For the farmer who’sgone up in the worldLexus
R X450 h
Month 4The story so far
We’re just over half-way through
our long-term test of this
seven-seat comfort blanket
+Ingrained build quality
throughout is deeply satisfying- That infotainment system really
does suck the big one
Price £61,995 (£63,635 as
tested) Performance 3456cc
V6 hybrid, 259bhp, 8.0sec
0-62mph, 112mph Efficiency
47.1mpg (official), 29.9mpg
(tested), 138g/km CO2 Energy
cost 19.5p per mile Miles this
month 1014 Total miles 3678LogbookLimo luxury, tractor toughness. By Ben OliverRemember when Land Rovers were
humble farm vehicles? I parked
my Discovery next to the Duke of
Richmond’s V8 Defender when
I interviewed him for this issue.
It would have cost him at least
£150,000. You can spec a new Range
Rover to close to £200,000 now, and
the aborted SV Coupe would have
been £240,000 before options.
All this puts the reservations I
had about my HSE Luxury spec
Disco being rather too fancy into
perspective. My kids love the rear-
seat entertainment system whichcomes as standard, although I miss
actually having a conversation with
them. It’s nicely integrated, with the
DVD changer hidden behind hinged
climate controls in the centre
console. But inserting and removing
old-fashioned physical media seems
a faff in the age of downloading and
streaming, and I suspect the system
will seem antiquated by the time the
kids are teenagers.
The first few tanks of diesel
have returned around 27mpg
against a claimed 36.2, which isn’t
disastrous. I’m writing this fromThere’s an elephant in the room
when we discuss the Lexus RX at
our desks. It’s hard to talk about
the big SUV without conversation
quickly turning to that dreaded
infotainment system. It’s horrible.
We each drive upwards of 100
an Alps trip which is giving me
some motorway fuel figures, and
more importantly letting me
explore the Discovery’s abilities
as a versatile, all-weather, all-load
vehicle rather than a luxury good.
The scoop? It’s pretty good, of
course. There’s a blizzard blowing
outside right now, and if I don’t
make it back to write the next
report, it won’t be the car’s fault.I reckon there’s a cultural divide
at play here. Have you travelled to
Japan in recent years? Experienced
the fizzing, flashing energy of
Tokyo and its neon-bathed Aki-
habara electronics district? It lends
a little perspective to the Japanese
digital mindset – there’s a different
appreciation of HMI in Asia, it
seems. I can believe the typical
Japanese consumer interacts with
digital touchpoints in a different
way to western norms.
How else to describe the clunky
joystick and buttons to operate the
RX’s pointer? It buzzes and judders
with haptic feedback (which you
can vary) but it’s a tricky thing to
operate with your left hand when
on the move. Then there’s the
labyrinthine menu structure and
arcane, cluttered graphics. I’ve
yet to find a member of the CAR
team who doesn’t view the Lexus’s
infotainment, mapping and UX as
a generation or two out of date.
What about voice control? Well,
we’ve tried that and the audio
recognition is just as bad. It’s much,
much worse than the class best- and by that we probably mean
Mercedes’ MBUX system. There’s
no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto
available, either. It’s a real shame,
because I struggle to think of
many other aspects of the RX
L that we don’t like. We’ll cover
more of the positives (and there
are plenty) next month.
@TimPollard CarsL and Rover Discover y
Month 2Price £70,405 (£76,065 as
tested) Performance 2993cc
turbodiesel V6, 302bhp, 7.5sec
0-62mph, 130mph Efficiency
36.2 mpg (official), 27mpg
(tested), 206g/km CO2 Energy
cost 23.2p per mile Miles this
month 870 Total miles 2835LogbookThe story so far
Disco in the top HSE Luxury
trim with the new 302bhp
SDV6 engine
+Seven seats and a big boot- Almost Range Rover money
cars a year in our line of work and
are exposed to different technol-
ogies and interfaces every day. We
live and breathe these comparisons- and only criticise where it feels
justified. And not one of us gets on
with Lexus Remote Touch.
Our carsMAY 2019 | SUBSCRIBE TO CAR FOR JUST £2.60 A MONTH! WWW.GREATMAGAZINES.CO.UK 139Urgently wanted:
a ha’porth of tar
Infotainment needs a rethink. By Tim Pollard
How can that
rectangle cause
so much fury?Posh one’s cheaper
than the workhorse