can make some functions more difficult to use.
Let's get one thing out of the way: The latest RX 350 is about as perfect as luxury SUVs can be. It's a Lexus, after all.
It may not be flashy or truck-like, but it sells like crazy because everyone wants an SUV that just works. Comfortably. Reliably. Every day for years to come.
There are a couple of areas, though, where Lexus is starting to stray uncomfortably far from the formula that made the RX such a huge sales success.
One is the simplicity of the cabin.
A great thing about Lexus cars is their ability to make luxury easy to understand. Their engineers put a lot of thought into how to make a cabin that doesn't take a computer science degree to use - no bank of buttons with crazy acronyms, no mysterious space-shuttle switches. It just makes sense for everyone, sort of like how a two-year-old can use an iPhone.
Why, then, did Lexus decide to install a joystick to control everything on a computer screen?
The idea seems pretty nifty at first. You use the joystick - Lexus calls it "Remote Touch" - to move a cursor around an LCD screen, just like using a mouse on your computer. You can click around to all the different functions, and the joystick gives you tactile feedback as you hover the cursor over different items on the screen.
That seems pretty cool until you try to do something that used to be simple, such as changing the radio station from Preset 1 to Preset 5.
On the old RX, you would simply press the button labeled "5." It couldn't be easier. But on the new one - at least if you opt for the Remote Touch Controller, which I wouldn't - you've got to press a button to display the main menu, then use the joystick to navigate to your audio settings, then hover over Preset 6, and then click the enter button.
If simplicity is the goal, Lexus is moving in the wrong direction.
Remote Touch does make for good conversations ("Wow, it's like a computer! Did you feel the joystick click?") but it seems like a blatant example of technology for technology's sake.
Or maybe I'm just becoming an old man.
My second gripe is that Lexus seems to be trying to make the RX feel sporty, perhaps to please those mentally challenged people who write about cars - people like me.
Here's how it works:
Lexus builds a comfortable, reliable luxury SUV called the RX. It has a squishy suspension that the public falls in love with enough to make it the best-selling luxury SUV in the country. It's smooth and comfortable.
Then automotive journalists get a hold of it. They criticize the RX for that squishy suspension because it's not enough like a BMW, the company they worship every weekend in elaborate rituals involving sacrificial tire-burnings. Thus Lexus tightens up the suspension to avoid complaints from BMW-worshiping journalists, which will never work because their god - the X5 - will always be the true god.
That's how you end up with a Lexus press release bragging about "an engaging driving experience" and "double-wishbone rear suspension" in the 2011 RX 350. Instead, the RX ought to have a suspension made of cotton candy and a driving experience that no one remembers because they're so busy being comfortable.
Granted, the RX still has a more compliant ride than most of its competition, and it's light-years ahead of the Acura MDX and aforementioned BMW. But if they keep going down this path, soon they'll be selling an RX 350 Super Sport R-Edition Turbo, and no one wants that.
So there you have it. The new RX 350 is the epitome of perfection, so long as it doesn't get any more pretensions of sportiness and you can still get it without the Remote Touch joystick.
RATINGS:
Style: 9
Performance: 9
Price: 9
Handling: 8
Ride: 8
Comfort: 10
Quality: 10
Overall: 9
