2022 Lexus RX350L review (inc. 0-100) 7 seat luxury SUV.that's not too expensive
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00:00G'day, I'm Paul. When you think of SUVs and seven-seat SUVs, you don't always think of that,
00:05which is the Lexus RX, and I don't know why. Everyone always thinks about its competitors,
00:10which are the BMW X5, the Mercedes-Benz GLE and the Audi Q7, but I thought we'd give this one
00:16a test today. This is the top specification non-hybrid. It's called the RX 350L. The L
00:22means that it's the longer version with seven seats. This is priced from a little over $100,000,
00:28but the entire range, if that's a little too expensive, kicks off at a little over $70,000.
00:33Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car. If you want to skip ahead to other
00:36parts of the review, you've got time codes up on the screen, or if you're on YouTube,
00:41scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe, bell icon,
00:46and you will know every single time we publish a review of something you don't see all that often.
00:52Let's talk about exterior. So, you have nine colors to pick from. All but black
00:57is a ridiculous almost $2,000 extra. I mean, I don't really understand how this paint is any
01:04different to the paint they use on a Toyota, which is much cheaper. But anyway, that is the
01:08price of picking a color that isn't black. Let's talk about the design. Look, there is a lot going
01:14on here, and I think Lexus was the OG of the big grill. I think BMW has now well and truly taken
01:20over that title. But have a look at this. It is a monster grill, and it's interesting because this
01:25doesn't look as ghastly as it does on the BMW cars. So, I don't know what it is about this,
01:30but it just looks kind of okay. It's got the same design on the front in there as the LC that we
01:35reviewed a while back. So, it's got that sort of 3D cutout where it comes down and then tucks back
01:40in on itself, and you've got this sort of waterfall grill down the front there with a big Lexus logo.
01:45Chrome highlights around the front there as well. Fog lights down the bottom. You have a
01:49set of full LED headlights. These have an adaptive beam as well with an LED daytime running light.
01:55Around the side here, you have a set of 20-inch alloy wheels. Nice design as well. It's quite
02:00classy and very Lexus, if that's a thing. So, it looks very premium and high-end, and I don't know,
02:06it just makes you feel good about spending a hundred grand on your SUV. You've got these
02:10wheel arch protectors just here. Up on the top, you have a little bit more of that chrome garnish
02:15with an indicator built in. Camera on the side there for the 360 camera. Roof rails with a sunroof
02:20there. Privacy glass, and come around to the back, you can see from that side profile where it is a
02:25little bit longer, and that's to accommodate the seven seats in the back. You've got the L
02:30designation for this being the long wheelbase. LED taillights in the back there. They look really
02:35cool. At nighttime, they light up beautifully, so you've got that sort of tiered setup. A little bit
02:39more chrome down the bottom there as well. Let me know what you reckon about the design. This car's
02:43been out for a little while now, and there is a new one coming, but I don't know, I think it still
02:47looks good. It looks completely different to everything else out on the road, and I think
02:50that's definitely a good thing. So, we're inside the RX. Let's start off with the key. Here it is.
02:55So, you have lock, unlock, boot, panic. Then on the back, you have the Lexus logo. A little bit of
03:02metallic stuff on the side there. It's a proximity sensing key, so you can just leave that in your
03:06pocket, and then once you're inside, you have a push button start just here. So, being a Lexus,
03:11this kind of is a bit traditional in a sense. So, you've got the old analog clock here, and I think
03:16this is a nice implementation. This looks really classy and high-end. It even has a CD player. I
03:21haven't seen these around for ages. It also has like pinstripes in the wood grain. So, yeah, it's
03:28very much Lexus, this interior. If you have a look at some of the other SUVs that are about that
03:32$100,000 mark, they don't feel anywhere near as luxurious as this does. So, I think that's one of
03:37the selling points of the Lexus brand. You are getting a luxury vehicle for the price of, you know,
03:42a mid-range SUV from the competitors. So, big plus there. In terms of the materials, so soft touch
03:49pretty much everywhere. You've got this stitching along the top there. All of this stuff is soft to
03:53the touch as well. Nice place to rest your knee on too. Touch points, this is reasonably soft, and then
03:59door panels are reasonably soft as well. How soft are they? Well, we have our durometer. We've tested
04:04the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've
04:08tested before, have a look at the link in the description. Build quality, righto. Oh, it's a
04:13little bit loose in the centre there. I was kind of expecting all of that to be nice and solid. So,
04:18a little bit disappointing. What about our door test? We can have a listen to the door.
