Gadgetory

Evon ain't broke don't fix it that seems to sum up Lexus's position with the 2015 rx 350 Lexus cassette the standard for the luxury SUV with its rx model this car remains a 5 passenger vehicle hatchback plenty of cargo area body style hasn't really changed much over the years although Lexus has added a few tech features for the 2015 model now we have a head-up display LED headlights will be available later this year but not much else has changed now in the cabin of the RX 350 here we have the navigation option so that gives us an 8-inch screen up here I control that screen with what Lexus calls its remote touch controller this little joystick like thing down here I gotta hate this cuz it's often hard to get exactly what you want on the screen I've skipped over the menus many times trying to get exactly what I want they've got a button here to go straight to the map which is nice because I like having the map up when I'm driving this only shows in a top-down view point there's no perspective view on this map so Lexus is a little bit behind the curve of the other guys with that one what I'm on my main menu here I can go through destinations I've got my radio and media they set that up differently even though I go to this audio screen and I can choose any of my audio sources from this main audio screen I come back to the menu but I can go to my phone screen here I've got the normal phone things I've got a dial pad and I also have my contacts on my Bluetooth connected phone but the most interesting thing the thing I like most about the system in the Lexus rx350 is the inform app integration the only problem with it is to get to it I have to first pull up this info apps menu this informed system is actually showing apps that are running on my phone my phone is connected by bluetooth to the car I've got the app then form app running on my phone so this is really powering what I'm seeing on the screen here I've got Bing search I've got I Heart Radio I've got movie tickets calm I've got open table Pandora Yelp I even have Facebook Places on another screen here and let's this can add more features here more apps as they get them ready I'll just show you a Bing search really quick because this the most useful thing to have in a car these days just an open internet-based local search for businesses so if I hit this little microphone icon at the top of the screen I can go into voice command and enter any search term it's been pretty accurate so far when I've been using it or I can just go do a keypad search here and enter in the search term manually with this keyboard voice is much safer to use while you're on the road and I also like the Yelp search on here too so for example I can choose just choose the restaurant category shows everything local to me here and I get my list of restaurants I can go down choose the one with the best ratings will actually show me the written reviews and less I'm stopped it's a safety feature and then I can choose to make that my destination of navigation really quick and easy internet search for finding destinations while on the go let's move down to the shifter here this is a six-speed automatic transmission the only condition available with the rx350 get to the F Sport you get a seven speed but we get the six speed with this one it's got a sport mode if I bring it over to the side here this isn't really a sporty car this is really just a legacy of every lexus transmission you can also manually shift up 4 + down 4 - no paddle shifters but you're really only going to use this for going down a grade or something when you want to keep yourself in a specific gear now straight in front of me I'm seeing my head up display this is a monochrome display not quite as good as some of the other ones we've seen in other vehicles but gets the job done it shows me the speed in digital format and shows me some route guidance directions as well Alexis puts a lot of plastic under this hood this is what we think of as no user serviceable parts inside now this is Alexis as a standard 3.5 liter v6 this engine will get you 270 horsepower 248 pound-feet of torque you can see its side saddled so that's a fun wheel drive architecture but with this model they run a drive shaft to the rear wheels to get us all wheel drive now fuel economy 18 miles per gallon city 24 miles per gallon highway with the front wheel drivers and you only gain one mile per gallon so might as well get all-wheel drive now one thing Lexus does really well seeing it in this 2015 rx 350 and you know their parent company quit is well known for this - is building cars that are not really drivers cars they're just really basic transportation easy to drive and that's really the hallmark of this car you don't really have to think about driving it a whole lot you know you get in turn it on put it in Drive and just go this 3.5 liter v6 is a decent engine for this car can merge pass not with any sort of bravado it just just does what you needed to do again it's not a driver's car the suspension is OK for maneuvers for handling but you know it's gonna wallow a bit in the corners suspension does give you a really smooth ride and that's what I've been impressed about with the suspension not an air suspension but it's still very reasonably comfortable it's probably one of the most comfortable fixed suspensions I've ever driven I'm looking ahead looking through the windshield seen the head-up display that's showing me my speed and digital format I would also be showing route guidance turn-by-turn directions if I had route guidance on I've also got blind spot monitoring so I'm get a little icons lighting up in the side view mirrors when there's a car in the lane next to me and that tells me if it's not safe to change lanes but I don't have in this car is adaptive cruise control or lane departure warning or prevention any of that kind of stuff alexis is a little bit behind the curve on that that type of equipment you know with their luxury competitors so that's one area that's really kind of like okay so let's price out our 2015 lexus rx350 base price for the all-wheel drive model with destination is forty-three thousand one hundred five dollars at a dude up CNET style to get navigation heated ventilated seats blind spot monitor heads-up display and that one package will cost you seven thousand five hundred sixty three dollars for a total of fifty thousand seven hundred and fifty eight