At duPont REGISTRY, we love to bring you the hottest new exotic cars, and it’s always a thrill when a review piece lands from my elite road-testing crew for machinery like the McLaren W1, the Aston Martin Valhalla and the Corvette ZR1X. These high-performance wonders are sensational to experience, but I do realize that there’s a second side to this coin – there’s a huge appetite for practical luxury motoring too. And we endeavor to bring the best of those to you also, because not only are our lives based on getting from A to B, but you also want to do that swiftly and in style, preferably with a trunk that can swallow as much as possible.
It’s with that in mind that I took this Lexus RX 450h+ over the soon-to-be-retired LC 500. That was with a heavy heart, as the LC 500 was the first Lexus I ever drove, nine years ago on a jaunt to the 12 Hours of Sebring, and I still regard it as one of the best grand tourers for its price point. With more than 15,000 units sold globally, retiring the LC 500 also spells the end of Lexus’s famous naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 engine. And while we have Toyota’s new GR GT and all-electric Lexus LFA to look forward to, I’ll miss that V8’s howl and its sublime 10-speed transmission – I also drove the hybrid version, which was like stepping into the future all those years ago!
Sentimentality is making me digress. And with good reason. While the LC 500 was a real thrill, the RX 450h+ is its antithesis. It’s boringly good. In fact, it’s completely adequate in just about every department. Sure, you can criticize its floaty ride and lack of handling chops, and the engine is quite whiny if you floor the throttle from low speed, but you have to remember why you’d buy this car in the first place: to get from A to B. And I can’t think of another that does everything you’d want with such quiet, unfussed efficiency.
From the outside, I have to say it’s one of the better-looking plug-in hybrid luxury SUVs on the market – this example was Liquid Platinum, which really catches the light and shows off some neat Japanese design language. I’m not a huge fan of the shark-like nose, although it’s not as hideous as some of its rivals, but the teardrop design of the rear end is very pleasing to my eye. And, driving one of these cars, you notice just how many of these are out in the wild.
For my road test, I devised a lap of the bottom half of Florida. First, from my home in Miami’s South Beach, I headed along one of the most dangerous stretches of I-95 in all America (stat fans, I’m told nearly a quarter of all I-95 fatalities nationwide between 2019 and 2023 were recorded in this state).
And, just recently, I had a brush with disaster in its three-row sibling, the gigantic LX 700h F SPORT, driving home from Daytona International Speedway, which you can read about here. Although quite keen not to hand back this one with any damage, I decided getting back on the horse that threw me was the only way to achieve closure.
Getting out of Miami is always a stop/start challenge, and here the RX 450h+ showed its ECO mode chops. If there’s one thing I love about hybrid cars it’s playing the recharge game and maximizing my range when there’s little else to enjoy stuck in slow-moving traffic. Similar to the Lamborghini Urus SE I also drove recently, it offers just over 35 miles of electric-only motoring, which is also most welcome – the battery can be charged overnight via a household outlet in less than 10 hours, and much faster if you use a 220-volt connection.
Unlike the Urus, when the road clears, putting your foot down isn’t accompanied by a cacophony of fury. But the combined 304 horsepower from the 2.5-liter four-cylinder and electric motors is more than sufficient. It is also amazingly quiet, with very little road noise – in fact, the ICE motor switching on from EV-only comes smoothly, rather than a grand fire-up moment. There’s barely any discernible difference.
Inside the cabin, everything is typical Lexus luxury. The trim materials are first-rate, seats are comfortable and heated/ventilated (important in Florida summer!), the Mark Levinson audio system is better than most in this segment, and all the controls you need are at your fingertips. I wasn’t expecting wood panelling on the steering wheel, but it actually worked when paired with the center console, inside which the double-hinged storage compartment is a neat touch. Drive modes are the uncomplicated ‘Normal’, ‘Eco’ or ‘Sport’, although it’s a bit weird that they are buried in the main infotainment menus.
While that suspension setup won’t set any track records any time soon, it is silky smooth and soaks up the concrete lumps and bumps with ease. The first stop on my journey was to visit friends at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. The second was at Orianne Center for Indigo Snake Conservation in Eustis, Lake County... you'd never guess my wife is a senior biologist at a science museum, would you? The second stop meant a little off-roading on a dirt track, for which the all-wheel drive came in very handy. It also felt reassuring in the multiple summer downpours we encountered, as twice we encountered storms that flooded the roadway, but 8.1 inches of ground clearance and 21-inch Bridgestone tires dispersed the deeper water easily enough.
My selfish reason for heading north was to catch my home soccer team, Wrexham AFC, playing a pre-season game against Leeds United (we won 3-2, for the record). After hooking up with our Editorial Director Edward Jones, based in our nearby Clearwater office, the RX 450h+’s cavernous trunk allowed for plenty of tailgating goodies ahead of the game. If there’s one drawback of the three-row giants, it’s that you lose that big trunk space – whereas with this smaller SUV, your rear-seat passengers enjoy more legroom and headroom. Here, there’s 29.6 cubic feet of capacity, which expands to 46.2 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down.
Probably the best thing I can say about this car, apart from damning it with more faint praise, is that in over 10 hours of motoring, including some of the worst driving standards you can encounter on the U.S. Interstate system, my heartbeat barely quivered above its resting rate. But while it won’t set your pulse racing, that is not what you’d buy this car for. You’d consider it for over 30 mpg capability, facilitated by that smart hybrid system, and its comfortable ride with remarkable road noise isolation, plus high-end upholstery in the cabin.
If you want to lead a practical, quiet life to safely visit your friends across the state or go yell yourself hoarse at a soccer game (as we did, pictured below), then this vehicle ticks way more boxes than most. And at just under $80,000 as tested, it’s going to leave you plenty of capacity in your wallet for that supercar on the other side of your garage.
Images: Charles Bradley