04:25Yeah, it sounds nice and solid. Now, let's talk infotainment. So, this looks impressive, but
04:31unfortunately, it's not really that good of an infotainment system. It's a 12.3-inch screen,
04:37it's a touchscreen, but it's also driven by this pad down here, and I think this pad's probably
04:41my biggest issue with it. It's just really hard to use while you're driving. See, it's like a mouse,
04:46and then it stickies to all of these things as you float across them, and it's just really
04:52tricky to do while you're trying to concentrate on the road. In fact, let me know if you're a
04:56Lexus owner, do you get used to this infotainment system, or is it just a bugbear that you kind of
05:01deal with as part of ownership? Really just keen for your feedback on that. It could just be me
05:06that doesn't like it, but I'm just not really a huge fan of it. So, you get in-built satellite
05:10navigation, and then in addition to that, you have AM, FM, and DAB plus digital radio,
05:16and that's all sent through a 15-speaker Mark Levinson sound system. Sound system is excellent,
05:22the Mark Levinson stuff in Lexus vehicles is normally pretty on point. You also have the
05:27ability to connect your smartphone through smartphone mirroring. Both Apple CarPlay and
05:31Android Auto are supported. Both are wired, so you can't do a wireless setup, but it is a full
05:35screen integration, which is great. Again, driven by this touchpad, or you can use your finger
05:42to operate the screen as well. Now, in terms of Android Auto, it has that as well. Unfortunately,
05:46I can't show you it because our phone is shagged and it's not working.
05:49Ahead of the driver is another little display. This is for your trip computer safety systems.
05:54You can tell that this car's starting to feel a little dated. There is a brand new one coming
05:58because this has been around in Toyotas for ages now, and there are newer versions of this screen.
06:04So, this all just feels a little bit old, and you can tell we're at the end of the platform
06:09for this car. Okay, moving on to safety technology, you have autonomous emergency
06:13braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection. You have blind spot monitoring built into the
06:18wing mirror, radar cruise control, lane departure warning, and a lane keeping assistant,
06:22rear cross traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, and a head-up display.
06:27And then, in terms of parking, you have front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show
06:31you what that looks like. Now, you've got a couple of things you can do. You can hit the view button
06:35here, and that gives you this cool 3D view of the car. You can then select this around view as well,
06:42or when you put it into reverse, you see the rest of that reversing feature.
06:47Not the world's sharpest camera. In fact, it's really low quality. Have a look at that. You can
06:50barely make out the car behind us. This does move with the steering wheel though, and you can then
06:55select different views, but it'd be nice to see a much higher quality camera there.
06:59Now, what about practicality? And we'll start with your connectivity options. So, you've got
07:03two USB-A ports with 2.1 amps of charging up the front here. You've got a 12-volt outlet.
07:09While there's phone charging, you have another two USB sockets here, plus a 12-volt outlet,
07:15plus an auxiliary socket as well. So, plenty of connectivity options.
07:19Storing your phone is interesting. So, you can put it on the wireless charging pad just there,
07:22or there's like this rubber socket down the front, and it sort of holds your phone into place while
07:27you're driving, so it's not going to go anywhere. Or, you can pop your phone down the front there
07:30as well. So, plenty of storage options. Coffee cup fits into there without any problems. Easy
07:35to get out as well. Bottle storage. No dramas in there. You've got teeth as well. This secondary
07:41slot is really cool as well, because if you have a bigger bottle, you can push that all the way down,
07:46and then you press a button there to bring it back up to its position.
