2023 Lexus RX

2023 is the launch year of the fifth-generation RX (ALA10), and the all-new turbocharged 2.4-liter four replaced the long-serving 3.5 V6 while landing on the same 275 hp. For MY2023 the range spans the 246-hp RX 350h hybrid and the 366-hp RX 500h F Sport Performance; the 450h+ PHEV was announced but not yet released for the US.

Torque is where the new turbo four earns its place — 317 lb-ft against the outgoing 3.5 V6's 267, and available far lower in the rev range, which is what makes the 2023 RX 350 feel stronger around town than its unchanged horsepower figure suggests.

Lexus estimates 7.2 seconds for the RX 350 AWD and MotorTrend's instrumented run of an AWD F Sport matched that, while the lighter-on-paper FWD Luxury actually tested slower at 7.6 sec; 7.3 sec fairly represents a volume AWD car. That is mid-pack at best in a class where turbo-six rivals run the mid-fives.

The 2.4-liter turbo is the one coarse note in an otherwise hushed car, and 2023 is the model year reviewers first flagged it — gritty under acceleration, audibly less cultured than the 3.5 V6 it replaced, with some lag off idle. It is quiet and smooth at a cruise, which keeps it mid-band rather than lower, and the hybrid siblings are notably more seamless.

The short-ratio eight-speed Direct Shift-8AT is decisive and rarely hunts, shifting cleanly in relaxed driving but delivering a perceptible bump when pushed. Lexus revised the shift control program for the fifth generation, and reviewers split between calling the shifts 'quick and well timed' and noting the harder-throttle bump.

3,500 lbs covers a small boat, a pair of jet skis or a light utility trailer and does not vary by trim or powertrain. It is competitive with an Acura MDX but roughly half of what a BMW X5 or Audi Q7 will pull, and it is the ceiling rather than a properly-equipped bonus.

AWD is optional on every gas RX 350 grade, standard on the F Sport Handling, and standard on both hybrids, so effectively the whole 2023 lineup can be had with it. The hardware is on-road oriented, though: an electronically controlled coupling varying split from 100:0 to 50:50 on the gas car, an electric rear axle on the 350h, DIRECT4 only on the RX 500h — no low range, no locking differential.

The RX is a pavement crossover and the fifth generation makes no pretense otherwise — 8.1 inches of ground clearance, road tires, no skid plates, no low range, no locker and no off-road grade anywhere in the 2023 range. A Snow drive mode and on-demand AWD handle a slick driveway or a graded forest road; past that Lexus points buyers at the body-on-frame GX.

Three genuinely distinct powertrains at 2023 launch — the 275-hp turbo 2.4 gas, the 246-hp 350h full hybrid and the 366-hp 500h F Sport Performance hybrid with DIRECT4 — which is broader than most mid-size luxury rivals and covers economy through performance. It falls short of the top band because the RX 450h+ plug-in hybrid, though confirmed as US-bound, was not released for model year 2023, and there is no EX variant (Lexus directs those buyers to the RZ).

The new-for-2023 turbo 2.4 gained only about 2 MPG combined over the 3.5 V6 it replaced, leaving the gas RX mid-pack for a mid-size luxury SUV. The comparison that matters is in the same showroom: the RX 350h returns 36 MPG combined on the same chassis.

City is the gas RX's weakest cycle — no electric assist, an eight-speed automatic and about 4,400 lbs to move. The RX 350h returns 16 MPG more in town for a modest price step.

Highway is where the downsized turbo pays off and the gas RX is competitive with turbo-four luxury rivals — and unusually, the one cycle where it is not far off the hybrid's 34 MPG.

Computed from the EPA combined rating and the gas car's published 17.8-gallon tank — adequate for the class but unremarkable, and roughly 200 miles short of the hybrid sibling on the smaller 17.2-gallon tank.

This is the gas RX's worst number by a distance: a required premium grade stacked on 24 MPG combined makes it expensive to feed, at roughly $1,100 a year more than the hybrid version of the same car. EPA's own estimate, not a derived figure.

The EPA lists the 2023 RX 350 as premium *required*, not merely recommended, and Lexus specifies 91 octane or higher for the 2.4-liter turbo — a real and unavoidable running-cost penalty on the configuration being scored. It sits at the top of the low band rather than the bottom because the fuel is at least universally available and the hybrid grades in the same lineup are more forgiving.

