We needed a family car and my wife refused to drive a van. She also wanted luxury and I demand reliability. The Lexus RX330 satisfies my wife’s desire for a luxury SUV, and my requirements for a reliable family car.
CROSSOVER SUV
By no mistake did we get a car-based crossover SUV. Late to the SUV trend, my wife still wanted one in spite of my objections that a van is more practical for the same gas mileage and size. Although this car comes in AWD, we opted for the FWD version since we live in no-snow California and hardly ever go up to the mountains. We also never go off road (and most SUV owner never do anyways).
The RX330 has a piglet like shape and sits high like most SUV’s. However, it’s built on a car platform so it rides nicely. Judging from the other drivers of the RX series on the road, it appears that the style appeals well to the 30 something crowd, which we are.
THE OUTSIDE
Lexus essentially figured out how to make the compact wagon a fashionable shape as it strongly resembles an SUV. The rounded curves, HID headlights, and Altezza style taillights distinguish it in distinctly Lexus flavor. This is obviously no Euro car and screams Japanese luxury vehicle. The hood is high and the snout is a chrome grille with black bumpers and factory fog lights (standard in California). Also standard to California is the 18” (read: forced) upgrade rims that come in either the subtle brush aluminum (our choice) or the bling bling chrome. A puny roof rack sits on top which (from what I’ve seen and experienced) is hardly used by most RX330 owners and just adds drag to the aerodynamics. The rear roof spoiler ads a stylish flavor to the bubbled rear end glass and helps aerodynamics. The radio antenna is the fubuesque style which can be flipped forwards flat or backwards at an angle. Rear windows are limo tinted which give real privacy in the back seat for a nursing mom (which our family has).
Several pleasing metallic pearl colors are available and we chose the Asianesque “Bamboo Pearl” which is a tan-grayish metallic pearl with a hint of blue-green.
THE INSIDE
Inside is pleasing with soft leather seats in a light colored tone. Matching leather side panels on the doors and matching color soft plastic panels and carpet also line the interior. The dash is contrasted in black soft vinyl on the upper portion, with lighter colors (matching the seats) on the lower portions. The center stack and steering wheel are blended black and wood grain pieces trimmed with faux aluminum. Again, this is no Euro car, but screams Japanese luxury. My wife also wanted a BMW and this Lexus’s level of luxury satisfies most of that lust.
There is a good amount of leg room, head room, and hip room for all four passengers. The front seats get motorized slide, height, and tint controls (driver gets 2 memory settings) and the rear passengers are treated to the luxury of sliding their seats forward and back (for a give and take in leg room to trunk room). We really like this ability as it allows us to cater to our needs. A fifth person can comfortably sit in the middle back, but doesn’t nearly have the same comfort level as the regular passengers. I found the comfort of these seat to be lounge chair like and even long road trips 7 hour drives to Los Angeles were made easier with the luxury seats. We have a baby who occupies the rear center and her large, rear facing toddler chair fits easily onto the latch system (unlike my compact car). In fact, me and my wife with our daughter in her chair AND my parents in the back with her took a road trip to LA and were very comfortable, which speaks for the amount of available space back there.
THE CONTROLS
The dash is made up of three Euro style cylindrical stacks which contain the nicely white lit gauges. A telescoping steering wheel is adjustable and is part of the memory settings. Most of the wheel is a smooth faux wood grain which my wife likes; I prefer a full leather wrap. We bought the automatic for our FWD and the two pedals are comfortably placed with enough room in the footwell to keep my legs straight (I’m 6’ tall) and not feel cramped. There is also a left foot rest as well.
Ours has the navigation system so the climate controls are also integrated into this system. The nav screen and accompanying buttons are placed high on the center stack and is easy to reach and can be seen without taking too much vision off the road. But because the climate is integrated, it means that you must push the Climate button for the screen to switch to climate mode so you can see what your fan setting is, etc.
The automatic shift level is in the lower portion of the center stack and was designed to allow the center console storage area and cup holders to slide back and forth. In addition, underneath the shifter is a hollowed area good for putting a car trash holder.The window controls are in an easy to reach spot on the arm rest of the door and designed to be operated without the user needing to look at them. All four windows have automatic full roll up/down.
