Love My Rxus, But....

[rhythm]

Recently bought an RX330, great car, love driving it overall. It is not complaint-free however, and some of Lexus' choices just don't make sense for such a refined aurtomobile:

Road Noise - The inner cabin is whisper quiet, but on all but the silkiest of roads, you can hear a pretty consistant grind of the tires or wheels or axles, I'm not sure which...on some roads it's so grindy and tactile, it sounds like your rolling down the road on the rims sans tires. Feels cushy enough under there, just noisy, why couldn't they handle that?

No Left Leg Room - As on most Toyota products, there is an angled, rubber-padded foot support for the driver's left foot. Toyota's had this forever, my wife's '93 Land Crusier has it. Resting your left foot here, which bends your knee up, is OK for a while, but on longer trips you want to fully stretch out your leg. Can't do it, there's no space to put your extended foot. If you try extending it to the inside of the foot suport, your leg gets cocked at a funny angle and your foot ends up underneath the brake pedal, not good. You can, of course, power the driver's seat back to the point where your leg is at full extension while resting your foot on the pad, but by then you're too far from the steering wheel, which they made extendable, but not extendable enough, unless you've got Mr. Fantastic's arms. Japanese folks are short, and they seem to have trouble designing non-claustrophobic seating for the American market.

Audio/Voice Navi System Weirdness - The stock audio system that comes with the RX is mediocre at best. The EQ choices are minimal, the speaker choices are cryptic - POS FRONT, REAR, ALL, DRIVER doesn't tell you which speakers actually on or off, and even with speakers and EQ chosen for most power, it still sounds kinda canned and not like a fine audio system. My RX doesn't have the Mark Levinson, but threads here say it's still not nearly as good as a better aftermarket amp and a couple higher end speakers. I don't even know where the amp is located in this car, how much RMS power it's throwing, or where a sub-woofer is installed, if there even is one. And what's with a tape deck!!, This is 2007 for chrissake, who the heck listens to tapes anymore?! How come they made sure there was a tape deck, but neglected a simple front-mounted Aux In plug for your iPod?! The audio design dept. is obviously from another era (pre-Elvis!)

The Voice Navigation on my RX is a total disaster. There are supposed to over 100 voice commands the system easily recognizes, but Lexus makes it arcanely difficult to get a complete list, or to even identify which version you're working with. Lexus Customer Service told me I had the "latest version 4". 4 is not the latest version, there is a version 5, but they didn't tell me that. In order to get a full version 4 list, I had to search it on this forum. The list Lexus directs you to, the Help screen on the Navi System itself, doesn't even list half the available commands. Worst of all, it consistently misreads my voice commands, offering me POI icons and other crap that's nowhere near the words I spoke. And no, I don't have an accent, and I speak very clearly. Virtually useless!

This is a hot car...but this is a HOT car - In So. California and other hot climates, the ventilation system quickly shows its inadequacy. The inside of the car starts out hot on sunny days...not abnormal, but driving on a beach highway at 69 degrees outside, with windows up and AC/Recirculate off, I cannot cool down the cabin just with the regular vents open. For some reason, the air coming through the vents is decidedly warmer than the air outside, almost as if the engine is heating it up first. Opening the windows at 75mph would be too loud, and I can of course turn on the AC, but I shouldn't have to when it's only 69 outside. Toyota makes stuffy cars.

Voice your own thoughts/responses if you have 'em

[Rya]

I'm not a fan of the dash area. The buttons can be difficult do use while driving.

I wish the cruise controls were on the steering wheel - don't like the 3 stalks

Not liking the rain sensing wiper system. We're in the middle of monsoon season here in NE Ohio. Most often they're going faster than I'd like. Also, I could be sitting in traffic & the rain is falling at the same speed. The wipers are slow, then the speed up, slow back down again. I really wish I had the option to use the sensing or switch over to intermittent Somtimes when it's misting the wipers don't swipe at all, but every 30 seconds or so it needs to be done.

Love the rest of the vehicle!

[wwest]

Recently bought an RX330, great car, love driving it overall. It is not complaint-free however, and some of Lexus' choices just don't make sense for such a refined aurtomobile:

Road Noise - The inner cabin is whisper quiet, but on all but the silkiest of roads, you can hear a pretty consistant grind of the tires or wheels or axles, I'm not sure which...on some roads it's so grindy and tactile, it sounds like your rolling down the road on the rims sans tires. Feels cushy enough under there, just noisy, why couldn't they handle that?

