Agreed. Prior the the RX the wifey’s ride was an FX Infiniti. It was AWD but only when you switched it on. Being built on the Nissan FM chassis it is RWD by design.

Much better dynamics. Not sure it would be possible on the RX as I think the underpinnings are basically Camry FWD derived.

We have dedicated RWD sports cars for fun so the RX is perfect as a cruiser for our purposes.

 

Yeah it's well designed for what it is, a mostly FWD highway luxury cruiser. I also have a Macan S as a fun city car. Best of both worlds.

 

Quick follow-up to my initial post. I've now owned the RX350 on 20" wheels for three months. My driving volume is way down, but I do have 2,500 miles on it and have made a few WV mountain trips. The handling is fine and meets my expectations. Driving curvy roads with lots of elevation change is not exhilarating, but it's not bad and certainly better than my Honda Pilot experience. Sport mode helps some in speeding up shifts and overall keeping a slightly lower gear ratio. If the steering gets heavier, as advertised, the difference is very slight. The RX's steering in Normal mode is not as light as I expected, and that's a good thing. Thanks again to all those who offered helpful comments.

 

How do you find the fuel efficiency when you use sport mode? Is there a noticeable impact? I've heard it guzzles quite a bit more gas, but I've never used it long enough to test. I've played around with sport mode a few times, but the only real use I''ve found for it is when entering on ramps and merging onto highways... and even then it's not really necessary, I just do it for fun to use Sport mode.

 

I put my F-Sport in Sport+ mode every time I get in it. Gas mileage is the same, as far as I can tell. The difference in steering is only obvious to me on the highway -- there's less "twiddling" of the steering wheel needed to keep it in my lane at highway speed, when it is in Sport+.

 

I usually drive in eco mode but if I am ever on a road that is twisty or I feel that I need more responsive drive then I switch to Sport. Still not super sporty but the steering and power delivery are much improved so it makes it a little more interesting and responsive.

 

I haven't used Sport mode consistently enough, or even tracked fuel mileage close enough, to say. It does seem that my RX operates in the 20-24mpg range, no matter what kind of driving I'm doing.

 

I find it the modes make very little difference in terms of fuel economy, but it also depends on how you're driving it. If you have a lead foot, you're going to be pushing the accelerator pedal much further in Eco mode since it bogs down the throttle so you end using similar, if not more gas than if you were in Sport mode.

That said, fuel economy has been absolutely horrific for me. I'm averaging about 18 mpg right now (and that's with a mix of city and highway driving too), and have seen it go down as low as 14 mpg in the coldest of our Canadian winters.

 

I have a bit of lead foot, but not that much. Thus far I’m at 27.5 mpg at the 3-month mark w/ my ‘20 rx450.

I enjoyed my vehicle in the Colorado mountains in June when in “normal” mode, and more so when in “sport” mode. It’s no porsche or bmw, but no complaints.

 

No denying the RX is a fuel hog.

 

yeah....city/stop and go the mileage is not good. I did an all highway drive the other day (about 120 miles) and averaged 26.5 mpg. Overall with lots of in town driving I am getting about 21 average. My wife's 4Runner gets 17 mpg at best, so I guess I should be relatively happy. And at least I can put in regular which in CT is about $1 cheaper than premium. I have to drive more in Sport to see if there is much difference as noted above. If not then Sport will be my regular mode.

 

I notice little to no difference in the RX reg vs Sport. In my ES on the other hand, the throttle response is night and day.

 

I wasn't thrilled with the throttle response either -- early this year I installed a Pedal Commander and now I can set it to be a little quicker on the response. (I can also set it to be TOO quick on the response ..... LOL).

 

I drive in eco most of the time and I notice a very pronounced difference between Eco and Sport. I assumed mileage would suffer in Sport so I will need to drive in Sport all the time at my next fill up to see if there is a significant difference. My normal non Covid commute is almost all highway, but currently my driving is mostly running around town with lots of stop and go. We head back to school in a couple of weeks and then I can do some experimenting.