rxsuperman

The other day in a parking lot, someone gave a door ding on my front fender to which I was able to use a dent tool to easily pull up the minor ding dent to pretty much its orginal condition. In do so, I felt the RX shell is pretty flimsy meaning that I can easily push on the fender with my thumb to create a dent or fix a dent if I push on the backside. Is it true that most of the RX's European competitors like BMW, Mercedes, Audi...etc have stronger (thicker?) shells than the RX meaning that they can withstand door dings better than the RX?

m1964

Yes, from my experience with Volvo, Land Rover and Audi, the sheet metal seems to be thicker in those vehicles. Not only that, some vehicles have multi-layer pillars, and inside the door beams to protect you from side impact; volvo seats will recline in case of rear-end collision to minimize whiplash injury...also it probably not only the thickness of the body shell, but quality of metal it's made of, that will add the strength to it.

happy1977

The thicker the shell, the heavier the vehicle is? The heavier the vehicle, the lower your mileage is. Just pondering.

MX5NES350

Correct. I am not certain of the curb weights of the RX on comparison to the competition, however. Since I am mobile right now I cannot bring that info up without serious effort

RXSF

the RX is HEAVY, especially the hybrid which weighs in at 4500 pounds. The Regular RX at 4200 and these are the fwd measurements. The awd is like 200 pounds heavier. You can make the claim that the sheet metal is more flimsy, but the RX is a top safety pick from IIHS and receives high marks for all crash tests, including rear collision because of the WLS (whiplash lessening seats) design.

the ML350 mercedes weighs in at 4700 awd. the q5 weighs in at 4100

m1964

the heaviest SUV may not be the strongest-both Audi and MB use high grade steel and aluminum components; the body of my previous LR2 contained aluminum parts (no rust); some audis use carbon fiber/steel structures which will be stronger and lighter then steel alone ...

AND safety of the vehicle does not directly depends on its mass... but on airbags, structure, etc etc

rxsuperman

Thanks for the feedback. My concern was not about the RX's safety because I know there are body sides beams and crumble zones that protects the occupants very well. I was just surprised on how flimsy and dent prone with respect to the body shell.

Are the body shell thickness and rigidness the same between Lexus and Toyota vehicles?

UCSB

When I was down looking at the 2012 RX's the other day, I noticed that they were only ranked 4 stars (out of 5 possible) in most of the crash test results on the window sticker. I know the test standards were made more difficult after 2010, but it got me thinking about just how safe the RX is in comparison to the new standards.

BertL

My understanding is that the standard was increased for all mfgrs as too many had reached the "five star" standard, making differentiation between the best difficult for consumers. Nothing really changed here, and I'd still see our RX at or near the top of the heap.

(Similarly in my business, I increased the target for performance of my team in customer sat and other comparative elements with other groups a few times over the years for similar reasons... Most teams over time were achieving the highest rankings, making differentiation of the best impossible, and I still wanted everyone to keep striving for even better things. By taking this approach of increasing the target, no one "got worse" in what was actually being delivered, but I'm sure no one could then rest on their laurels per se, and the best strove to do even better for our business and clients. I would expect the changes done for car mfgrs in crash tests will over time, make "the best even better", in which case, all consumers will win with less lost lives and accidents.)