The redesigned fifth-generation RX earned NHTSA's top overall score in its first tested year, with the frontal star count the only sub-maximum result.

A 2023 Top Safety Pick+ with Good results in both small overlap tests, the original moderate overlap and the updated side test — but the RX later posted Poor in IIHS's updated moderate overlap test, which grades rear-passenger protection and was not part of the 2023 award criteria. The award is real; the rear-seat result is a genuine caveat that keeps this out of the top of the band.

Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 is standard on every 2023 RX trim and covers all five of the features this item asks about — pre-collision braking with pedestrian detection, all-speed adaptive cruise, lane tracing/lane departure with steering assist, plus blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert — with Proactive Driving Assist and Digital Latch with Safe Exit Assist on top. Nothing core is locked behind a trim walk.

Superior in both daytime and nighttime pedestrian front crash prevention — the harder of the two IIHS evaluations and the one most vehicles in this segment lose points on. IIHS published no vehicle-to-vehicle result for the 2023 RX in this cycle, so the grade rests on the pedestrian tests alone.

Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert is standard on every trim, and the RX adds Safe Exit Assist through the Digital Latch door handles — an intervention the segment mostly still charges for. Rear automatic braking that acts on a cross-traffic threat is optional rather than standard, which is the only real gap.

Lane Tracing Assist with the LSS+ 3.0 lane-recognition update centers competently and is standard, and Proactive Driving Assist adds gentle steering support outside cruise control. Reviewers and owners describe it as smooth on clearly marked highway but prone to wandering or handing back on faded lines and tight curves — capable, not best-in-class.

All-Speed Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is standard, works to a stop and resumes in traffic, and adds curve speed management that eases the car into bends rather than carrying highway speed through them. Combined with LTA it makes a well-integrated highway assist; the available Traffic Jam Assist extends it in congestion.

Traffic Jam Assist lets the driver take hands off the wheel while the in-cabin Driver Monitor confirms eyes forward — but only from 0 to 25 mph in congestion, and only on upper trims with that package, not the volume Premium. Lexus Teammate Advanced Drive, the brand's real hands-off highway system, was not offered on the 2023 RX. That is a hands-free capability in the narrowest sense, well short of BlueCruise or Super Cruise coverage.

IIHS rates both the standard headlamps and the Premium Triple Beam units Good, so there is no bad-headlight trim to avoid — the common failure mode in this segment. Intelligent High Beam is standard across the line.

Forward sightlines are good from a high, upright seating position, but the fifth-generation body's rising beltline, thick rear pillars and shallow back glass leave real over-the-shoulder blind zones. The Panoramic View Monitor and digital rearview mirror compensate well — and both are options rather than standard on the volume trim, so the representative configuration relies on mirrors and the standard blind-spot monitor.

IIHS gives the RX its top LATCH ease-of-use grade: two outboard positions with exposed, easy-to-reach lower anchors and three clearly marked top tethers on the seatbacks. Wide rear doors and a flat second row make installation straightforward; three seats across is tight, which is what keeps it below the top of the band.

The fifth-generation RX launched for 2023 as a strictly two-row, five-seat crossover; the stretched three-row RX 350L that shared the previous body was discontinued after 2022 and Lexus pointed those buyers at the new TX instead. Five seats is the floor of the SUV band, and the RX no longer offers a way out of it.

Mid-band for a mid-size SUV, and the figure that matters in practice is the lower one — most RXs leave the factory with a roof, which costs about an inch and a half up front.

41.1 inches is near the bottom of the SUV band even though no driver complains about it — the fifth generation put its extra 2.36 inches of wheelbase into the back seat and the cargo hold rather than the front footwell.

Above the middle of the SUV band on paper, though the fifth generation's falling roofline and the panoramic glass both eat into it — reviewers note headroom gets tight for taller back-seat passengers in moonroof cars.

The clearest space gain of the 2023 redesign: a longer wheelbase turned into real second-row legroom, and testers report genuine adult space back there with decent foot room under the front seats.

