Review Car

Lexus knows that what most SUV buyers want is a vehicle wagon / hatchbacklike (which is not called a station wagon or hatchback) with a slightly higher seating position and enough metal to give a feeling of invincibility. But really, these same buyers longing for comfort and ease of the car. For a while, almost every other car brands (Pontiac Aztek and disturbing excepted) managed to follow, offering their own soft-roader. 

With the Lexus RX450h, buyers can combine their desire to crossover generously proportioned with their avidity for social acceptance that offer hybrids. It was a double dose of arrogance, the same size of straightness and Toyotas Lexus luxury hybrid carbon conservation. One could, of course, get a smaller car to carry around reusable shopping bags and purse dogs. The 3274-pound Prius V, for example, offers nearly 85 percent of the larger cargo space, 4737 pound AWD RX we tested for a little more than half the cost, and 44 city / 40 highway EPA estimates Smoke RX V 30/28 figures. 

But the Prius V lazy 10.3 seconds 0-to-60 time requires a level of patience that the driver of the RX450h 6.8 seconds does not need to have. At least in terms of acceleration, all-wheel-drive RX450h does not demand such a sacrifice-with the V-6 245-hp and two electric drive motors (one on each axle), it is even 0.2 seconds faster than the nonhybrid 2013 RX350 AWD Sport to the 60 mark. Plus, just look at the Prius V. 

So RX450h is no slouch in the immediate, and the stopping distance of 178 feet 70-to-0 and 0.79 g of lateral grip in a few percentage points of that achieved by nonhybrid RX350. Where RX450h took a turn for the worse on the brakes and transmissions feel. Although the algorithm is trying to translate the movement of the brake pedal and the power to the predicted slowdown, no two stab the pedal feel the same the moment, you do not slow down fast enough, the next instant, too many-and very complicated modulation.

The continuously variable transmission RX450h, while mixing the gas-engine and the electric motor functions seamlessly, completely disconnects the input from the right foot forward movement. This is the automotive equivalent of a bagpipe serenade, the lament of the otherwise-fun Atkinson-cycle 3.5-liter V-6 has nothing to do with the speed of the vehicle. For 2013, Lexus added a Sport mode (in addition to the existing Normal, Eco, and Snow modes), which Toyota claims the company up steering effort, rush "shift", and speed up the development of the throttle a little bit, but this change is almost visible.