Lexus

What's going on YouTube? So the Lexus RX still reigns as the ultimate luxury SUV for mini shoppers in the US and it still sets atop the sales charts. And for 2026 model year, Lexus is adding some enhancements to t So is t Let's go ahead and find out. So like always, we need to start this review off with a quick spec d So there's going to be four different distinct powertrains you can choose with t We have the standard option, the RX 350. It's a 2. 4 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine that makes 275 horsepower. That's paired to an eight speed automatic transmission and with all wheel drive you have 24 MPG combined. The base price of the RX in 2026 is $51,000 and if you're looking to buy one or any new ve com slash new car quotes to get the best price. Now of course later on we're going to take it out for a spin while we're on that spin we'll get things Let's go ahead and close up the hood because first we need to take a look at the exterior design before we get into the luxurious interior. Now for 2026 up here in the front you're not going to notice any overall changes to the design aesthetic. T Now there will continue to be many different versions that you can get there's actually one additional version for 2026 that's that the 450h plus model now has a premi Now let's take a look at our headlights. Of course you have standard full LED headlights as you'd expect for the Lexus brand. However if you want the signature triple beam LED headlights those are optional on t I kind of wish that was standard equipment though. And then down here at the bottom we have LED fog lights as well. And taking a look at the back it just has that signature RX look. Yeah so what are those details? Well we have a spoiler up here at the top. Our wiper is Speaking of LED every single element in the brake light, the amber turn signal and the reverse light all LED. And as we drop down to the tow rating is 3500 pounds and no RX will get exposed exhaust talents. Moving on to the wheels you have a few different selections from 19 to 21 inch alloys depending on the trim level you select. Today we have the premi I And one t Basically that kind of makes it look Nice body color finish around our wheel arches there and as far as our mirrors are concerned every RX is fully loaded with all the features including blind spot monitoring, power folding and auto dimming. Now at the side of the RX overall ve We also have t Now when it comes to safety systems I'm happy to tell you every RX will have all of your active safety features as standard equipment which will include things Additionally you can option on things But there are some changes for 2026 on the inside that we need to discuss but first if you're new here we're brothers and we've been reviewing cars since were 12 and 16. We started young and since then we've reviewed over 2000 cars at every price point. No matter what you're looking for from sound level readings to cargo measurements we'd love for you to subscribe to be a part of our car confections family. Let's learn a lot and have some fun with all the latest cars. Now on to the interior. Here's our Q-Fob. Of course you have a standard smart entry system with the Lexus Q-Fob on board. You also have an available digital key system and a smart parking system but just for the luxury trim. Getting inside just grab be It is a touch sensitive door handle so you're just going to pinch and that will be what opens up. And then let's take a look at the interior. As you can see you've got a very nice looking cabin especially when you finish it in t And let'start off by talking about the seats. So new Luxe faux leather is what is standard on the RX and it is also included here on the premi Like I said this is kind of one of the more affordable trims and I think one of the most popular trims in the entire lineup because It'still very supple. You have nice quilting details and perforation throughout and you've got several different colors you can choose from as well. T Now of course if you get other trim levels that's going to unlock several other things so you can get You also get semi-aniline leather on your luxury trims. The seats on this version are going to be 10-way power adjusting with two-way l You can also get 14 ways of adjustment and power t But let's climb on inside. Closing up to the door we'll look at the rest of the cabin materials. So starting with the door trim the armrest portion is covered in a leatherette with a stitc You'll see the same color as the seats reflected up here in the center section and then a soft touch plastic at the top. As you move to the upper dash all of t We have a leatherette trim that runs through there onto the door trim, padded plastic through here and then we have some open pour. It looks like a bamboo trim that's in the dashboard and you'll also see that same trim across the entire center console here and then more padding along here for your knee to b Everything feels super solid and well put together as we expect from Lexus and really there's not much difference between this premi Now we'll fire it up with push button start. With the ve Last year Lexus added the full digital gauge cluster as standard equipment on all trims so that's what you're looking at right now. You can reconfigure all the different information inside of that as well as choose some different designs. A head up display is available and then as we pull back to the steering wheel we've got a very nice looking, The premi It is power tilt and telescoping and heated as well. Now let's take a look at interior storage. We'll start by checking out our center console just Now for those of you who don't know the donut is our logo that's why we put them inside the center console so that we can check the vol Today we have 14 donuts inside so that certainly passes our 12 donut test and stands up well against the competition. Now in front of that you have two cup holders. You have a storage shelf right here and then more importantly if we slide back the wood trim we have a much larger storage cubby w You have four USB ports as well. As far as the s When we head into reverse you'll see either the traditional standard backup camera or this available 360 degree camera option like I was saying it is optional on this premi Once that P there for park you also have an electronic parking brake with auto brake hold. Now as we continue our tour through this interior let'stop next at our vol So you've got two different audio systems you can get on today we actually have the standard sound system so let's give that a sample. I t If you're not a huge audio person it's probably not really worth it to spend the extra for the mark levinson but that is a great sounding audio system if you really enjoy good sound quality. Now right in the same area we have our climate controls t You can just adjust your temperature easily with these knobs that are embedded into the screen itself some additional functions are of course right there in the display and you can pull that up for some more functions. Also one of the nice t Now the screen itself that you're looking at right now is the 14 inch display. This is optional on several of the trim levels including this premi What you get a standard is just under 10 inches it's 9. 