There is no third row in any 2023 RX. The three-row RX 350L ended with the previous generation and Lexus replaced it with the separate TX for 2024, so for this model year an RX shopper who needs seven seats has to leave the nameplate entirely.

This is the RX's weakest measured dimension. The 2023 redesign lowered the load floor and did add volume over the outgoing two-row car, but 29.6 cubic feet sits near the bottom of a band that runs to 80 — the rising rear glass and short overhang cost it real space against boxier mid-size rivals.

46.2 cubic feet falls below the floor of the SUV maximum-cargo band (55 cu ft) — this is a compact-SUV number in a mid-size luxury body, and Capital One flagged it as still trailing competitors even after the redesign improved it.

Competent and conventional rather than clever: a deep center console bin under a sliding lid, a front cubby that doubles as the Qi charging pad, usable door pockets, three 12-volt outlets and underfloor storage beneath the cargo floor. There is no standout innovation — no fold-flat front passenger seat, no frunk, no household outlet unless you option it — and Consumer Reports singled out the console plastics as a letdown in an otherwise upscale cabin.

A genuine strength front and rear. Eight-way power front seats draw repeated praise for long-haul comfort with good bolstering, and the second row is better than the class norm — plush cushions, good thigh support and a wide recline range. It stops short of the top band only because more than one tester found the front cushions a touch firm with support fading on very long stints.

Comfort-biased and absorbs most bumps, but the 2023 redesign is the year reviewers stopped calling the RX plush: Consumer Reports found it less cushioned than the outgoing car with pronounced body roll, and the volume trim without the F Sport's adaptive dampers was described as soft and woozy on country roads. Solidly mid-band rather than segment-leading.

Quiet by general standards and wind noise is genuinely well suppressed, but this is a Lexus judged as a Lexus: testers heard more tire hum than expected and the new turbo four is audibly grittier under load than the V6 it replaced, so the hushed-cruiser reputation is not fully intact for 2023.

Close to a clean sweep: heated front seats are standard from the base grade, the volume Premium adds ventilated fronts and a heated steering wheel, dual-zone climate with rear vents is standard, heated and ventilated rear seats are available from Premium+ with their own control panel on the back of the console, and remote climate pre-conditioning runs through the Lexus app. Only the subscription attached to remote start keeps it out of the very top.

The all-new fifth-generation RX opened at $47,800 plus the $1,150 delivery, processing and handling fee for the front-drive RX 350, which is where the car's value argument starts — Lexus deliberately priced the redesign to undercut the German mid-size luxury field rather than to cash in on it.

Premium AWD is the volume way into the gas RX — it adds the moonroof, power-folding mirrors and heated steering wheel most buyers expect for a $2,000 step over Standard, and all-wheel drive is the majority take in this segment. The RX 350 ladder runs from $48,550 for Standard FWD to $58,550 for Luxury AWD, with F SPORT Handling AWD at $58,150.

The 2.4-litre turbo four and eight-speed automatic are proven Toyota units and the RX's repair record is among the best in the luxury mid-size field, so unscheduled spend is genuinely low; what keeps the figure from being cheap is Lexus dealer labour rates, 19- and 21-inch tyres and the fact that complimentary maintenance runs out after a year. The published estimates straddle this number by a factor of five, so it is set between the poles rather than taken from either.

Resale is the RX's strongest ownership argument and two independent estimates agree closely: the gas RX 350 retains about two-thirds of its value at five years against a luxury mid-size SUV class average near 50%. Early real-world data for this exact model year corroborates the projection rather than contradicting it. Set near the top of the 40–70% SUV band, short of the ceiling only because these are projections.

Lexus's basic new-vehicle limited warranty runs 48 months or 50,000 miles across the 2023 range, mid-pack for a luxury brand — level with BMW and Mercedes-Benz, behind Genesis and Jaguar's five-year terms.

Six years or 70,000 miles sits near the bottom of the 5–10 year band — Lexus leans on its dependability record rather than warranty length, so an RX 350 buyer gets markedly less paper protection than a Genesis (10 yr / 100,000 mi) owner. The long hybrid and battery terms apply to the 350h/500h, not to the gas RX 350 scored here.

