marke1

My wife and I have test driven both of these vehicles and I have been wondering about the cargo space specs. The RX is listed as 85 cu ft with read seat folded and 38 cu ft. with the seats up. The MDX is listed as 82 cu ft with both seats folded, 50 cu ft with 3rd row folded, and 15 cu ft with all seats up. The MDX is large in all exterior dimensions and the cargo area "appears" bigger to me. Folding the 2nd row of seats on the MDX yields a difference of 32 cu ft (82 - 50). This seems proportional. Yet on the RX, the difference when folding the rear seats is 47 cu ft (85 - 38). I don't recall the 2nd row seat space to be much different between the two.

I guess what it comes down to is I'm wondering if these numbers are accurate. I don't think the difference is enough to swing our decision one way or the other, but it is a consideration.

Nickv

I can't really respond to your question re the difference in cargo space. But I can sure say that the RX300 storage space is...limited, shall we say. It really is small; but we still love our rx300!
NickV
2000 RX300

jeffknet

The 330's cargo space is larger than the 300 thanks to the full size spare being located under the vehicle - when we were shopping around we compared other high end LUV's and the 330 had more space than the FX35/45 and the Murano...

cotmc

We recently sold our '01 MDX. We have owned our new RX 330 for almost 3 weeks. Hence, you would think I could quickly answer your question about the cargo space of these two vehicles, but I agree that the numbers seem a little out of proportion.

I can say that the rear (2nd row) seat accomodations seem roomier on the RX 330 than the MDX. However, that likely doesn't hold up if the rear seats of the RX 330 are slid all the way forward, which is how Lexus supposedly gets the 38 cu ft measurement with the rear seats up. The RX 330 may be able to ink out a little additional space due to the lower center console that can slide forward away from any of the back cargo area. The rear seats may also be a little lower than the MDX 2nd row seats.

One obvious difference between the two vehicles is that the RX 330 has a sloped roof that limits the cargo height behind the rear seats. If the roof remained flatter across the entire cargo area, I'm guessing that the 38 cu ft measurement would be closer to 43-45 cu ft. The RX 330 provides more floor space behind the rear seats than the previous RX 300, but the RX 300 has a couple more cubic ft of total cargo space behind the rear seats thanks to its more traditional roofline. We rarely pile or stack our bags on top of each other, especially not anywhere near the roofline, and so I personally prefer the larger floor space of the newer model.

There is no doubt you will have more cargo space with the MDX than the RX, but for our family of three, I believe the RX 330 provides us with all the space we need. The smaller and lighter 330 provides us with some dividends over the MDX. For instance, we get 24-26 mpg on the freeway with regular unleaded gasoline. With our '01 MDX, we rarely got more than 21 mpg on the freeway, and we were required to use premium 91 octane.

lawprofs

We have an MDX and an RX330. The MDX definately holds quite a bit more in the back. If you need that ability, get the MDX. They are both great SUV's. The RX is morfe luxury oriented, while the MDX is a bit more practical. You really cannot go wrong.

marke1

lawprofs,
What kind of gas mileage do you get with both vehicles? There are a lot of people on acuramdx.org that are reporting under 14mpg in city driving.

cotmc,
Yeah, normally the gas mileage wouldn't be a concern but as I stated above, a lot of people are getting much lower than the quoted 17mpg in city driving. I usually get pretty close to the EPA numbers with all of our previous cars. Typically, how fast are you driving when you're on the freeway?

cotmc

We typically go 75-80 mph on the freeways. Speed limits around here, outside of the city, are 75mph.

On pure highway driving, speed and wind definitely affected the mpg on our MDX. The MDX did close to 23mpg when we were driving 65mph. But at speeds above 75mph, we averaged 21mpg on a good day. (No strong headwinds, no mountains, etc)

Our EPA around town with our MDX was between 17-18 mpg. However, due to the location of our current home and our previous home (while we owned the MDX), much of our driving around town was not typical of most urban environments. We always had a good percentage of highway driving thrown into the mix, whether driving to the Home Depot or commuting to work.

It's a bit premature to compare the new RX 330, but we have one good data sample. Just over one week ago we got 25-26 mpg on our round trip from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon (and back). Our RX is FWD.

lawprofs

I have had the MDX for two years and haven't really focused on mileage recently. I seem to remember that it was lower than I expected...about 15 miles to the gallon for in town driving (premium). So far, I have been using regular in the RX (please, no need to start the debate again) and getting about 16-17 around town. The bigger difference is probably the ability to use regular if you want to.

RickC

I measured both vehicles when I was trying to decide which to buy. If my memory serves be I was thinking the MDX measured 38" with the rear seats folded down and the RX 34". This was the closest comparison I could think of. Basically comparing 5 passenger seating to 5 passenger seating. However, don't recall the post here, but someone posted they actually own both vehicles, so they would be very qualified to answer your cargo question.

RickC

Skip

AWD RX 330 in Los angeles city traffic, no freeway, 13.8. Freeway only have just touched 25. Skip