Category: Sporting 4x4s 
Price Range: £39,270 to £45,950
Smart, discrete 4x4 with a bias towards on-road behaviour. Comfortable, luxurious interior with typically solid Lexus build quality.
Forgotten in a marketplace that's now dominated by the X5, the Lexus has only one engine choice, others better it on and off road.
The RX 300 was late to arrive in the UK due to the insatiable US demand. Arriving in 2000 its short reign as king of the luxury road-biased 4x4s was short due to the arrival of the BMW X5. Since then it's faded into obscurity.
The RX has been the best-selling Lexus model in the US, and the strong demand from Americans held up the official launch of the model until 2000. That's why there are a number of earlier 'grey' import Toyota Harriers around - the Japanese-market sister model, often with extra rear-view mirrors and some strange specifications. Both the first-generation Harrier and official UK-spec RX 300 were based on similar underpinnings to, of all things, the Celica coupe, and one engine was offered in the UK: a 201 bhp 30-litre V6 with variable valve timing.
Had it been introduced to the UK earlier, the RX could have sold in far greater numbers, as it would have been one of the most luxurious 4x4s around, but by the time it went on sale it had to contend with the BMW X5 and revised Mercedes-Benz M-Class, and was often overlooked. The lack of a diesel engine also limited its appeal to UK buyers. However, the 2000-2003 Lexus RX 300 is now good value as a secondhand purchase, especially since many 4x4 buyers overlook it in favour of diesel models - the savings on purchase price compared to, say, a diesel M-Class or Discovery, may well cancel out the extra fuel costs for those not doing a high annual mileage.
*Check out 4Car's separate road tests for more on the 2003- Lexus RX 300 and the hybrid petrol-electric RX 400h (launched 2005).
Latest Readers' Drives About the Lexus RX 400h
wrote on 25 09 2007
wrote on 17 08 2006