07:49You have bottle storage inside the doors as well as part of that pocket. You can also fit the big
07:54bottle, because there are adjustable pockets inside the door there, so the big bottle easily
07:58fits in there as well, which is cool. Other storage. You have this centre console. It's
08:02nice and deep. Plenty of room in there. You have a glove box over here. It's kind of all eaten away
08:08by the manual. There's not really much more room in there. And this little slot down here, plus,
08:12finally, a sunglasses holder up the top. What about comfort? Well, you have three
08:17zones of automatic climate control. Two up the front here. You also have heated and cooled seats
08:22for the front row. I love with these seats as well in terms of comfort. Perforations for the
08:28sort of air to come through. They hug you in nicely, and they're really comfy to sit in as
08:33well. So, big bonus there. There's 10-way power adjustment for both the driver and front passenger
08:37with memory. Steering wheel is electrically adjustable, so in, out, up, down. And then,
08:43in terms of our reach test, that's all great. As long as you're not using this as a touchscreen,
08:48everything here is easy to reach. Second row. Look at this. What a place to be.
08:54So, in terms of room, let's start with that first. Got loads of knee room. Toe room isn't great. Like,
08:59it's good, but because the front seat is so far down, my toes are just kind of wedged,
09:04and I can't really sort of get them in there, but headroom is okay. There's like a little divot in
09:09the roof here that gives you a little bit more space there. I love the design back here. So,
09:13similar to the front, it follows on with that theme of perforated seats, and this colour just
09:18works well with the interior, and you also get those deep pile carpets down here as well. It's
09:23a bit like a Rolls Royce or something. Air vents. You have mat pockets over here. Centre armrest is
09:30interesting because this is where you'll find your heated seats, so you use these buttons to
09:34switch them on. Behind here, you've got two USB-A ports, plus a little storage nook, and then you
09:39have a bottle holder there. Two cup holders. Pop that out of the way. You can also put your bottle
09:45inside the door as well. The doors themselves have these shades, so you can lift that up,
09:50give yourself a little bit of privacy from the outside as that gets stuck on the way down. Look,
09:56it is just a really nice place to be seated, and the big bonus of this three-row SUV is your second
10:02row can slide forwards and backwards to give third-row occupants a bit more accommodation.
10:06Now, speaking of third row, let's climb in there and see just how much space there is.
10:11I will caveat this firstly, though, by saying this is designed just for kids, so me getting in there
10:17is not really going to prove anything, but I just want to give you a representation of what it looks
10:20like with an adult in there, so you can get that idea in your head. So, to access the third row,
10:24you give this lever a pull that pushes that all the way forward. The third row is electric,
10:29so you've got buttons down here or buttons in the boot as well. It pops both of those up. Now,
10:34I will climb in. Kind of squeeze yourself around there. Now, I will caveat this by saying as well
10:40that this seat is all the way back. If I had my seat in that position, I wouldn't have enough
10:46knee room here, but I'll bring this row back so you can see how much room there is. Igor,
10:51I don't know if you want to get a shot of how much knee room there is down there.
10:54In this position, I have enough knee room here. Toe room is reasonable. Headroom is pretty much
10:59non-existent. It's sort of in the roof just there. Off to the side, you have controls here for the
11:06third zone of climate controls. You also have air vents on both sides as well to keep everything
11:11nice and cool, and cup holders just here in the centre. You've got top tether points on these
11:16three seats, plus the seat that I'm in as well. So, look, it is a kid-only space, but I think it
11:22is a nice space for kids. Let's have a look behind the third row, plus a cool feature that Lexus has
11:28implemented with these electric seats. As is often the case with these three-row SUVs, power tailgate,
11:34there's not a great deal of room behind your third row. In this position right here,
11:40you have storage beneath the cargo floor. Not a great deal of it, but enough to put your
11:45odds and ends. You have a little over 200 litres of cargo space here, which is
11:49actually pretty impressive. Let's see if it fits our big suitcase. So, this fits in, in theory,
11:54but when you try and close that door, it nudges on this and it won't actually shut properly. So,
11:59if you went down to a carry-on size suitcase, it would fit here behind the third row, but
12:04this doesn't. Let me show you a trick though, and this will allow that suitcase to fit in.
12:09Lexus has been clever. So, I mentioned earlier that you can drop these seats using
12:14buttons on the side here, but if you do want to vary the amount of room that you have,
12:18you can actually set the seat into an alternate setting, and I'll show you what I mean.
