Lexus rx 2021 f sport

DRIVEN: 2021 Lexus RX 450h F Sport [Review]

Probably Skip The F Sport Option on This Impressive Comfortable Luxury Crossover

If a comfortable quiet ride is your number-one priority the 2021 Lexus RX 450h F Sport should be toward the very top of your shopping list. If you enjoy occasional spirited driving on backroads, this is probably not the car for you. One word to describe the Lexus RX: p lush .

I spent a week with the top-of-the-line 2021 Lexus RX 450h F Sport, in a color called “Grecian Water.” A beautiful bright blue color, also available on the IS sedan and NX 300h crossover.

Lexus RX

There are now 6-variants of the Lexus RX. Starting with the RX 350 powered by a 3.5L V6 making 295 hp then the 350 F Sport, which has sportier styling and suspension. Next up in the line up comes the 350L (“L” is for long), which gives you a tiny 3rd row with power-folding rear seats and 6 or 7 passenger configurations.

If you’d like the hybrid, you have the same 3-tiers, but in the 450h series. Physically the 350 and 450 are the same sizes. All-wheel-drive is optional on the 350 but standard on the 450. The major difference is the 450 has a hybrid powertrain. Power bumps up to 308 hp. Fuel economy is up by 6 mpg in the hybrid, making it 29.5 mpg combined versus the 350’s 23.5 mpg combined. For 12,000-miles of driving that’s a difference of 104-gallons of gas.

Light Feel, Heavy Vehicle

At 4,740 lbs the RX is by no means light. Yet it feels like moving a feather. The steering wheel can easily be moved with one hand. Even just a finger at slow speeds. The electric motors mean that torque is available from a standstill and power is sent to all 4-wheels through 3-motors. Peppy is a good word to describe it. The feeling is more like moving a beetle than a bus.

Lexus F Sport: Better Looks, Less Comfort

The Lexus F-Sport package on the RX series is mainly aesthetic. I find it to be the best-looking RX, especially from the front three-quarter angle. However, the F-Sport seats are very highly bolstered, which made them feel too narrow after only about 45-minutes of driving. Having highly bolstered seats is not at all necessary in a car that you’ll never take the race track or push through the canyons at speed.

Technically you could drive the RX fairly hard on a windy road, but you just wouldn’t want to. There’s no excitement produced by any part of the car. The powertrain can never send more power to the rear wheels than the front, so oversteer won’t happen and the hybrid V6 won’t make exciting noises like you might want in a performance machine.

It Nearly Drives Itself

What you will want to do behind the wheel of the 2021 Lexus RX 450h F Sport is relax, turn up the music and let it handle most of the driving for you. This is the fifth 2021 Toyota/Lexus vehicle I’ve driven/reviewed. It is the best in terms of lane-keeping assist. It works well about 90% of the time. If you don’t trust lane-keeping assist, you can definitely trust the radar cruise control.

Lane-keep assist struggles when lane markings get weird. On one section of Interstate-5 in a construction zone, the lanes were a bit squiggly and the RX found that difficult to keep up with. I also found that if the lane divider markings were not identical on both sides of the vehicle, it had an issue staying in the lane.

Radar cruise control worked really well and the car was smooth with stopping and starting. I do wish that it would resume automatically in traffic. If the car reaches 0 mph, you must tap the accelerator or click a button on the steering wheel to resume radar cruise. On the drive from San Diego to Los Angeles, there were 2-instances of leaving the lane while Lexus Lane Keep Assist was active, other than that it was a peaceful ride.

The 2021 Lexus RX Experience

If you stay in eco-mode, 30 mpg is not hard to achieve. But sport mode does drink up more gas than expected. This led me to a combined 26 mpg throughout the week, over about 400 miles of mixed driving.

Even in Eco mode I never found myself wishing for more power, although the throttle response is very soft in this mode. Eco Mode is nice for smooth acceleration and being fuel-efficient, but doesn’t match the aggressive F Sport looks.

Steering it is also very light all the time, which makes the RX super easy to maneuver in tight spots around town. The interior also feels plenty spacious, but the RX doesn’t feel big on the road.

Second-row passengers get reclining seats, which makes the Lexus RX wonderful for road trips. I got picked up in a Lexus RX the last time I ordered an Uber. It was wonderful. Tons of legroom and the seats are plush.

So You Want One: 2021 Lexus RX

The 2021 Lexus RX is an easy to drive comfortable vehicle with plenty of space, economy, and pep to make for a great everyday vehicle that also works well on long trips. Now, which one to buy (350, 450h, an L model of F Sport trim)?

The main difference between the 350 and 450 is the hybrid system. The hybrid makes the car more alive with quicker acceleration and on the opposite side, a quieter rider. All that, and better fuel economy to boot.

If you don’t need/want to pay for all-wheel-drive, the 350 is your only option. All 450s come with AWD as standard. The cost difference between an RX 350 F Sport AWD and RX 450h F Sport AWD is just $1,250. At $4 a gallon -remember it requires premium fuel- that’s $416 in yearly savings (assuming 12,000 mi/yr). In 3-years that price difference will pay itself off, and you’ll enjoy the extra power the entire time you’re behind the wheel.

If you find the trunk space adequate and have no need for tiny third-row seats, get the regular length. If you’d like a larger trunk the extended “L” version might be worth it. The L version will add $3,500 to the price tag. But you can’t get the “L” with F Sport.

