USED Lexus RX 350 Guide - What YOU Need To Know

hi I'm Dustin Mason from Performance Lexus in St Catharines and today we're going to talk about when shopping for a pre-owned Lexus RX350 what are some of the things you should look for and you know what are some maybe expert tips to pay attention to while shopping but before we get into that make sure you hit like And subscribe for more Lexus related content and put in the comments below which RX you would get maybe which year which package which color stuff like that okay so let's just get right into it the RX 350 went through a big lifestyle change from the year 2015 into the new 2016 model year what Lexus wanted to do during that change is they wanted to give the RX more of a luxury sedan feel so more of like that full-size LS or GS type feeling ride which previous to 2016 there wasn't a lot of cars in or sorry SUVs in the marketplace that should recreate that sort of comfortable ride and still have some driving character and when it was redesigned in 2016 we saw the market do a lot of interesting things a lot of people that were in the 2015s were a little shy at first because of what a big difference it was going into this new slightly bigger slightly more aggressive RX350 but it attracted a whole lot of buyers that were coming from other luxury sort of segments and it wasn't much longer that those people from the 2015s did get warmed up and kind of more interested in this redesign once they were able to drive it and see the new technology and stuff like that because like I said it was such a big difference from the 2015. now in 2016 when they redesigned it we also introduced this new F Sport Grille and f-sport styling that sort of came with that body change and there is some interesting takeaways even from the 2016 to the 2017. so when you're car shopping just because of it's the same package 2016 versus 2017. in Canada at least the 2017 got some more safety feature standard that in 2016 you would have to get fully loaded so that is kind of like a little bit of an extra an expert buyer's advice if you're looking at like an f-sport Series 2 or a base model or a luxury it's not going to have the radar Cruise the lane departure alert any of those you know safety system features in the 2016 unless you go to a fully loaded but in the 2017 all that stuff comes standard so make sure you're looking at that uh when you're when you're car shopping another few cues to think about is anything with the F Sport Grille and the f-sport wheels mean it's an at least that F sword series two and above so those are going to have standard features like navigation parking sensors the sport style seats that sort of thing and the reason I say that's important is as you're looking at any pre-owned car you have to think to yourself how long am I going to keep it and how long does it have to stay relevant for because as years go on if you're driving a car that is now very outdated then your resale value is going to go down too because the whole used car market and the whole car market is all about desirability and what's relevant now or what still works now so for instance in 2020 they gave the RX a little bit of a refresh and that's what that's what I'm standing beside here right now and between the 2019 and the 2020 we saw you know a little bit different iteration of the headlights and the daytime running lights the grill and bumper changed very slightly uh probably you'd have to park them beside each other to notice but the 2020 and up got some technology upgrades so things like the multimedia system the remote touch interfaces instead of the solid piece that you move around is is now a touch pad in those 2020 and above and the fact that it introduced apple carplay and then later Android auto that is one of those technologies that help future proof it so pay attention to that when you're looking at pre-owned rx350s but also I've seen some trickery in the used car market just because it has these wheels or afterwards series Wheels doesn't necessarily mean it's an f-sport I have seen a lot of people put on these wheels to their base model rx350s and then when people go to buy them as a pre-owned car they think it's an F Sport but it's actually a base model just kind of dressed up like an F Sport so it doesn't have those extra features and in turn shouldn't be the same amount of money um and interesting enough I'm watching the used car market on the RX350 for a number of years now and it was funny because even four or five years ago in Canada a 2017 was in you know the third high 30s early 40s range and paying attention to it now it's not that much far off maybe it's in the mid 30s maybe it's in the early 30s but when you think about how many years have passed that's still pretty good it's holding a really good value considering this is a volume vehicle that's in the mid-size luxury SUV Market has always dominated for Lexus it's been you know where all the cards have been for getting the name out there and getting cars on the road has always been the R350 and you would think with a market with so many of those in it you would expect it to kind of drop in value but the the fact of the matter is there isn't enough of them still out there for how many buyers want them especially in the f-sport model now when you're deciding between an f-sport and an executive so there's two lineups for these rx350s I call one the luxury lineup I call the other one the F Sport lineup and you have to ask yourself some important questions because features wise they're going to be neck and neck there's the luxury and the F-word Series 2 those are sort of the mid packages I would recommend going with those or above for the straight reason of resale value and kind of future proofing it a little bit so when you go to sell it you want to make sure you have at least those two packages but those are a great starting point both have built-in navigation parking sensors you know the bigger screen inside the the mouse in the center even if it's a 2020 or a 2017 it's some sort of mouse in the center and that's where I would start then you have to ask yourself okay do I want to favor the sporty more aggressive styling and the tighter seats and and the sportier handling or do I want more of a luxurious ride that's you know that smooth sort of couch feeling where it feels more like you know a luxury car and what I find is the sport has the tighter seats the tighter handling and The Styling that I personally like but a lot of my guests who are coming from a big luxury sedan or one of the luxury ones find that too stiff for them or they find the seats too tight for them and that's with a luxury and