No Left Leg Room - As on most Toyota products, there is an angled, rubber-padded foot support for the driver's left foot. Toyota's had this forever, my wife's '93 Land Crusier has it. Resting your left foot here, which bends your knee up, is OK for a while, but on longer trips you want to fully stretch out your leg. Can't do it, there's no space to put your extended foot. If you try extending it to the inside of the foot suport, your leg gets cocked at a funny angle and your foot ends up underneath the brake pedal, not good. You can, of course, power the driver's seat back to the point where your leg is at full extension while resting your foot on the pad, but by then you're too far from the steering wheel, which they made extendable, but not extendable enough, unless you've got Mr. Fantastic's arms. Japanese folks are short, and they seem to have trouble designing non-claustrophobic seating for the American market.

Audio/Voice Navi System Weirdness - The stock audio system that comes with the RX is mediocre at best. The EQ choices are minimal, the speaker choices are cryptic - POS FRONT, REAR, ALL, DRIVER doesn't tell you which speakers actually on or off, and even with speakers and EQ chosen for most power, it still sounds kinda canned and not like a fine audio system. My RX doesn't have the Mark Levinson, but threads here say it's still not nearly as good as a better aftermarket amp and a couple higher end speakers. I don't even know where the amp is located in this car, how much RMS power it's throwing, or where a sub-woofer is installed, if there even is one. And what's with a tape deck!!, This is 2007 for chrissake, who the heck listens to tapes anymore?! How come they made sure there was a tape deck, but neglected a simple front-mounted Aux In plug for your iPod?! The audio design dept. is obviously from another era (pre-Elvis!)

The Voice Navigation on my RX is a total disaster. There are supposed to over 100 voice commands the system easily recognizes, but Lexus makes it arcanely difficult to get a complete list, or to even identify which version you're working with. Lexus Customer Service told me I had the "latest version 4". 4 is not the latest version, there is a version 5, but they didn't tell me that. In order to get a full version 4 list, I had to search it on this forum. The list Lexus directs you to, the Help screen on the Navi System itself, doesn't even list half the available commands. Worst of all, it consistently misreads my voice commands, offering me POI icons and other crap that's nowhere near the words I spoke. And no, I don't have an accent, and I speak very clearly. Virtually useless!

This is a hot car...but this is a HOT car - In So. California and other hot climates, the ventilation system quickly shows its inadequacy. The inside of the car starts out hot on sunny days...not abnormal, but driving on a beach highway at 69 degrees outside, with windows up and AC/Recirculate off, I cannot cool down the cabin just with the regular vents open.

For some reason, the air coming through the vents is decidedly warmer than the air outside, almost as if the engine is heating it up first.

That's because the engine actually is heating up the airflow first

With the climate control system turned on adjust the temperaturue setpoint to maximum cooling, that will result in the reheat/remix servomotor shutting the heater core to all system airflow. Now you can turn it all off with that servomotor "preset" to the no heat position.

Opening the windows at 75mph would be too loud, and I can of course turn on the AC, but I shouldn't have to when it's only 69 outside.

Toyota makes stuffy cars.

Granted, absolutely. Absent being in fresh airflow mode and with the fan/blower being on at least at some intermediate level, or rear windows lowered, the cabin can get very stuffy. Toyota and Lexus exhauster ports are designed to severely LIMIT cabin air outflow. That was the only way they could get decent FE and still run the A/C full time, don't allow the conditioned air to leave the cabin.

Voice your own thoughts/responses if you have 'em

[rhythm]

Thanks for that info, wwest, I'll try adjusting temperature setpoint to maximum cooling (I'm assuming you mean to just choose the lowest possible temperature on the climate screen)

"Toyota and Lexus exhauster ports are designed to severely LIMIT cabin air outflow. That was the only way they could get decent FE and still run the A/C full time, don't allow the conditioned air to leave the cabin"

What's FE???

[wwest]

Thanks for that info, wwest, I'll try adjusting temperature setpoint to maximum cooling (I'm assuming you mean to just choose the lowest possible temperature on the climate screen)

"Toyota and Lexus exhauster ports are designed to severely LIMIT cabin air outflow. That was the only way they could get decent FE and still run the A/C full time, don't allow the conditioned air to leave the cabin"

What's FE???

Fuel Economy...