The included-maintenance period is genuinely short — one year or 10,000 miles, covering only the first two scheduled services, beaten by Toyota's own 2 yr / 25,000 mi ToyotaCare and by BMW's and Jaguar's multi-year plans. What lifts the 2023 RX above a bare mid-band score is the connected-services package: as one of the launch models for Lexus Interface it carries a ten-year Safety Connect and Service Connect trial rather than the usual one-to-three years, alongside four years of unlimited-mileage roadside assistance and the brand's loaner-and-concierge dealer treatment.

$52,550 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (66% retained, or about $34,683) leaves about $17,867 in depreciation. Add the projected $6,300 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $24,167 in total.

Strong long-run signals for the nameplate (RepairPal 4.0/5.0, 3rd of 14 luxury mid-size SUVs; J.D. Power named the RX the most dependable model in the US market in its 2023 VDS) are tempered by 2023 being the first year of the all-new fifth generation (ALA10) with an unproven 2.4L turbo four. Consumer Reports flagged the redesign as unproven and carried the prior generation's rating forward rather than predicting fresh.

Lexus is the benchmark brand in US dependability studies, reclaiming the No. 1 spot in the J.D. Power 2023 Vehicle Dependability Study and repeating at the top in subsequent years, and it consistently sits at or near the top of Consumer Reports' brand reliability rankings.

Four NHTSA campaigns reach the 2023 RX: one genuine safety defect (an insufficiently welded steering-column spiral cable that can deactivate the driver's airbag, recalled in 23V480000 and again in 25V040000) plus two FMVSS 111 rearview-camera compliance recalls. None are powertrain, fire or Do-Not-Drive, but a repeated airbag-circuit campaign on a first-year design plus an interior-trim TSB and a cluster of owner complaints about spontaneously shattering panoramic sunroof glass put this at typical-to-slightly-elevated rather than clean.

The 2023 RX 350 drops the exceptionally proven 3.5L 2GR-FKS V6 for the T24A-FTS 2.4L turbo four (275 hp / 317 lb-ft) introduced in 2022, paired with Toyota's well-regarded Direct Shift-8AT torque-converter automatic. No systemic failures have emerged, but a turbocharged D-4S engine with only a few model years in service does not yet have the high-mileage record the V6 had, and its engine family has drawn TSB-level driveability complaints in sibling Toyotas.

The fifth-generation cabin is a clear step up, with real wood trim, supple leather, fabric door inserts and broad soft-touch coverage that meet luxury expectations, but reviewers single out the center-console plastics and the lighter fake-woodgrain finish as below the price point.

Assembly is generally to Lexus standard — precise stitching, tight exterior panel gaps and a solid structural feel — and the brand's initial-quality record is strong, but this generation has a factory-fitment TSB for loose dash trim and scattered owner reports of interior rattles and loose panels.

Lexus operates roughly 240 US dealerships — dense enough for nationwide coverage — and is the measured leader in premium dealer service satisfaction, topping the J.D. Power Customer Service Index in consecutive years including the window covering 2023 ownership.

Running costs are unusually low for a luxury mid-size SUV thanks to Toyota parts commonality and a dense dealer network, though this generation's turbocharged D-4S powertrain and screen-heavy cabin are newer, more dealer-dependent hardware than the V6 it replaced, and the aftermarket for the fifth generation is still thin.

2023 is the year the RX abandoned the old Remote Touch trackpad entirely for the touchscreen-based Lexus Interface, but the volume Premium grade gets the smaller 9.8-inch panel — the 14-inch screen that dominates the marketing is a Premium+-and-up item or a paid option below that.

Lexus Interface is a large step forward from the trackpad system it replaced — quick, logically laid out, with a permanent climate strip and real shortcut keys — but it is not yet a class leader. Consumer Reports faulted the consolidation of media and climate into one screen as adding steps to simple tasks, and reviewers hit occasional search and voice misfires in daily use.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto are both standard on every 2023 RX grade including the base car — no wired-only entry trim, no package required. That is the top band, and it is a real 2023 change: the previous generation only added phone projection late and over a wired connection at first.

The 'Hey Lexus' Intelligent Assistant is a genuine natural-language system with dual microphones and noise cancellation, and cloud navigation with Google points-of-interest data plus offline maps is a real upgrade on the old embedded nav. It lands mid-band because the best of it rides on a Drive Connect subscription after the trial, and testers found the voice recognition imprecise enough that phone projection often won anyway.

