2018 Lexus RX350L FWD Review

Intro

There are people out there that are fans of the Lexus RX series, and the famous company knows it. The 2018 Lexus RX350L has been promoted as an upgrade compared to the predecessor. However, let’s take a closer look and see if the said upgrade really delivers features, performance, and design to justify such a term.

Exterior

The first thing you’ll notice about the 2018 Lexus RX350L is that it’s quite lengthy compared to the previous vehicles in the lineup. This new Lexus is 196.9-inches in length (in comparison the last first-gen RX300 came in at 180.1-inches). The new vehicle’s wheelbase is 109.8-inches and weighs around 4487 pounds. The all-wheel-drive version puts on 155 pounds of additional weight. The overall look really isn’t any different from what we’ve come to expect for this line. However, the front grille might be considered way too large by some. The size of that grille practically makes up a majority of this car’s front. The design does make use of some sharps angles to offer a cool-factor to the gigantic body.

Interior

While the front seats in the 2018 Lexus RX350L are comfortable, the rear seats are a different story, especially the cramped third-row seats. It’s better to leave them folded down. However, you can use them for any kids riding inside the vehicle, or perhaps some petite-sized adults might be able to squeeze themselves back there. Another issue with the third-row seats is that they took up too much to fold up or down. They take 14 seconds to fold down and at least 17 seconds to come back up. Now, this isn’t a lot of time, but considering other vehicles’ seats are able to fold and unfold faster, the 2018 Lexus RX350L’s mechanism can feel annoying. Occupants in the rear seat also get separate vents for air conditioning and heating. They get their own cupholders too.

As far as cargo space is concerned, with the third-row seats up, you get at least 7 cubic feet of space. This might not be much for a lot of drivers out there. However, folding the third-row seats will give you 23 cubic feet of space. So, at least that’s good. Want even more space? Folding both the third and second-row seats gives you 58 cubic feet of cargo space.

The 2018 Lexus RX350L features a 12.3-inch infotainment screen. There are large screens located on top of the dashboard. You can split the screens to display different date. Tvehiclehile makes use of the Remote Touch interface. So, you’ll have to place your hand on a sculpted place and then use a small mouselike controller to access certain functions on the screen. Considering a lot of other cars offer more efficient infotainment access, using this mechanism might feel like a hassle to some drivers.

Features

The 2018 Lexus RX350L is offered with 6 or 7-passenger seating configurations. There’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity offers. So, that might be a dealbreaker for certain drivers. Other features you can expect to use include a forward-collision warning system, rear cross-traffic alert, airbags, and automated emergency braking.

(Source: Edmunds)