RX450hl purchase

[royoftherovers]

Thanks Norman, that was a real eye opener.

[Greisingel]

1 hour ago, Normski said:

I ran the 958 model of Cayenne (diesel) to around 150k miles. It ran a pretty hard life too. Maintenance costs were in line with the Lexus - and that was with a OPC (main dealer). Reliability was top notch and the warranty great and the extended one not too dissimilar in price to the Lexus. Consumables (like tyres) - in line with Lexus. In fact despite it wearing 21" rubber the cost of good tyres (Pirelli PZero's for example) worked out to be a tiny bit cheaper than the 19's on the RX! Would deffo go back to the Cayenne if I could. I was lucky to have a great dealer near me so that does play a big part (irony - the Lexus dealer me I don't really rate).

What about the performance differences?

[Normski]

46 minutes ago, Greisingel said:

What about the performance differences?

That's easy - the Cayenne by a long way 😉 The general handling, ride, brakes, etc. were so much better than the RX (even when compared to the latest IMO). However, my 2nd gen RX (300, 04 plate, SE-L) was the winner if you just want to waft along (and it still puts many to shame)!

One bonus I also found were the residuals with the Porsche.

Would recommend driving both air sprung and non-air riding Cayenne's along with cars with/without PASM (their suspension management system). I found, for my driving at least,  I preferred cars without air.

[Normski]

My old car...https://ibb.co/kQ0PKNX

[jpjsavage]

Right, trip to the Lexus dealer in Stoke today. Final decision - we went for a one owner, RX450 in black metallic with cream interior. New shape with new front grill/fog lights and updated infotainment system etc. Just over 10k miles. We had the option for a new one in exactly the same spec, but my view was that Lexus prepare their new cars so well it didn't seem worth paying the additional £. On balance, we thought we wouldn't use the 7 seats and with them up the boot size is next to useless anyway. Certainly couldn't fit a buggy for my twin grand-daughters which was one of the main reasons for thinking about that. 

Anyway, picking up Friday so will share some pictures then. Very happy to be back in the Lexus fold.  

[alvinsu]

On 4/14/2021 at 4:46 PM, jpjsavage said:

OK, drove the Cayenne. Great car, but we have decided to go down the RX450hl route. 

Does anyone know when you have the 3rd row of seats folded flat whether the parcel shelf extends to cover the whole of the boot area? We forgot to check this at the dealer yesterday. 

Hi,  although this post is a few months old, I would like to know why you didn't choose the Cayenne in the end? I am in a similar position so would be great to know your point of view. Thanks.

[Phil xxkr]

18 minutes ago, alvinsu said:

Hi,  although this post is a few months old, I would like to know why you didn't choose the Cayenne in the end? I am in a similar position so would be great to know your point of view. Thanks.

Have a look at his profile for answers 👍

[jpjsavage]

Couple of main reasons spring to mind:

1. Porsche main dealer customer service was awful (and I mean absolutely terrible). 

2. There was no way that the one year hybrid Cayenne, at around £35k more than the one year old RX450h, was worth that additional money imho. It was an amazing car to drive, and probably. more engaging if the truth be told, but the eye-watering price makes the RX450h look like a complete bargain. 

I also think that the stellar reliability associated with Lexus is worth considering. Bills for an out of warranty Cayenne are not going to be cheap. 

Cheers,

Jonathan

[alvinsu]

2 hours ago, jpjsavage said:

Couple of main reasons spring to mind:

1. Porsche main dealer customer service was awful (and I mean absolutely terrible). 

2. There was no way that the one year hybrid Cayenne, at around £35k more than the one year old RX450h, was worth that additional money imho. It was an amazing car to drive, and probably. more engaging if the truth be told, but the eye-watering price makes the RX450h look like a complete bargain. 

I also think that the stellar reliability associated with Lexus is worth considering. Bills for an out of warranty Cayenne are not going to be cheap. 

Cheers,

Jonathan

Thanks for the response Jonathan.

Driving a fully loaded 3rd Rx currently. It has been 5 years so fancy an upgrade. The latest RX comes with android auto which is a big attraction. Also I heard the ride quality is much improved.

For the cayenne I am considering the base model, with 340HP it is plenty powerful enough. Looking at used prices it appears a similarly speced Cayenne (my requirement is quite simple: adaptive cruise control, sunroof, a good seat, good audio are the must haves) at below 3 years old will be about 20 to 25k more than a rx450h f sport.  Partly because adaptive cruise control is a rare option on the cayenne, if one has this option it tends to also come with lots of other options too, whereas on RX the adaptive cruise control is standard. Once the car reach 6 years old and above the price difference starts to narrow.  

Annoyingly many basic features on the cayenne are options, for a 60k car to not have auto dimming mirror it is ridiculous.

I always buy extended warranty on my car, even on my current 3rd gen rx. The Porsche will be about 1k per year. 

Need to test drive and compare to make up my mind. The lexus will not doubt be more reliable and have great dealers in general, while the Porsche be more fun to drive. 

Any other factors that I have missed?

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, alvinsu said:

Any other factors that I have missed?

Yeah - the Cayenne looks like it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down