Lexus achieved something incredibly important with the luxurious new RX 350

Hollis Johnson

The Lexus RX has been around for so long that it's easy to forget how significant a vehicle it was when it hit the scene way back in 1998.

Up to that point, SUVs had essentially been upscale trucks. Lexus' parent company, Toyota, realized that many people, especially in America, were buying rugged four-wheel-drive SUVs when all they really wanted was SUV scale and utility. Their SUVs never got a whiff of trail; the closest they came to off-roading was when the parking lot of the Short Hills Mall needed a repaving.

Enter the RX, the first in a new breed of "crossover" SUVs, built not on truck platforms, but on more car-like undergirdings.

The RX was an immediate hit and has remained so for decades. Lexus has sold over 2 million of the RX 350, making it by far the most important vehicle in the luxury brand's portfolio. This is not a car that Lexus can afford to screw up.

That said, Lexus did revamp the RX, rolling out the new crossover at the New York Auto Show last year. The fourth-generation crossover is just as versatile as it's always been, but the design is newly aggressive — and divisive — notably up front.

I live in the suburbs of New Jersey. This is the heart of the heart of RX country. Lexus loaned us a $60,000 RX 350 F Sport version, with all-wheel drive, and we tooled around in it around for a week. (A front-wheel-drive RX 350 is available, as is a hybrid RX 450.) Here's the lowdown:

Photos by Hollis Johnson

Let's just get right down to it. The so-called spindle grille is completely polarizing. You love it, you hate, but you don't hold back your opinion. Frankly, I think it's hideous, but the RX 350 had always struggled with the impression that it was bland, so I can see why Lexus went bold. And the grille design does look better at SUV scale than it does on Lexus' cars.

In profile, the RX 350 is quite sleek, with the caged energy of a silvery panther. But the pseudo-haunches over both the front and rear wheels look weird, as does the odd "floating" roof.

There is just a hot mess of folded metal that fills the field of vision when you consider the RX 350 from an angle. Swoop! Slash! Curve! Eek!