RX 350 Review Again
The Lexus RX has been around for so long that it's easy to forget how significant a vehicle it was when it hit the scene way back in 1998.
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Up to that point, SUVs had essentially been upscale trucks. Lexus' parent company, Toyota, realized that many people, especially in America, were buying rugged four-wheel-drive SUVs when all they really wanted was SUV scale and utility. Their SUVs never got a whiff of trail; the closest they came to off-roading was when the parking lot of the Short Hills Mall needed a repaving.
Enter the RX, the first in a new breed of "crossover" SUVs, built not on truck platforms, but on more car-like undergirdings.
The RX was an immediate hit and has remained so for decades. Lexus has sold over 2 million of the RX 350, making it by far the most important vehicle in the luxury brand's portfolio. This is not a car that Lexus can afford to screw up.
That said, Lexus did revamp the RX, rolling out the new crossover at the New York Auto Show last year. The fourth-generation crossover is just as versatile as it's always been, but the design is newly aggressive, notably up front.
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I live in the suburbs of New Jersey. This is the heart of the heart of RX country. Lexus loaned us a $60,000 RX 350 F Sport version, with all-wheel drive, and we tooled around in it around for a week. (A front-wheel-drive RX 350 is available, as is a hybrid RX 450.) Here's the lowdown:
Photos by Hollis Johnson
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