One very minor complaint is the windshield wiper operation. The system works perfectly, but the design of the control itself is a little counter intuitive. The wiper is activated by the right steering wheel lever. Up, means to wipe once. The other settings are: off, intermittent, normal speed, fast speed. When in intermittent mode, a ring on the level specifies the delay of intermittent control. Because the ring is a twist, and the level is an up/down, you have to think a lot to figure out how to make it do what you want. Often, you just end up doing trial and error to remember which means more or less delay. Like I said, very minor gripe.
Japanese cars (Honda and Toyota in particular) usually seem to have very intuitive control systems and the Lexus RX330 is no exception. I don’t feel frustrated with the controls, and I feel like they are ergonomically placed and intuitive to use.
THE ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION
The 3.3 liter V6 Toyota engine with VVTi puts out 230 HP according to the factory. Combined with the bulky weight of an SUV, the RX330 has good acceleration to get up to freeway speeds but you won’t feel pressed into your seats while it does it, which is probably the intent in a comfort vehicle like this. The low end torque of the 3.3L displacement means freeway passing is a breeze. However, the V6 is still pulling around a lot of weight and due to the moderate displacement size has to rev up to the 5k rpm range even with the pedal “just pressed halfway”. The engine is very well balanced and you pretty much can’t hear or feel it while idling and is very unobtrusive in soft acceleration. But with anything besides gentle acceleration, the muffled buzz of the engine winding up to the higher RPMs can be heard behind the insulation and sound deadening material of the firewall and dash. I feel that Lexus engineer found a good tradeoff balance in power for this car. It works, but it’s definitely no Ceyanne.
Carrying a full load of passengers is hardly any more effort compared to the heft of the body. The car is rated at 20 mpg / 26 mpg fuel economy and we find in practice that we get about 20-21 mpg in mixed driving. We got as good as 24 mpg on a trip to LA.
The automatic transmission is smooth for those with a gentle foot. It tends to hesitate whenever a downshift is necessary and jerks into gear when transitioning from brake to acceleration in a turn. I much prefer a manual transmission (which I have on my compact car).
THE RIDE
Built on a car chassis, with luxury leather seats, and a soft luxury suspension, the car rides smoothly. As we bought this in California, we were forced to get a model with the 18” upgrade rims (stock is 17”). This was not my preference and the larger rims most certainly add to feeling the road bumps more. Long drives are much easier in the comfort of this vehicle, and this is coming from me, a person who loathes long boring drives.
The cabin is nice and quiet that it creates an atmosphere of peace when everything is closed. So much so, that even the noise of the wind from opening the moon roof with tilt stands out so much that we rarely even do this. Contrast this with my other compact car which I almost always have the sunroof open.
Handling wise, this handles like a typical boat… I mean SUV. Lots of body roll in the turns and dive during braking, Beefy roll bars try to keep rolling to a minimum but the roll can not be avoided in the high center of gravity SUV body. Compared to a Nissan Murano (which I feel has significantly less body roll), the RX330 can pitch and roll. This doesn’t give a lot of confidence in the corners, but is expected in the SUV design.
THE NAV SYSTEM
At first, my wife couldn’t understand how a Nav system could be worth $2k extra but didn’t protest because I was giving blessing to her getting a luxury SUV like she wanted. Just a few weeks after using it, she told me, “you should get a Nav system for your car.”
Nav systems are luxury, but it seems that many people haven’t figured out the value. The Nav system has saved time, stress, and effort. You do not have to pay any monthly fee as the system receives position information from satellite like a radio, and like radio, there is no fee. Geography is stored on a DVD (which eventually gets outdated) and covers all of North America, Canada, and Mexico, including Hawaii and Alaska. (No, you won’t drive to Hawaii, but there was one point where we almost moved there.)
The touch screen is intuitive to use and we never have to consult the owner’s manual. Finding addresses can sometimes be a bit tedious to enter, but once your locations are set, route routing is excellent. Routes are generally good and the route will automatically be updated on the fly if you stray from the designated path.
