Lexus RX SUV - Reliability & safety

While luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Audi are held in high regard in terms of quality and reliability, the reality is that many owners end up being dissatisfied with their purchase. However, our Driver Power customer satisfaction surveys reveal that Lexus is an exception to this trend, with most buyers reporting good things about the Japanese brand’s cars.

Lexus RX SUV reliability

In our 2023 Driver Power survey, Lexus finished a strong eighth out of 32 manufacturers, with only 14% of buyers reporting a fault within the first year of ownership. This compares with 22% of BMW owners and 28% of Mercedes customers. Lexus ranked exceptionally for build quality, ride quality and reliability, but was marked down for its touchpad-based infotainment systems – something that has been remedied for the latest-generation RX.

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Safety

The Lexus RX was tested by independent safety experts Euro NCAP in late 2022, and like its smaller sibling, the NX, it was given the full five-star safety rating. This included high scores of 90% and 91% respectively in the Adult Occupant and Safety Assist categories, which should offer peace of mind. All versions of the RX come with Lexus’ full Safety System + suite of driver aids which includes pre-collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, automatic high beams and blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert. These are all features designed to make driving less stressful as well as safer, which should add to the luxurious feel of picking the Lexus. We found the lane-keep assist fairly smooth and gentle with its steering inputs, but the pre-collision alerts triggered too often while driving around parked cars, and the speed limit recognition beeps too frequently when the limit changes or you creep slightly over the set speed.