12:23I'm going to make the right-hand side of that seat stay a little further in when it opens.
12:28So, you push and hold this, and then we'll bring them back up again. You'll see what I mean.
12:35This gives the third row passenger less leg room, but it does mean that we do have more room
12:40here in the third row. Wait for that to come up. It is very slow and laborious, this process.
12:48There it is there. So, that means you get a little bit of extra space, and if you do that to both of
12:51those seats, you actually fit that middle-sized suitcase in without any dramas at all. So,
12:56I haven't seen that before on the market, and I think it is a very clever feature.
12:59Let's get rid of these two, and I'll show you how much room there is for
13:02our bags when the third row is folded into the floor. Once that does disappear,
13:07you have a little over 400 litres of cargo space available. Pop our bags in.
13:12One, two. Plenty of room in there, but if you do want to expand the space even further to a little
13:19over 1600 litres, we drop the second row. That is done from the side here,
13:26and there is your big van-like cabinet of space.
13:31We've just hit the road in the RX 350L. Let's run through the engine. So,
13:35there are two variants of the RX you can get. You can get the naturally aspirated V6,
13:39which is what this is, or the hybrid, and the naturally aspirated V6 is going to feel
13:43pretty familiar because this V6 has been around in Toyotas for donkey's years. And that's not
13:48saying it's a bad thing, but just something to take note of. It's a 3.5-litre naturally
13:52aspirated V6. It makes 221 kilowatts of power and 370 newton metres of torque, and it's all
13:59mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. So, no dual clutches, just a standard torque
14:04converter, and that's what works best with this engine. It is such a, I hate using this term,
14:10but just a buttery smooth engine. Everything is just so beautifully delivered, and it's got a
14:14bit of a peaky end to it as well, so you really feel it at the top end, and this gearbox works
14:19an absolute treat with it. What's it like behind the wheel? Well, the gearbox is very smooth. It's
14:24always just transitioning through gears without any sort of realisation at all, and then when you
14:29do want to punch it, it sort of gets up and goes really beautifully. So, you get the responsiveness
14:35when you need it, and then as the revs pick up, you really feel it at the top end as well,
14:39so you never feel lacking in this. It's always there and ready to deliver. Lexus claims a 0-100
14:45time of eight seconds. We've put it up against our stopwatch, and this is how it went.
15:00Now, you can get front-wheel drive versions of this car, but this is
15:03an all-wheel drive, and that means it's an on-demand type system, so it's kind of always
15:08sending a bit of torque to the rear, but when you do have traction loss at the front, that's when
15:12it will fully activate the rear. I'll show you what I mean. I'm going to pull over just on the
15:15verge here and just throw one tyre off, and then I'll just hit the throttle, and we have a little
15:21display here that tells us exactly what's going on in terms of our torque delivery. You'll be able
15:26to see it in action. Here we go. You can see immediately there it's pulsed to the rear,
15:32so that we actually get out of there without the front wheels just spinning. So, pretty handy
15:35feature to have, and you also have a button down here that allows you to lock the centre differential.
15:41I don't know if it actually has a centre differential, but it's apportioning 50% of
15:44torque to the front and rear. It'll be some kind of a clutch mechanism that just ensures that
15:48you're getting that equal distribution as you drive. Lexus claims fuel economy of 10.2 litres
15:54per 100km. Let's have a look at how we're doing. We're currently sitting on 12.4, so look, near
16:01enough to that figure, and it's about what I'd expect for a petrol V6 in a big SUV like this.
16:07Now, in terms of your drive modes, so you've got a selector here that takes you through the
16:101,000 drive modes it has. So, you've got Eco, Normal, Custom, Sport, Sport+,
16:14so I'm going to flick it over to Sport+. We'll just pop it through a couple of these corners.
