If you drive a Lexus LX or GX, you know that having four driven wheels confidently moving you forward adds to the luxuriousness of your Lexus.

Luxury buyers have an appreciation and an expanding desire for capability in the cars they drive, and that's why all-wheel drive is becoming more popular in the luxury-car market. In response to stronger demand for all-wheel-drive luxury cars, Lexus' AWD portfolio has expanded over the [...]

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You won't find any AWD IS, GS, LS in CA unless by special order or dealer trade. Location and environment still play a major role in a persons choice of drivetrain

 

True this. I see no need in Nashville for a 4wd Lexus.

In the 3 to 7 snow days we have in Nashville around here, I load my little 93 2wd Toyota truck with 150lbs of concrete mix bags and have an absolute riot doing donuts at 5:00am before I have to get my *** to work around 8:00. I let that little $700 workhorse get all salty and yet it always gets met to work. Stupid people are always spun out on the side of the road, but my little truck with good tires and weight in the bed always gets me to where I want to go.


Granted I'm glad I don't live in Buffalo New York, where my truck would lose 100lbs of metal every year due to the salt. Up there you have to buy the most salt proof vehicle, which IS NOT an a 20 year old Toyota truck.

 

LOL, adds to the luxuriousness??

 

Modern AWD systems with active torque vectoring are great, but let's not forget that on many cars not originally designed around such a system (like the IS), they add an irritating bump in the floor right underneath your feet, as well as harming the driving dynamics.

As well, there's no contest the RWD simply "feels" better despite the higher tracking accuracy of some AWD systems. At some point, when buying a car for enjoyment and not lap times, manual transmissions and oversteering-induced drifts factor into a purchase.

 

AWD in Lexus is great... but unless you need it, RWD is better.

 

My wife's RX350 is AWD, but only because a FWD SUV is such utter fail in Illinois that I couldn't buy one if I tried.

This is my seventeenth consecutive Chicago winter in a RWD vehicle (currently a 335d), and I wouldn't have it any other way. Should we buy another Lexus, it'll be a RWD GS.

RWD >> AWD >> FWD

Even my parents have made the switch, trading their '00 Avalon for a '12 Genesis 3.8 about 18 months ago. Dad still has the Outback Sport, but he won't be getting another--he doesn't find the winter traction a good tradeoff for the poor fuel economy year-round.

 

no thanks from a southern boy

 

Hopefully they will do something about the ugly wheel gap, especially the GS.

 

AWD in the Lexus sedans detracts from the luxuriousness due to the ungainly drivetrain bulge in the driver's footwell.

 

AWD was a must for me when I got my RX300 just before I headed down to Mexico, wouldn't even look at the FWD and luckily living in DC at the time, there were AWDs out there (not the case in Florida as much), but when we got a 4Runner a few years ago, RWD was just fine for down here.

 

Comparison of AWD and 4WD systems

Full-time 4WD with Torsen (used in GX and LX) is as good as it can get.

 

I have AWD on both my RX and my IS. No regrets and would make the same decision all over again.

But you can't really make a blanket statement that "AWD is better than RWD" or "you should buy AWD" or even RWD. The reality is that there are many variables at play - geographic location and local weather, how you intend to use the car, what other cars you may own, etc.

That's the good thing about choices...something for everyone!

It is interesting to note, however, that my IS is less luxurious because there's a hump on the floor that I don't even notice.

 

Though usually not prone to deep snow and blizzards, that part of the country can get some hellacious ice-storms.

 

It may indeed be as good as *AWD* can get. I still don't want it, unless the alternative is FWD.

Your statement and mine are not in any way contradictory. Yours just expands the middle entry in my hierarchy.