charlesh

Kan,

Totally agree with your opinion. I have a few (4) friends who brought the fully loaded MDX. I chatted with them about buying the MDX some time ago because the dropping price. They all say "MDX is a good car, BUT....BUT....I will buy the lexus RX next time". No reason given why they want to buy RX next time, since they all said that MDX are very good (I guess they regret a littel - just a little that they could have gotten the RX instead of MDX, because of ?????).

Most recently, I read a funny artical in terms of the standard for a rich family ($250,000 after tax):

Here are some:
A house
Kids go to private university
3 vacations/year
a Lexus car and a BMW car
.....

NOT an ACRUA CAR!!!

TunedRX300

I am with you on the suspension part, you should be able to get springs but there is no aftermarket struts, not even on the RX300.

Some of what you posted are true but you probably know that the RX is almost the lowest performing luxury SUV in its class behind BMW, Acura, Porsche, Infiniti. What bothers most owners is the RX line really has not live up to Lexus' reliability reputation

1) 1mz-fe in RX300 are under sludge recall, none of the above luxury brand has an engine design flaw. 3mz-fe in RX330 is equally harsh on oil, IMHO, it is just a patch design to cover up 1mz-fe's design flaw.
RX350 should be better since Lexus now uses 2gr-fe but it uses the same transmission as the RX330, which many RX330 owners have reported similiar hesitantion problem as those in RX300.
BTW, there is a big thread on RX300 tranny failure in the RX300 sub-forum.

2) The leather in RX300 and RX330 is actually inferior to BMW, driver side seats have shown cracks as early as three years of usage. I can not comment on RX350, perhaps you can compare it with those in RX330 and see whether you need to condition it often to prevent cracks.

charlesh

What kind of car your are now driving? that will give you partial answer for the question which one is better!!

Kan-O-Z

If you go to Tire Racks website and look up suspension for RX350, KYB struts show up as well as H&R and Eibach springs. I think Tien has struts as well and are working on a full coil over system which is available for RX 300 but not for 330/350. While I do agree with you that there isn't enough out there, there are some struts and springs out there.

I'm not sure how you can say this especially now with the RX350 (with 270hp) and RX400h. They both have seen 0-60 numbers around 7.0 seconds. Now that's pretty much on top V6 competition and even some V8 competition! That's as quick as FX 35 and ML 500 V8 and nearly as quick as X5 4.4 V8! I can tell you that driving around my RX350, the acceleration is very nice. By the way have you looked up 0-60 on the BMW and Porsche and Mercedes 6 cylinder versions? After you do, I think you may be shocked. Minivans can run circles around those things!

Handling could use a bit improvement on the RX. I'm thinking some springs/struts and wider stickier tires and it should be as good as some of the sporty SUVs out there.

Yes, I have heard about the sludge problem. It wasn't just limited to the RX300 though. It affected any Lexus / Toyota car that used that particular 3.0L V6.

I'm not saying Lexus is without flaws. Neither is Acura. Did you know that EVERY Acura V6 built from 1999-2003 has a transmission design flaw and is prone to failure! This includes all Accord V6s, Odyssey, Pilot, Acura TL and Acura MDX! I know people in their TLs that are on their 2nd or 3rd transmission with only 80k miles. This was a huge issue and Honda/Acura extended their warranty on the transmission. They also offered a fix but it really couldn't be fixed since it was a design flaw.

Now as far as the German makes, I don't think we need to argue that they are in a different league (much worse) when it comes to reliability.

I can't comment on this. It's really hard to judge the wear of leather as a measure of quality because different people use their vehicles differently. They also maintain and care for their vehicles differently. All I can say is the leather feels really soft, supple and good as compared to other cars I've been in.

Kan-O-Z

TunedRX300

We are looking for unbiased fact of car A vs car B. Your statement above just confirms how biased opinion is formed by the person's own financial and emotional investment of RX.
Rulers, clocks, and scientific data do not lie, a person's opinion change over time. Also opinions of a biased group often do not reveal the fact. We are comparing car features, not joining an Acura or Lexus cult

TunedRX300

KYB is the OEM strut supplier so it is not really an aftermarket supplier. TEINS coilover for the RX300 is only for the FWD - no AWD application yet, nor did TEINS announce any plan.
That is the main reason I did not go for aftermarket spring yet.

1G MDX tranny does have a problem, Acura extended the warranty for 8 years and 100K. The problem for the RX300 is that Lexus can not issue a transmission extended warranty. In addition to extra expense to lower Toyota's profit margin, Lexus will commit brand suicide if BOTH the engine and tranny are under recall for the RX300. The solution is dealer takes the responsibility to deal with owner on a case by case basis.
Normally people don't have a happy experience with dealership when they are buying (as in paying Lexus) car. I am sure you know how pleasant the experience is when asking Lexus to pay for the out of original warranty repair.

Leather is soft but at an expense of durability. My advice is to condition it often. When I realize my cushion have creases it is already too late. See this thread, do a search this is not the only thread
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=216939
if you don't trust Club Lexus thread, just search ebay listing, and check out pictures for driver side seat.

About the performance, just take a look at IS350 and GS350's 2gr-fse, it is no secret that Lexus believe RX350 can have the scaled down and cheaper 2gr-fe in RX and still get away with high sales volume. Why? RX owners do not pay for a performance SUV because RX is not expected to be one.