A strong 12-speaker premium system is standard rather than an upgrade, and the available 21-speaker Mark Levinson Premium Surround with QLS is one of the better factory systems at any price. That combination — good floor, excellent ceiling — is exactly what the top band describes.

The fifth-generation RX runs a fully digital instrument display with configurable content and a clean, legible layout that Consumer Reports singled out as easy to read from the elevated driving position. It is held below the top band because the base grade uses a smaller multi-information panel and the larger full-digital treatment arrives with the trim walk rather than across the line.

Real over-the-air updating, but scoped to the multimedia side — owners have received OTA packages improving the user interface, profiles, cloud navigation and voice recognition, while vehicle-control and safety-system software still means a dealer visit. That is the textbook middle band: infotainment and maps OTA, not whole-vehicle.

The Lexus app covers the full set — remote start and climate, lock/unlock, vehicle locate, status and guest sharing — and 2023 adds Digital Key, which lets a phone unlock and start the car and be shared with another person. What keeps it mid-band is the subscription structure: Remote Connect gates both remote start and Digital Key once the included trial lapses.

Six USB ports across the cabin with two USB-C outlets dedicated to the second row, a Qi wireless charging pad in the front cubby and three 12-volt outlets — comfortably ahead of the class average for port count. It falls short of the top band because the household AC socket is an option rather than standard equipment.

Proximity entry and push-button start are standard from the base grade, the power rear door is standard, and 2023 introduces both the electronic Digital Latch door handles and phone-as-key via Digital Key. That is nearly the full top-band description; the hands-free kick-activated liftgate and Digital Key itself are still option-or-subscription items rather than fitted to every car.

A rear camera is standard and the optional hardware is strong — a Panoramic View Monitor with underfloor view, a digital rearview mirror, and Advanced Park, which handles perpendicular and parallel spaces using four cameras and ultrasonic sensors. The volume Premium grade has to option the 360-degree view, which is what holds this to the middle band.

The 10-inch colour head-up display is large and well-specified — speed, gear, navigation and driver-assistance state projected into the sightline — but it arrives with the Luxury grade and is not fitted to the volume Premium, which is the definition of the middle band. Capital One also flagged that polarized sunglasses wash it out.

IIHS gives the 2023 RX its top LATCH ease-of-use grade — exposed lower anchors in two outboard positions and three clearly marked tethers — and the longer-wheelbase second row makes rear-facing seats easy to live with behind a tall driver. The limits are real but ordinary: three seats across is a squeeze, and 29.6 cubic feet behind the second row is tight for a stroller plus a week's gear.

The strongest part of the RX's family case: five NHTSA stars overall, a 2023 IIHS Top Safety Pick+, and Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 standard on every grade including the base car, with blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and Safe Exit Assist thrown in. The caveat is the Poor result the RX later posted in IIHS's updated moderate-overlap test, which grades rear-passenger protection — exactly where children sit.

A good four-up tourer: Consumer Reports rates the second row plush with good thigh support and a wide recline range, dual-zone climate with rear vents is standard, heated and ventilated rear seats are available with their own console-mounted controls, and rear passengers get two USB-C ports. It stops short of the top band on luggage — 29.6 cubic feet with the seats occupied is the real constraint on a family of four for a week.

This is what the RX is built for. The turbo 2.4 delivers 317 lb-ft from 1,700 rpm so it never feels strained in traffic, the driving position suits a wide range of drivers with a clear forward view, and the standard all-speed radar cruise with lane tracing takes the edge off a commute. The 2023-specific annoyances are the electronic door handles' release delay and the confusing gear selector, both of which testers flagged.

The gas RX is expensive to commute in and the hybrid sitting next to it in the same showroom makes that obvious. 24 MPG combined on required premium works out to an EPA-estimated $3,250 a year, about $1,100 more than an RX 350h covering the same miles — and Capital One's real-world result came in under the estimate at 22.5 MPG.

