Lexus RX 450h - long-term review

It’s the chart nobody wants to be in. According to CAP HPI’s latest top 10 of the UK’s most stolen cars, the Ford Fiesta and Focus occupy the top two spots. But there are lots of those around, making them easy prey for opportunistic tea-leaves; 430 Fiestas were stolen last year per 100,000 cars. In at number seven? The highly desired Lexus RX, an altogether rarer sight, of which, gulp, 2,396 per 100,000 were nicked. Essex Police’s Stolen Vehicle Intelligence Unit recently intercepted four container loads of Toyota and Lexus front ends and other parts, no doubt bound for Eastern Europe and Africa. They know what they like over there and don’t care how they get it.

Expensive SUVs of all sorts are prime targets for criminals, of course, and a friend has had two Porsche Macans stolen from a desirable London postcode. Nothing is safe these days. It makes you think twice about where you park, especially in big cities.

I wish I could do my bit for crime prevention by saying that the RX is rubbish, but it’s an exceptional bit of kit in a lot of key ways. It’s unshowy, despite Lexus’s eyeball-hoovering design philosophy, an SUV that doesn’t glory in its size and status in the way that, say, the Audi Q8, BMW X7 or Mercedes G-wagen do. That trio are tough competition in terms of build quality but I’d suggest that the RX has the edge here, too.

In fact, I doubt anything this side of a Rolls or Bentley is better made. We ran a 450h for a few months before the 500h F Sport, and actually prefer the light wood in its interior to the black trim and red leather combo that’s part of the sportier spec. Whatever the level, these guys are the kings of perceived quality.

The RX’s touchscreen is deceptively simple in most use cases: audio and climate, primarily. But the assistance systems are a different matter. Everyone who drove it was driven mad by the speed limit warning chime, which needs five separate pushes on the screen to extinguish. The RX’s rear parking sensors are equally OTT and will punish you if you’re even slightly sketchy on a reverse manoeuvre. The RX slams the brakes on in heart-stopping fashion, and had me swearing out loud on a number of occasions. Nor did I ever truly get the hang of the ‘touch tracer’ control pads on the steering wheel spokes. On the whole, though, this is a fantastic place to spend time. The double-hinged centre storage cubby is genius.

Is it a sporty SUV? Not really. The RX changes direction in a smoothly precise manner, has measured body control, and does its thing with a calm authority. It can feel stiffly sprung, and despite its electric rear axle doesn’t have an especially agile feel. A Range Rover Sport is more fun, I suppose, but really, who buys a car like this to drive it on its door handles? Digital trickery very effectively enhances the sound of the four-cylinder engine. Push come to shove, we’d take the 450h PHEV over the 500h, finding its 40 miles of electric range and 41mpg overall fuel consumption more useful attributes than the 500h’s superior performance and more refined drivetrain (six-speed auto rather than CVT, you see).

Lexus tops another survey, the driver (as opposed to thief) satisfaction one. We can see why. As well as being lovely to live with, its 10,000 mile (or 12-month) service was impeccably handled by Lexus Cambridge. A technician sent me a short film done on a head-cam running through everything they’d checked (tyres, brakes, suspension etc.), and a couple of small recall issues were sorted. The RX was collected from my home and returned the same day. Total cost: £348.00. The dealer tried to upsell me via email on various things including a sat-nav software update (£225) and an integrated dash cam (£395), which was a bit cheeky.

Would the RX win a group test against its key rivals? It’s a slow, subtle burn so probably not. But after seven months in two different flavours of Lexus SUV, I’d have zero qualms about putting my money into one of these. This is a seriously superior consumer durable in a world of flimsy instant gratification.