Lexus built a sizable luxury vehicle empire in 30 short years. They did it by providing comfortable, well-built vehicles at prices below that of the European brands with much longer histories. However, the Europeans (and some others) have started to hit back.
The Lexus RX is one of the best-selling luxury vehicles in this country year in and year out, and was the first modern luxury crossover. It took Lexus nearly 16 years after the first RX to bring out the more compact NX.
The NX adheres to the Lexus of being well-built, comfortable and yes, priced below that of many of its European counterparts. This adds up to strong sales, but not quite the rockstar that the RX is. NX sales have risen in recent years (prior to any Covid-Craziness), but has seen the likes of the Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class, BMW X3, Audi Q5 and even Acura RDX surpass it.
Part of that may be due to the age of the NX in its lifecycle. All the aforementioned competitors have received significant redesigns and even successive refreshes, in the time since the NX launched. The NX received some nips and tucks of its own and still offers some unique content in the segment like a power adjusting steering wheel and available power 2nd row seat reclining, but that can’t hide all of the age of the NX.
It becomes even more apparent when you compare the NX to corporate cousin Toyota RAV4. The RAV4 moved on to Toyota Motor Corp’s latest and greatest next generation architecture, which, like all other companies, boasts impressive gains in rigidity, enhanced handling dynamics while improving ride quality and so forth.
Take for instance, the hybrids. The Lexus NX300h hybrid doles out 194 system horsepower, while returning a combined 31 miles per gallon. 31 miles per gallon is still nothing to sneeze at for a luxury SUV even 6 years after the NX debuted. But the Toyota RAV4 hybrid puts out 219 horsepower while stretching a gallon of gas to 40 miles. And this doesn’t take into account the RAV4 Prime Plug In Hybrid vehicle, putting out a whopping 302 horsepower with over 40 miles of electric-only range.
But hey, this is supposed to be about the Lexus NX, right? That’s the problem though, It’s been 2 years since the “new” RAV4 hit the streets and those on the Lexus side are still stuck in what feels decidedly last-gen with the NX.
The current NX may very well still be a reliable and durable vehicle, something that no doubt legions of car shoppers are looking for. But I think luxury shoppers tend to want a little more, a little something special with a little more refinement. The current NX is fairly smooth and quiet, but the body structure and ride quality still suffer from quite a number of smaller suspension impacts and events, more than I would have expected given that our NX was riding on relatively “small” 18” wheels with plenty of tire sidewall to absorb anything.
The steering felt a bit slow in response, but at the same time overly heavy in artificial weighting. It was actually a little difficult in typical parking lot maneuvers and I just got out of spending the last 18 months in a BMW X5, which usually has heavier steering weighting.
Our tested NX300h Luxury rang up at just over $52,000 with just about every option box checked off. That’s pretty significant coinage. An Audi Q5 55 Premium (their plug in hybrid) starts at $53,000, but is also eligible for over $6,700 in Federal Tax credits. The Q5 PHEV can only reach about 27 miles per gallon in hybrid mode, a bit short of the NX, but can drive about 20 miles in pure electric mode. You could even step up to the Q5 55 Premium Plus for some more content and still come in under the effective price of the NX. But the Q5 PHEV’s overall fuel economy and electric range come up very short when compared with the Toyota RAV4 Prime. I would expect that a new NX with the RAV4 Prime’s system would easily best the Q5 PHEV’s numbers, at least for economy and electric range.
Things are moving quickly in the automotive industry, it seems like cars are being asked to be refreshed and redesigned nearly at the pace of consumer electronics, which is borderline insane for the amount of investment and capital that those types of changes require. I wouldn’t want to see change for the sake of change, but in some cases change and updates are warranted.
So yes, this lame duck NX is a bit long in the tooth, but I’m excited for what the NX could become…