Manageable with help rather than easy: 192.5 inches long turning in a 38.8-foot circle is unremarkable for the class, and the fifth generation's rising beltline and shallow rear glass leave genuine over-the-shoulder blind zones. The Panoramic View Monitor, digital rearview mirror and Advanced Park all fix it convincingly — but all three are options on the volume Premium rather than standard.

Light duty only. 3,500 pounds is the ceiling on every 2023 RX regardless of trim or powertrain — a small trailer, a pair of jet skis — and there is no bed, no meaningful payload headroom and only 46.2 cubic feet of enclosed cargo with the seats down. The turbo four has the torque for a light load but this is a unibody luxury crossover, not a work tool.

Lexus's durability reputation is the real asset here and it lifts the RX above the luxury-crossover norm — but it is a reputation earned by the naturally aspirated V6 this generation replaced. The 2023 car is the first year of an all-new turbocharged 2.4 and an all-new body, with no accumulated service history, and everything about the cabin — leather, soft-touch trim, carpeted cargo floor — is built for a driveway rather than a jobsite.

Almost nothing here is work-oriented. Cargo tie-downs and underfloor storage are the extent of the provisions; the household AC outlet is an option, the flush roof rails need crossbars added before they carry anything, there is no washable interior surface and no upfit ecosystem beyond Lexus accessories. Onboard power in the Pro Power sense does not exist on this vehicle.

The RX's best mission. Wind noise is well suppressed, the front seats hold up over long stints, the rear reclines, and roughly 427 miles between fills on the AWD gas car means the stops are the driver's choice rather than the tank's. Standard all-speed radar cruise with curve-speed management and lane tracing does real work on a long highway day. Tire hum and the gritty engine note under acceleration are the only things keeping it from the very top.

Gravel roads and a bike rack, and not much past that. AWD is optional rather than standard on the gas car, ground clearance is 8.1 inches, the tires are road rubber, and there is no low range, locker or off-road grade anywhere in the 2023 lineup. 3,500 pounds covers a small boat or a pair of sleds, and roof rails handle a box — but Lexus itself points genuine off-pavement buyers at the GX.

Flexible in the ways that matter day to day — a 60/40 rear seat (40/20/40 power split-folding available), a lowered load floor from the 2023 redesign, underfloor storage, flush roof rails and a 3,500-pound hitch rating — but capped by volume. 46.2 cubic feet maximum is a compact-SUV figure, and bulky gear is the thing this body cannot swallow.

Secure and unremarkable, which is the middle of the band. The GA-K platform is 198 lbs lighter with a lower centre of gravity and the 2023 car is measurably more responsive than the one it replaced, but Consumer Reports still found pronounced body roll at speed and no real athleticism, and the volume Premium does without the adaptive dampers that make the F SPORT Handling composed.

Well weighted and accurate enough to place the car confidently, and reviewers consistently call it agreeable — but it is isolated by design and returns little about the road surface. Precise rather than communicative, which is the upper half of the middle band.

Good pedal feel and consistent response in normal driving — testers specifically praise the brakes as easy to modulate — but the instrumented result does not back it up: 132 feet from 60 mph trails the segment, and the volume grades use two-piston calipers rather than the F SPORT Performance's six-piston setup.

The weak link in an otherwise polished car, and 2023 is the year it appeared. The new turbo 2.4 pulls hard from low revs but arrives with some lag off idle and minor torque steer in front-drive form, and the eight-speed shifts cleanly when driven gently while delivering a perceptible bump under harder throttle — a complaint that recurs in owner reports as the miles accumulate.

Quiet at a cruise, coarse when asked for anything. Replacing the 3.5 V6 with a turbocharged four cost the RX its most characteristic quality — reviewers across outlets describe the 2023 engine as gritty, buzzy and audibly less cultured under acceleration, and it is the single change most often held against the redesign.

Mid-pack for a mid-size SUV and unchanged in feel despite the 2.36-inch longer wheelbase. Dynamic Rear Steering, which trims the circle meaningfully, is confined to the RX 500h and is not available on the gas car being scored.

A strong, commanding driving position with a wide adjustment range that Consumer Reports found suits drivers of very different sizes, clear gauges and easy ingress. The 2023 redesign undercuts it in three specific places testers keep naming: the confusing gear selector, the delay before the electronic door latches release, and climate functions folded into the touchscreen.