[rhythm]

Thanks for that info, wwest, I'll try adjusting temperature setpoint to maximum cooling (I'm assuming you mean to just choose the lowest possible temperature on the climate screen)

"Toyota and Lexus exhauster ports are designed to severely LIMIT cabin air outflow. That was the only way they could get decent FE and still run the A/C full time, don't allow the conditioned air to leave the cabin"

What's FE???

Fuel Economy...

Seems like a wanky decision. Other brands I've owned - Chevys, Volvos, etc. - held their AC just fine and didn't reduce FE that much when AC was running. Some people (like me) don't want to run AC all the time, don't love the feeling of refrigerated air, like natural air better, so it's an intersting trade-off they chose.

Just curious, do you (or anyone) know how much MPG the RX decreases when running AC?

[LEXIRX330]

Just curious, do you (or anyone) know how much MPG the RX decreases when running AC?

Not much...I have run the AC and watched the MPG and filled up and run it with out the AC and it is hardly noticeably...

[Camski]

I'm not a fan of the dash area. The buttons can be difficult do use while driving.

I wish the cruise controls were on the steering wheel - don't like the 3 stalks

Not liking the rain sensing wiper system. We're in the middle of monsoon season here in NE Ohio. Most often they're going faster than I'd like. Also, I could be sitting in traffic & the rain is falling at the same speed. The wipers are slow, then the speed up, slow back down again. I really wish I had the option to use the sensing or switch over to intermittent Somtimes when it's misting the wipers don't swipe at all, but every 30 seconds or so it needs to be done.

Love the rest of the vehicle!

Have you tried reducing the sensitivity?

[Rya]

Have you tried reducing the sensitivity?

I have the dial turned all the way down to the minus sign. Is there another way? I just hate the fast/slow/fast thing that it does when the rain speed doesn't change.

[GDixon]

The auto windshield wiper thing is annoying. The sensitivity is set all the way "minus" and it still suddenly goes off just driving down the freeway on a sunny day. A bug splat must hit the sensor or something. Then there is the risk of a scratched windshield and the inevitable line of dust that the wiper leaves. The shock and distraction is enough to cause a heart attack or accident (in pants).

It has not rained in CA since the car was purchased in May so the wipers are left off. Sometimes when the interior is cleaned the lever is accidentally moved. It sounds like people are not generally pleased with the auto wipers. I'll try them out in November or December if it even rains by then.

The 5K service is coming up so a complaint will be lodged at the dealership. Their response will be reported here.

[Rya]

The auto windshield wiper thing is annoying. The sensitivity is set all the way "minus" and it still suddenly goes off just driving down the freeway on a sunny day. A bug splat must hit the sensor or something. Then there is the risk of a scratched windshield and the inevitable line of dust that the wiper leaves. The shock and distraction is enough to cause a heart attack or accident (in pants).

It has not rained in CA since the car was purchased in May so the wipers are left off. Sometimes when the interior is cleaned the lever is accidentally moved. It sounds like people are not generally pleased with the auto wipers. I'll try them out in November or December if it even rains by then.

The 5K service is coming up so a complaint will be lodged at the dealership. Their response will be reported here.

Well, I'm sorry you're having issues too, but I'm glad it's not just me. Yes, please let me know what they say, that would be interesting. I leave mine off & just turn them on when it's raining and I'm sure the bug splats are causing yours to swipe. Thanks for the input.

[LEXIRX330]

The auto windshield wiper thing is annoying. The sensitivity is set all the way "minus" and it still suddenly goes off just driving down the freeway on a sunny day. A bug splat must hit the sensor or something. Then there is the risk of a scratched windshield and the inevitable line of dust that the wiper leaves. The shock and distraction is enough to cause a heart attack or accident (in pants).

It has not rained in CA since the car was purchased in May so the wipers are left off. Sometimes when the interior is cleaned the lever is accidentally moved. It sounds like people are not generally pleased with the auto wipers. I'll try them out in November or December if it even rains by then.

The 5K service is coming up so a complaint will be lodged at the dealership. Their response will be reported here.

Well, I'm sorry you're having issues too, but I'm glad it's not just me. Yes, please let me know what they say, that would be interesting. I leave mine off & just turn them on when it's raining and I'm sure the bug splats are causing yours to swipe. Thanks for the input.

Interesting...

Mine works great and I actually think the Auto wipers are great...my wife's car now that is another story...driving along on a sunny day and all of a sudden full speed wiper??? We cut hers off and when it or I should say here IF it rains we turn them on...

But the only complaint I have about my RX330 is some of the rattles but other than that I love it!