I am in the market for an RX350, and was curious if folks here could share their steering wheel control experiences here? This seems to be the one consistently criticized point of the new user interface. Is it as bad as the reviews are stating or is it overblown?

 

The touchpad steering wheel is only on the Luxury trim.

 

As mentioned in the last post, I think this is only on the Luxury (higher end/higher cost) versions. I have it. There is a fairly steep learning curve, but actually it works nicely and is becomes second nature after you train yourself how to use it. For what it's worth, I had a 2020RX with the center console touchpad that critics strongly panned. Like with the current RX steering wheel controls, I found the Touchpad to be fine, useful and worked well once you trained yourself. So maybe I'm a better learner. But probably not...probably it's just "casual, one-time reviewers" being frustrated with new tech and criticizing it before applying themselves to figure out how to get the benefits.

 

The square touch pad buttons on the steering wheel are only on those with HUD.
Just pass your thumb over the pad and the HUD will show the choices to make.
Clear and bright in the HUD but faint and hard to see on the instrument panel.
Solid mechanical button(s) just below the pads trigger function changes for each pad.

This seems to be a first step in involving additional features to be added. As I am a
fan of real solid single purpose buttons and ***** this is a harbinger of a design
philosophy I am not yet ready for...

 

Actually, it's in any RX that comes with the HUD, so premium+ models and up may have it. I have the RX350h premium+ with HUD and I have those buttons. Honestly, they are super easy once you get used to them. Only took me a day before I was completely comfortable with them. I think all of the negative reviews stem from people who are just doing one test drive. It really is easy to get used to and I have no issues!

 

I agree... and I also had a 2022 RX and found the touchpad to be no issue. I actually liked it as opposed to fingerprints on the screen.

 

Same here. I also have Prem+ with the HUD and don't think the touchpad is such an issue.

 

Just takes a day or two to get used to. If you are jumping in the vehicle to do a quick drive for a magazine, it will **** you off. If you buy itand spend a couple of days learning it, it’s no issue at all.

 

I actually love these buttons given my habit. Even with actual buttons I always glance slightly towards them while operating them. However, with these touch buttons, I can actually see the projection on HUD on what button I am about to press.

They do have some learning curve coming from physical buttons but I cannot complain about them. I think it is a good safety feature, at least for me.

 

My experience (2 weeks after purchase) is the multi-purpose buttons are very user friendly and don't require you to look at the buttons since they are displayed on the HUD. It only took a few drives to learn the buttons. I was extremely apprehensive after reading some of the reviews, but was pleasantly surprised when actually using them.

 

The guys from CR did not like them at all. But I am not sure they even read the manual. They did a youtube video on the RX. They complained about the door handles too. Don't have mine yet so cannot comment but I had no issues on my test drive.

 

Exactly. All those reviews criticizing these new systems are based on one day driving experience. Their POV is correct if someone is renting the car for a day or two. But the features in themselves are very useful, reliable and provides additional safety. With electronic door, they have brought safe exist assist which could not have been possible with standard door.

 

The door handles are fine for the person who drives or rides in the car daily. But they aren’t really any “improvement” over the old handles. And for people like my 86 year old mother, who rides in the car once or twice a month, they are a royal PITA.

 

I also recently discovered that if you have the radio active (FM, AM or Sirius), if you hold for two seconds and then release the forward or back buttons they tune to the next station. If you quickly press and release it will go to the next (or back) favorite station.

 

I've been driving for many decades and have never opened a car door on a pedestrian or bicyclist. The new door opening methodology (both entrance and exit) is a solution looking for a problem that does not exist.