The RX 350 is a comfortable appliance and makes no claim otherwise — 7.2–7.6 seconds to 60, soft body control on the volume grade, numb steering and an engine note reviewers actively dislike. Enthusiast interest in the 2023 range is concentrated entirely in the 366-hp RX 500h F SPORT Performance, a different car from the one scored here.

At $48,550 delivered the base RX 350 already carries Lexus Safety System+ 3.0, blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert, a 9.8-inch Lexus Interface touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12-speaker sound system, heated eight-way power front seats, NuLuxe upholstery, a power liftgate, tri-zone climate, rain-sensing wipers, 19-inch alloys and a ten-year connected-services trial — content a BMW X5 or Mercedes GLE only reaches for many thousands more. It stops short of the top band because the entry grade still runs a 7.0-inch driver display rather than the 12.3-inch unit, has no wireless charging (that only became standard for 2026), and reserves the 14-inch screen, Mark Levinson audio and panoramic roof for higher grades.

The redesign was explicitly priced to undercut the class — a $48,550 entry against an X5 or GLE in the high fifties to low sixties — and it pairs that with the best retained value of any luxury mid-size SUV and running costs well under the segment average, so the money comes back in ownership terms as well as in content. What holds it out of the top band is performance per dollar: the 275 hp turbo four is only marginally quicker than the V6 it replaced, slower than a GLE 350 or GV80, and reviewers found it coarse under load.

Three powertrains — RX 350 turbo-four, RX 350h hybrid and the 366 hp RX 500h F SPORT Performance — across six grades (Standard, Premium, Premium+, Luxury, F SPORT Handling, F SPORT Performance), with front- or all-wheel drive on the gas car and a spread from $48,550 to roughly $63,000. Two genuine gaps keep it below the later cars: the RX 450h+ plug-in hybrid did not arrive until the 2024 model year, and this generation is five-seat only, so the three-row RX L buyer has nowhere to go until the TX appears for 2024.

The redesign landed about as well as a launch can: 114,033 US sales in calendar 2023, up 18.7% on the outgoing car's 96,041 in 2022 and the RX's strongest year on record. That is roughly a third of Lexus's US volume from a single nameplate and more than any individual BMW or Mercedes SUV managed, making the RX the best-selling traditional-luxury vehicle in the country (Tesla's Model Y aside).

Lexus carries unusually durable brand equity built on dependability, dealer experience and resale, and the RX is the model that built it — the nameplate that effectively created the luxury crossover and has led its class for a quarter century. It sits below the top band because the brand's pull is reassurance rather than aspiration: at this price Mercedes, BMW and Porsche still hold the prestige halo, and the fifth-generation RX's styling divided opinion rather than winning it.

Scored on buyer benefit, and there was very little of it in this model year. The RX arrived in late 2022 into the tail of the supply crunch as an all-new, heavily pre-sold product: Lexus put essentially no factory cash on it, buyers waited months for allocation, most cars transacted at sticker, and some dealers added market adjustments on top. Later in the run the market normalised to roughly sticker rather than to real discounts, which is still a worse deal than the mid-cycle RX offers of 2026 ($1,000 rebate, sub-4% APR and about $3,000 off in the market).

This is the best possible freshness position: 2023 is year one of the fifth-generation RX (ALA10/ALH10), a ground-up redesign on the GA-K platform with a new turbocharged four in place of the V6, a new eight-speed automatic, the first RX performance hybrid, Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 and the new Lexus Interface multimedia system. A buyer signing in 2023 had a full model cycle ahead of them and no redesign risk whatsoever.

Critics welcomed the redesign without ranking it first. Praise went to the ride, build quality, the far better multimedia system and a predicted-reliability record no rival matches; the recurring complaints were the coarse, merely adequate turbo four, unremarkable non-hybrid economy and a cabin that plays it safe, which left US News ranking it #15 of the luxury mid-size SUVs at 7.4/10. Its honours are the safety and dependability kind rather than comparison-test victories — an IIHS Top Safety Pick+, a MotorTrend SUV of the Year finalist place and class-leading J.D. Power predicted reliability — which is squarely the well-reviewed-but-rarely-the-pick band.