Questions about prospective Rx450h purchase

[stay_humble]

Evening chaps,

Would be interested in hearing owners views on some observations on a RX450h I tested today at my local dealership.

The car I was looking at was a 12 months old, RX450h Premier model. 

There were lots of positive things I liked about the car but two things were niggling me after the test drive. The first was the Mark Levinson stereo. I tried streaming stored music from my phone which was held in a good bitrate. But it sounded 'thin', with the front central speaker (the one just under the windscreen at the front dominated the sound). I checked the settings and everything was in the default middle setting. I moved the position of the sound more towards the back, and whilst this helped it didn't sound particular good. I tweaked the bass and this just made it boomy.

Was this just a duff stereo, or are they all like this?

The other point was the suspension. I moved it into the Sport+ mode, and didn't really feel much difference in the suspension vs the normal setting. Still seemed a bit 'wallowly', which is probably an overly harsh description but hopefully you get my meaning. I asked the sales person about the F-Sport version and he said the suspension was the same as the Premier version when in the Sport+ mode. Is this definitely correct?

Some of the aspects of the car were great (extended leather across the dash as standard, heads up display, active cruise control as standard), so I'm wondering about the above points to see if I can make it work as my next car (as opposed to just getting an X5 or Q7).

Appreciate all thoughts and comments!

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

I have moved your topic as it was placed in the LS section not the RX section where it will attract more replies from owners.

[rayaans]

15 hours ago, stay_humble said:

Evening chaps,

Would be interested in hearing owners views on some observations on a RX450h I tested today at my local dealership.

The car I was looking at was a 12 months old, RX450h Premier model. 

There were lots of positive things I liked about the car but two things were niggling me after the test drive. The first was the Mark Levinson stereo. I tried streaming stored music from my phone which was held in a good bitrate. But it sounded 'thin', with the front central speaker (the one just under the windscreen at the front dominated the sound). I checked the settings and everything was in the default middle setting. I moved the position of the sound more towards the back, and whilst this helped it didn't sound particular good. I tweaked the bass and this just made it boomy.

Was this just a duff stereo, or are they all like this?

The other point was the suspension. I moved it into the Sport+ mode, and didn't really feel much difference in the suspension vs the normal setting. Still seemed a bit 'wallowly', which is probably an overly harsh description but hopefully you get my meaning. I asked the sales person about the F-Sport version and he said the suspension was the same as the Premier version when in the Sport+ mode. Is this definitely correct?

Some of the aspects of the car were great (extended leather across the dash as standard, heads up display, active cruise control as standard), so I'm wondering about the above points to see if I can make it work as my next car (as opposed to just getting an X5 or Q7).

Appreciate all thoughts and comments!

The ML stereo is very dependent on equaliser settings, balance and the source. In my old RX I  kept it one towards the front and the equaliser from memory was set to +1 treble, +2 mid and +2 as well.

Worth remembering that it doesn't sound good at all when streaming. Ideally you need it on a CD or USB drive. Additionally, the volume needs to be set pretty high, otherwise the details aren't present. 

Salesman is talking BS - the F-Sport has stiffer suspension to begin with. The Premier is designed to be the luxurious one in the range with a smooth ride, hence the trade off is cornering wallow! F-Sport is stiffer and almost completely reduces wallowing in the corners. TBH I find the Sport+ mode in the 4RX too stiff for normal driving, it skips across every expansion joint so I tend to use Sport mode instead when I feel like it. 

This is the main reason the F-Sport with Premier Pack was brought out - to allow customers to have all the options of Premier with the more dynamic drive

Additionally, if you don't really need the 360 degree camera of the Premier, just go for an F-Sport with HUD/ML/Pan roof and save some money - although it appears the F-Sport has better residuals so you may not save much