Kan-O-Z

I'm not exaclty sure why Lexus didn't put the direct injection version of the engine in the RX but it seems that Infiniti, BMW and Mercedes do the same thing. For example, The Infiniti FX has the VQ 3.5L engine in it with 280hp. That engine has been tuned to 300hp in the G35 and 350Z but they didn't put the 300hp version in the Infiniti FX...go figure. The same can be said about BMW and Mercedes. The little BMW 3-series sedans are putting out way more hp than the 6 cylinder X3 and X5 which could definitely use the extra hp. Go figure again....BMW puts high hp in a little car and low hp in a big car.

Perhaps part of the reason is that when an engine is tuned to the max, it becomes less durable for the extra heft of an SUV? Perhaps it's because tuning an engine for lower hp can result in higher torque at lower RPMs which is more suited for an SUV? Perhaps some of it has to do with marketing. Why should a truck have the same horsepower as the top of the line sport sedan? Perhaps it's a combination of all these reasons. Whatever the case, Lexus isn't the only one that does it.

The same can be said about the 5speed v. 6 speed auto. I heard that the 6 speed was not durable enough for the extra weight of the RX so they went with the 5 speed. Yes the RX is lacking a gear as compared to the competion but who cares? The point to more gears is better performance, and better fuel economy. Guess what, the RX is either tied for top or is the top in performance and fuel economy compared to a competitor with a v6 engine!

Kan-O-Z

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

This is not entirely true. The manual transmission V6's have no problems. The automatic transmissions mated to the C Block V6 of that time era also has no problems. The 4 speed automatic mated to the J Block has no problems. The 5 Speed mated to the J block is what you are talking about, but is only suspect because not every single car with that transmission will fail. Just like many who know people that owned these cars with failed transmissions, I know a lot of TL, Accord, and MDX owners that are still on their original transmissions with no problems thus far and with high miles. That doesn't mean they may or may not have a problem, just that there are a lot of 100K+ cars that don't have a tranny problem. Basically, only 1 transmission in the Honda/Acura line up has a potential problem. That is the 5 speed auto mated to the J series engines. It is used in a number of cars, but not all of them.

Kan-O-Z

Yes I am referring to the 5-speed auto. I was actually in the market for an Acura TL (used) some time back. After going on Edmunds and reading Consumer reviews and then going to Consumer Reports and reading about it, I was worried enough not to buy. One of my friends has a Honda Odyssey one has a Honda Accord V6 and one has a TL. All of their transmissions were replaced. Good thing all of their transmissions were under warranty. Yes it may be true that some do go well over 100k, they did still have a serious problem on their hands. Consumer reports gave most of those cars black circles in the transmission rating. From what I read, it was a design flaw (for which there is no fix) so basically it's a matter of time till it fails.

Now I hear that the new TLs (2004 and up) are having problems with the manual transmission! I currently have an Acura Integra (auto) as a second car and it's transmission is just flat out crappy and feels like it'll go soon.

This may be my opinion but I feel that transmissions is not Honda's strong point.

Kan-O-Z

My3rdRX

All I can say is this ~ after having had three RXs, I have switched to the 07 MDX because it offers a lot more than the RX350: in terms of technology, styling and handling!

I have put on 2000 miles on my MDX in just three weeks and still have NO regrets!

charlesh

TunedRX300,

As I said that I oringially intented to buy the MDX but changed to RX350 due to its quality (especially the luxury level of the car). Statistics usually gives answers - RX350 is more expensive compared to MDX (2006 and before), but more people are willing to spend the extra $ for RX330/350 (108,000 sold each year for RX330 which is 4x more than BMW X5 and ?x more than MDX?)

One of the factors makes RX350 feel more luxury is its fine leather, which in your case is a defect.

I noticed that the 2007 MDX has a lot of change in terms of the interior. Much high quality leather, no simulated wood but well designed trims/steering wheels/etc.

All of the comparisons above is between MDX2006 with RX350. It is another story for the comparison of 2007 MDX with RX350 ($$ differences)

Kan-O-Z

I would have done the same thing as you if I had already owned 3 RXs I don't think anyone is going to have regrets between the RX and MDX. Both are very nice vehicles and one isn't necessarily superior to the other so owners of both should be equally happy.

I do agree with you on the handling on the RX but I think with a spring upgrade and 255 tires, the handling should be close enough to the new MDX.

The styling is subjective. My wife didn't like the bulky look, the bulky feel or the transformer type grill of the new MDX. Plus the new 255 tires and reduced wheel gap should give the RX a nice look.

As far as technology, yes the MDX has a bit more but it's not enough to sway me. The RX is plenty loaded with touch screen nav with voice recognition, backup camera, hands free blue tooth technology. Options include, Mark Levinson audiophile quality sound system with 6 disc DVD, rear entertainment, Sat radio, laser cruise control, panorama sun roof that spans a good portion of the roof, air suspension with ride height settings. I think that's enough technology for most.

When I was shopping for an SUV, there was none that had everything I was looking for. I felt the RX was the closest to what I was looking for. It's only weakness for me is handling and that's something I can fix fairly easily.

I'm glad we all like our cars (and I do like the 07 MDX). As long as we can keep having friendly and constructive discussions, it's all good

Kan-O-Z

spwolf

funny guy... can you tell us what car do you drive again?
RX specs clearly say "Wood and leather". I dont see any claims of aluminium used, which proves the point :-).

In fact, i never saw wood that looked really good to me. Not in MB nor in Lexus. If I had an choice, I would never get wood in the vehicle.

But thats not the point - what car do you drive again?

TunedRX300

I drive an 06 Rav 4 and oh...when I bought a car from Toyota, they also included a kickback clause which gives me $ to pimp Toyota cars

spwolf

so you are the smarter one, heh... v6 or?