I’ve looked into other aftermarket nav systems and user interface is a huge factor in the usability of the system. Touch screen means that you can point to places on the map to specify locations. The Lexus system seems to be more intuitive than most, and I found you could “jump in a use” the Lexus system much more readily than other systems.
The nav system has allowed us jump in the car and not worry about mapquesting our route, discover the birds eye view of the places we go and realize the REAL shorter routes, store friends/restaurants/etc with the quick mark feature for future use, see in real time the distance in milese and how many minutes left to reach the destination, plan multipoint routes (especially useful on vacation or road trips), and generally just know where you are along your route. For major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, etc, the Nav also has voice integration so it tells you things like, "in 1/2 of a mile, right turn onto I-580" in a nice pleasant female voice.
I pretty much won’t buy another car without a nav system as it enhances the function of transportation so much (and the comfort of knowing where you are) that it’s worth the money.
THE AUDIO
Even though we have a nav system (and screen) there is no DVD capability. Another forced upgrade to Californians, the stereo is a 6 speaker system 6 CD changer that's well integrated into the center stack. I'm quite impressed by the balance of the sound coming from this system. All four 6x9" speakers are door mounted and two more speakers are mounted deep in the front just under the windshield. These speakers produce a well balanced range of sound from the bass, mids, and trebles; plus the placement of the front speaker makes for great "in front of you" imaging. We listen to everything from jazz, to pop, to rock, to classical, to Hawaiian and the system faithfully produces an even reproduction of the music without the glaring midrange or bass drop out you find in many cars. And because all four speakers are the same 6x9" drivers, we can set the fader completely to the front (because baby is in the back) and still have a full balance of sound. The audio allows you to also set the sound imaging for driver, front, or all passengers and generally works pretty well without having the gimmicky "space sound".
The stereo controls are intuitive with a nice large solid volume knob to turn. Alternatively, you can control the volume and switch presets with the remote controls located on the steering wheel.
THE EXPERIENCE
I can’t go over every detail so I chose to focus on the major experience that we as owners have. We needed a larger car to transport the family and the RX330 does it in style and comfort. A third row seat is sadly not there, but the sliding back seats and ability to fold flat fulfills some of the utility in this SUV. There is adequate power but the RX330 suffers from the typical SUV’s high center of gravity problem. You definitely pay extra for the luxury. We have about 17k miles on the car with zero problems. Regular maintenance through the dialer is horrendously expensive and due to Lexus’s popularity, there aren’t many dealer incentives. Reliability is the reason why we stuck with Toyota/Honda arena, and the RX330 so far has lived up.
If you like the style and the SUV class, the RX330 is a good choice in the luxury category.
UPDATE:
We also have the backup camera because of the Nav system. The tall fat rear end makes the camera extremely valuable when backing up in tight places (common in metropolitan areas). In fact, we wish that they threw in a front camera too as the high hood means seeing what's right in front of you is impossible too.
We also have the automatic rear door which my short 5'0" wife loves to use. She can remotely open and close the door with the key fob, and easily close the door with just the touch of the button with hands full. I'm just as fine doing it manually. A nice luxury gimmick.
UPDATE 11/10/05:
After just 28,000 miles on the stock Goodyear tires, a nail caused a slow leak which the indirect tire pressure monitor failed to alert us to the second time the tire leaked down to 19 psi before we discovered the low pressure. This damaged the tire beyond repair and so we had to get a new set of tires.
We went with Bridgestone H/T Dueler Alenzas, stock size. What a difference! The better grip and stiffer sidewalls take a good chunk of body roll out of the RX. Ride is still smooth, even with the stiffer sidewalls, which I attribute to the cushy nonlinear suspension. We don't push this car to the limit so we don't know how edge driving compares, but empirical data says there is quite a bit more grip. The better tires have been a significant improvement to the responsiveness of this car and I highly recommend spending the money on a good set of replacements for the less than stellar stock tires.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 42000
Condition: New Model Year: 2004 Model and Options: auto nav
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