When it comes to the F Sport option, unless you love the looks you can skip it. The seats definitely put form over function in the F Sport. For long road trips these seats aren’t ideal. Having adaptive sports suspension is nice, but again, this isn’t a sports car, so it seems a bit silly to option it this way.

A base RX 350 will set you back about $45,000, while a highly optioned RX 450h F Sport (like our tester) will run you about $51,000. When you look at the competition, those are actually really impressive prices for what you’re getting.

Overall, if you’re looking for a plush ride to fit your family for years to come go test drive an RX. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how competent and comfortable this luxury crossover really is.

To configure and price your own 2021 Lexus RX click HERE.

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2021 Lexus RX 350 F Sport Black Line Edition Review

Limited-run special gives popular luxury SUV a cosmetic makeover.

The Canadian-made Lexus RX remains the best-selling luxury SUV in North America – not bad going for a vehicle that’s been on sale five years in its current generation. Lexus is keeping things fresh with this new, F Sport-based Black Line limited edition: a package of cosmetic and equipment upgrades that replaces the chrome trim with black accents for a more sinister look.

For the 2021 model year, the RX gets blind spot monitor and rear cross-traffic alert systems as standard across all grades. Power-folding, auto-dim mirrors also become standard and a wireless phone charger is now available as an option.

2021 Lexus RX Black Line pricing

The MSRP for the RX 350 Black Line, as tested here, is US$50,635 or C$65,000. The hybrid RX 450h Black Line (US-only) is US$51,885.

In Canada, the Lexus RX range runs from the C$56,150, gas-only RX 350 to the seven-seat, hybrid RX 450hL (C$76,200). All models come with AWD. In the US, the base model is the FWD RX 350 (US$45,070). The most expensive are the RX 450hL or RX450H F Sport: both are AWD-only and have MSRPs of just over US$51,000.

Exterior styling

You know what the latest RX looks like by now, but there’s no doubt that the Black Line package is a striking option. The only available exterior colours are Ultra White (as on our test vehicle) or a new shade of blue called Grecian Water. The prominent black stripe on the side is the most literal interpretation of the Black Line concept but other cosmetic changes are 20in darkened wheel rims and locks, and a black grille surround. These come in addition to the F Sport RX’s black mirror caps and sportier front and rear bumpers.

Lexus RX Black Line interior and equipment

Inside, the Black Line package builds on the F Sport trim. Most notable are the black ‘Nuluxe’ leather seats with white trim and blue stitching; the latter turns up again on the Black Line floormats, cargo mat and key glove. The package also encompasses F Sport interior options like a perforated, leather-wrapped shift knob, scored aluminum trim and aluminum pedals.

The bold combination of black and white won’t be to everyone’s taste, but we liked it for being different to the usual all-black or black/brown options favoured by most manufacturers, and the blue stitching looks classy. The seats are comfortable, and the interior is put together with the high-quality materials and rock-solid build quality that you’d expect from a Lexus. There’s no rear-seat heating in this grade, unfortunately.

A prominent interior feature is the 12.3in touchscreen, which as you’d expect has built-in Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity. It can also be operated from a central touchpad between the seats; this works better than the similar Honda/Acura technology, just about, but we remain unconvinced that remote touchpads are the future of infotainment controls.

In the US only, the final element of the Black Line package is a customized, two-piece set of black Zero Halliburton travel cases: a 22in carry-on and a 26in medium travel case. This ‘Edge Lightweight Collection for Lexus’ luggage boasts a Lexus grille motif on the interior lining and a Lexus-embossed leather logo badge. The cases are sent to customers after they purchase a Black Line vehicle.

Driving impressions

Lexus remains better known for relaxed, hushed progress than for a sporty drive, and that remains the case here, even on those big, 20in rims and with passive ‘performance’ dampers in place of the adaptive suspension found in the regular F Sport package. There’s an underlying firmness but thankfully the ride is never hard. Our tester had Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 winter tires that felt fine in slushy conditions; check out our winter-tire roundup for more on these essential safety items.

In non-hybrid form, the RX is not an economical vehicle, despite its love of switching to an inappropriately named Eco mode whenever possible. Using it around town over the course of a week delivered a painful 14.5L/100km (16mpg) from the 295-HP V6, well short of the official city driving figure of 12.2L/100km (19mpg).

That wouldn’t be so bad if the RX 350 were a rocket ship, but it isn’t, for all the sporting pretensions. The power delivery is pretty leisurely: seemingly that Lexus DNA of smooth, relaxed progress is deeply ingrained. It’s not at all unpleasant, it just doesn’t match up to the F Sport billing.

Takeaway: is the Lexus Black Line worth it?

With just 750 RX 350 Black Lines made available for sale in the US and 300 in Canada, this special edition will maintain its exclusivity. We like the design makeover, inside and out, but don’t expect it to magically transform the RX from cruiser to bruiser. The hybrid makes much more sense in the context of this SUV’s relaxed personality but just 250 RX 450h Black Lines will be sold in the States, none in Canada, so only very few buyers will be able to combine this appealing new package with hybrid power.

Pros

• Exclusivity
• Striking exterior and interior makeover
• Still a comfortable ride

Cons

• Performance doesn’t match looks
• Disappointing fuel economy
• No hybrid Black Line in Canada

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