8 inches and it does kind of reconfigure your climate controls just a little bit as well when you make that selection instead. Regardless though you will get the same software it's the Toyota and Lexus software w Rising above we have an auto dimming mirror with built-in homelink remotes that'standard equipment you can also get the digital camera rear view mirror as an option and then I'll slide back our standard size sunroof. Lexus includes t And now let's talk about the RX's rear seat of course that's very important to anyone buying in t So as far as legroom is concerned we're sitting at 37 inches of legroom 37 inches of headroom as well. Now that does mean that for That being said I brought along the official car confections ruler the reason I do that is so I can get a realistic knee room figure for you. T My feet can slide up underneath of these seats and I just have to applaud these rear seats they are incredibly comfortable. Now speaking of extra comfort you can recline them a pretty good distance as well to give yourself some extra comfort. You can also get power second row seats on some of the As far as other features vents are standard equipment as you would expect we also have our own climate zone back here in the rear two USB ports and you can get heated as well as ventilated rear seats here on the RX it's just reserved for the Now over on the door trim we have soft touch plastic all through here a lot of leatherette through the center section and on our armrest portion. Another thing I really Let's check out the cargo area a power tailgate is standard equipment on every RX however you do have to pay extra for the kick ability and let's talk about the overall cargo capacity with this model so that is one area that this RX is once again a little bit smaller than the rival so you're sitting at 29 cubic feet behind the second row of seats and as a maxim Now as far as how the seats fold they do fold 40-20-40 split which is quite nice and there are little buttons over here on the side to electronically fold the seats down so I really like the fact that you don't have to go up to the second row to fold those down you can also get a fully power setup for return as well if you'd rather have that feature and let's get our cargo length width and height figures so the seats it is worth noting they don't fold super flat with the floor and as far as cargo length behind Drew's 5'8' driving position 78 inches is what you can expect cargo length behind the second row 41 inches as far as the opening that's also going to be on the shorter side about 44 inches and height I'll go ahead and get that n com slash vehicle rankings we've looked at all the two row luxury mid-sizers out there and ranked them in the 10 most important categories to SUV shoppers in this segment things like cargo capacity interior technology and luxury features powertrain choices safety and reliability are all detailed there for you so you can sort and see the best options in each of those categories so you can make an informed buying decision so definitely check that tool out well guys here we are behind the wheel of the 2026 lexus rx and this test drive we're going to be discussing quite a lot as you can see on the screen right now we'll also be getting things like our sound level reading but first we need to go ahead and start with a hard acceleration all right that was 60 miles an hour with the lexus rx 350 so like we talked about a little bit at the spectr 4 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine 275 horsepower and 317 pound feet of torque overall acceleration is pretty good certainly with the torque you can feel that push you back in the seat as you accelerate 0 to 60 is a little over seven seconds when you're trying to pick between the models and that's not the slowest model in the lineup by the way yeah that's for sure I think this is a good powertrain choice for most people like you said I think the torque really stands out about the rx 350 now if you want to see all the other options I'll just go ahead and insert a text box in on the screen right now so you can see all the other choices to kind of s 1 decibels is what we are sitting at as our sound level reading here in the rx350 we don't have to sit here and guess we can compare it to all of its rivals at carconfections. com slash sound level readings and when you do look at rivals it certainly is going to be a nice and quiet cabin it's not quite the quietest cabin of course some of the rivals like the bmw x5 have been kind of the reigning champ that and the bmw genesis gv80 excuse me have the quietest cabins in the segment that being said that's not saying this is a loud cabin at all it just has really quiet competitors all right and let's get into today'slam dunk and airball our favorite and least favorite element drew why don't you go ahead and kick us off with the slam dunk of the rx for the slam dunk we'll say the features and kind of the value and luxury that this premi com slash new car quotes the reason you do that is because we have a tool on our website that'll connect you with local car dealers in your area to get you the best price it's also going to give you access to invoice price information which is a great tool to use while dealer negotiating if you'd 8 percent of original msrp and after 10 years and 120 000 miles 28. 2 percent now it's worth noting those are really good