16:20Look, it has a bit of body roll. You can really feel the body moving over as you tip it into
16:24the corner, especially on these higher speed corners. You can feel it kind of just settling
16:29into itself, and you know, the interesting thing as well, this has adaptive dampers,
16:32so in this Sport setting, it's really trying to give you a firmer ride, but it's Lexus-firm,
16:37so it's not back-braking, it's just firm enough for you to feel that something has changed,
16:42but not over the top where you're kind of having to book in with your chiropractor,
16:47and then as the speed picks up, it actually feels nice and stable. There's no surprises there, and
16:52I'm really impressed with how that goes. Now, in terms of your normal ride, though,
16:56if I pop this back into Comfort, the ride itself is great. These are big wheels,
17:02and big wheels should mean a harsher ride, but they've dialed in the perfect amount of
17:06damping here to give you that luxury feel, but still give you the body control,
17:10and body control is one of those things that, look, you're probably not going to ever experience it,
17:14but if you do find yourself driving energetically, you need to have body control as you hit corners
17:19mid-bump and the car starts moving around, and this section here, we've used this in a few of
17:23our videos, it's undulations on a country road, and I'll dial up to the maximum speed here in
17:28Australia. You can see the body remains really nice and composed. In a car without body control,
17:33it's just almost about to leave the ground. In fact, some cars do at 130 leave the ground there,
17:39and then bottom out again, so this is just a really nice and refined package,
17:43and they've given you just that little bit of sportiness, but it's not over the top.
17:47Now, what about the quietness inside the cabin as the rain sort of pitter-patters down?
17:51Lexus is a brand that you think of when you think of quietness and luxury, and you get that feeling
17:57behind the wheel here. The cabin is nice and quiet, it's really subdued. Yes, when the speed
18:02picks up on coarse chip roads, you will notice that you get a bit of that coming into the cabin,
18:06but for the most part, it's actually a pretty nice place to be seated, and if you are doing
18:10long-distance drives, it is very quiet and relaxing, this environment. What about visibility?
18:15So, the seating position is interesting. You sit sort of low. It's weird, it's sort of not like a
18:20typical SUV where you're looking down from above. You sit a little hunkered down, and that's great
18:24in terms of driving because you have full control over the car, and you feel like you're in charge
18:29of everything that's going on. Visibility down the front's okay, but I can't see the edges of
18:33the bonnet there, but you do have the front parking sensors, which helps with that at low
18:36speed. The wing mirrors are huge as well, so plenty of visibility there. There's a blind
18:40spot monitor built into those, so that will light up as you get a car in the blind spot.
18:44Out the back, it's also fine. The envelope is pretty decent there,
18:48so you can clearly see what's going on. You probably won't be towing with this,
18:50but if you do, you have a 1500kg braked towing capacity. Ground clearance comes in at just under
18:56200mm, so again, nothing too outrageous. You're not going to be doing any off-road driving,
19:00but it is there if you need it. And then, turning circle is 11.8 metres, which is okay. It's not
19:08too bad. The steering is nice and light as you go through that turning circle, though,
19:11which is good news for low-speed parking manoeuvres.
19:14So, the Lexus RX. I genuinely thought I wasn't going to like it at all, because, you know,
19:20no offence to older people, but I think Lexuses are sometimes for older people.
19:24What I'm finding here, though, is outside of the infotainment system,
19:27there really is a lot to like about this. It's good value for money for a seven-seater. Yes,
19:32it's not really adult-friendly in the third row, but if you do need a seven-seater and you want
19:36something luxurious, this really does tick all the boxes. You don't have to spend megabucks on
19:41an X5 or a GLE. And, if you don't need the fuel efficiency, that petrol V6 is still
19:47kind of fun to drive. It's got a cool note to it as well. So, look, it is just a fun car overall,
19:52let down by some of the tech. If that's an issue, keep in mind that this is going to be
19:57completely changed over the next year or two, and that means that you will probably get the
20:01tech that we're now seeing rolled out of the rest of Toyota's products, and it'll be released at a
20:05level that's probably higher than Toyota's products as well to fit that Lexus niche.
20:09So, keep an eye in the space. Let me know down in the comments, have you bought one of these?
20:13Are you an older person or are you a younger person? Who is buying these things, and what
20:17did you cross-shop? Because I always find it fascinating to see what people rejected
20:21before they bought one of the cars that we test. So, if you did enjoy this video,
20:24please make sure you share it with your mates and hit the like button. And,
20:27if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel. But, until next time, take it easy.