Lexus RX 450h L 2021 UK first drive

There’s still a conveniently placed fingertip trackpad input device on the transmission tunnel that you can use to operate the infotainment system, too, if you don’t like doing that at arms length on the screen itself. Having said that, the new infotainment system is quite a lot more usable than the old one simply because you can lean forward and navigate it with a prod of a digit on occasion. It could still be a bit more intuitive to use, but it’s missing little in terms of information or features.

You sit medium-high and bent-legged up front in the car, with a commanding view of the road but also with a little less head room than some big SUVs have. Second-row space is good, the car’s middle row being split 40:60, and sliding forward and aft as well as folding. 

Third-row passengers get pretty meagre space, although they are provided with air vents, cupholders and a climate control console of their own. There’s enough room for little ones, but even a young teenager wouldn’t want to travel back there for very long, and access is tight. Lexus’s second-row captain’s seats may address the leg room shortage a little, but I doubt very much that they’d make a meaningful difference - so if you need a seven-seater with room for adults in all three rows, best shop elsewhere.

The RX’s hybrid powertrain works well around town and through the top half of the accelerator pedal’s travel. It’s hushed and pleasant under light loads, and if you do mostly urban mileage and aren’t one for rushing around, you might see a daily return of 35mpg from the car, which isn’t bad for something of this size.

Drive harder and it responds strongly enough, and without much in the way of old-school hybrid 'rubber-band effect' delayed acceleration. Toyota and Lexus hybrids never quite used to feel like they developed every last horsepower they were supposed to but, on a wide open throttle, this one does. But it still needs to let the engine rev hard to really pick up urgently; and a 3.5-litre V6 spinning to 5500rpm about three feet away from your ear is never going to make for an effortless or entirely refined-feeling car. 

In the bottom half of the accelerator travel, the RX’s engine feels as much like an outboard motor as a car engine: it’s effective but a bit characterless and seems strangely detached. It also makes the RX seem very much like a front-wheel-drive car when it’s knuckling down; you can feel some tractive load and corruption of the steering, particularly on uneven surfaces or when cornering.

Broadly speaking, though, the RX handles quite well despite its size and heft. It steers with plenty of weight and nicely judged pace, the rack lightening just enough at maneuvering speeds but feeling assured and natural through quicker bends. It is nothing to get excited about when you’re at the wheel, but it takes a line quite willingly, and hauling it around tighter corners and holding it in close to a verge when you need to is easily done.

Body control is reasonable when cornering, but the car’s suspension feels quite soft most of the time. Soft, that is, but not always as supportive as it could be, and not always entirely comfortable. 

The RX’s ride is one that’s generally pretty well isolated except on the coarsest Tarmac, but it's almost always on the move at speed. Just a little bit, perhaps, at A- and B-road speeds when the surface is good; but quite a bit more so if the surface gets choppier, when the car will begin to pitch and squat, and joggle you gently in your seat. 

If I’m absolutely honest, it brought to my mind Her Majesty’s bath water on the Royal Yacht Britannia. It may wash around gently when the going’s good, soaking up little inputs and disturbances rather nicely, and seeming generally agreeable. But it quickly gets sloshy when conditions turn rough, or when the helmsman gets a bit carried away on the bridge – as can happen, of course. ("Sorry, ma’am. Sport mode is disengaged.")