A vehicle badged "F-Sport Performance" or "Type S" should strive to be more than just a couch on wheels. It's a problem when these vehicles are slower than ones that don't even attempt to be sporty like the GLE or GV80.

 

True, lately Toyota/Lexus has been very disappointing under President Akio's management.

 

Agree. They have been way too conservative and haven't progressed their powertrain technology outside of hybrid. Toyota's best car is actually a BMW. sad.

 

Worse, fancy the EV bZ and RZ450e being FWD-based.
I would have thought EV's meant the end of FWD?

 

Well...the FWD version in the US is probably better than the AWD version because of their supplier. It all stems from their lack of foresight and choosing to ignore BEV (even despicably lobbying against it) and then doing an embarrassing about face and releasing BEVs without proper supply agreements. Toyota management has been pretty comical in the last 5 years.

 

I agree about Lexus as they could have done much more. I disagree about Toyota. The current line up is probably one of the best and most comprehensive they have had in years. Sales are record high, have a trio of excellent GR cars (including the upcoming GR corolla), they remain the undisputed resale, reliability & hybrid leaders. In the US they outsold everyone in 2021 including GM & Ford. I wouldn't call it disappointing :-)

 

It won't, because of the differences in suspension. The RX is still inexpensive macpherson struts and the GLE and X5 are multilink and have available air suspension.

Have you driven a GLE with air suspension? Remarkable. X5 too, rides great. I'm very tempted to just get a GLE or X5 next time and save a bunch of money.

 

Doug:

 

Do it. They didn't completely ruin the grille on the 2023 X5. Of course you'd probably get a 2024 model when your lease ends at the end of next year, right?

 

Yeah it would be a 2024, have plenty of time still to think about it...

 

new rx has multi link rear.

 

The old RX had multi-link rear. Still macpherson strut front which is where the main difference in ride and drive sophistication is. Macpherson strut suspension doesn't belong on any luxury car. Plus the X5 and GLE have air suspension options on top of the more sophisticated suspension setups.

 

Im surprised he put respect on rx name..it is the benchmark of lux crossovers, but he still an idiot to some things about toy/lex.

 

Is there really such a thing as FWD or RWD based with EVs? Any platform can be FWD, RWD or AWD depending on where they put the most powerful motor(s). I think for the more mainstream models, it will be FWD biased.

 

In a way yeah, if the platform's base is designed around primarily having the electric motors over the front axle and the rest of the car's proportions are designed around that, I can see the AWD model being called a "fwd-based" EV if that makes sense.