executive come in because those cars have that really soft smooth ride but a little bit more body roll and you know sometimes that's okay so if you're if you're a road trip person maybe that luxury or executive package is the way to go because it's like driving a couch I guess you could say another question you want to ask yourself is do I care about those bigger features in the used car market the f-sword series 3 and the executive are a lot more money and even brand new from a base model they were like 10 grand more so you have to ask yourself do I care about heads up display do I care about a panoramic sunroof or the mark Levinson sound system and if the answers to those questions is two of them matter if two of them matter it's worth going up to that extra package because of the resale value that you'll get is worth the extra money that you're going to be paying for those extra your features and you get a few extra things like bird's eye view for instance in the fully loaded you get the power folding rear seats there's different iterations of the hands-free power liftgate in those 2016 to 2019 models it was like you have to kind of wave in front of the Lexus logo which could be a little bit cumbersome especially if your hands are full but in those 20 20 and up you kind of just use your foot and swipe and it does open up before you discount that give it a few practices because it does take some getting used to just like anything in life but it is definitely worthwhile if you're looking at those style features okay so under the hood when you're shopping for a pre-owned RX there's going to be so many similarities even in that 2015 realm it's a very similar 3.5 liter V6 and then anything 2016 and up is going to be mated to a 8-speed transmission it's around 300 horsepower in 2016 I noticed when I'm driving some of those that are pre-owned the shifting feels like it's still calibrating a little bit they did do an update in 2017 from what I was told that makes it a little bit you know smoother shifting I guess you could say also I do find the f-sports do have a little bit more intake noise it might be this little device right here I'm not sure but just keep that in mind that the the S words probably will have a little bit more of that engine intake noise when you're driving it what to look for so one of the things I always look for these little clips that hold in all the plastic if a lot of them are broken or missing it probably means that maybe someone that wasn't a dealership has been you know working on it or tinkering with it which is in the end of the world but it's definitely something to note pretty much everything else is covered in plastic you can see a few little things here and there always do your normal looking for you know any oil leaks or anything like that these engines are very reliable and the RX 350 as a whole has been very reliable but just like anything there's always a chance of like a leaky gasket or you know some sort of fluid leak somewhere so just pay attention to that in terms of mileage there isn't really a mileage that scares me other than you know asking yourself how long are you gonna keep the car for what's the price just like anything in life it's all about what mentally what people think when it comes to it so for instance if you're looking at a vehicle with 80 000 or or 90 000 versus one that's already cracked over the hundred thousand marks the only difference is over the hundred thousand Mark the next buyer sees that extra digit and is gonna think it's older that's really the big difference there um there is a bigger service I think around the 80 000 or maybe it is a hundred thousand range so just make sure that those sort of services would be done most of the time the intervals were service one a service two and a service three the two and three being the bigger one the service one just sort of being regular you know oil change check the filters stuff like that tires wise can vary as well so some of these came with bridgestones some of them came with michelins from the factory depending on the tire depends on how smooth the ride is and also how long the tire lasts I would say anything that's between sixty thousand and seventy thousand kilometers might still have the factory tires so just pay attention to that even if it has tread you want to see if there's weather cracking in the tread because even if you know it doesn't have a ton of mileage but it's an old Tire especially if it's like a 16 or 17 by now that tire might not pass the safety and also it's not going to have as much grip or compound because it's starting to dry out so keep that in mind a lot of these things can be avoided if you can find a certified pre-owned one so Alexis certified pre-owned has very strict guidelines that they have to follow it's pretty much like reconditioning a car as close as they can to new and even the guidelines say that we have to catch up on Services it's way stricter for tire and brakes and the variances there than a regular safety inspection would be however as the years go on you know those 2016 and 2017s probably won't qualify for that program 2018s might not either a 19 20 21 would be your best bet for the certified pre-owned and sometimes it gives you things like you know roadside assistance availability to do an extended warranty and also lower interest rates if you're going to be financing so another thing to mention when you're looking at one at like a used lot versus like a Lexus used lot is the Lexus used a lot might qualify for that program and in turn even in the future you might be able to get like loyalty discounts from Lexus Etc so if you're comparing the two might be worthwhile going to a real Lexus dealer but take that with a grain of salt because I am a Lexus dealer I work at Alexa or so I am going to be a little bit biased there but I have seen it in the past and it definitely is important to note okay so when you're sitting in any of the pre-owned rx's that are in the marketplace right now there are a few things to note about the interior this one is an f-sport so we have those seats that hug you a little bit more but also even the stitching kind of sticks out a little bit more the perforation is more like a white so it gives it a little bit different style the rest of the interior is trimmed in sort of like a silver aluminum look so on the door panels we have actual aluminum a little bit of plastic silver throughout the rest of the cabin and in the center here more aluminum if this was a luxury package or executive package we would see this trimmed in that classic wood sort of accent that everybody has loved for luxury cars since like the early 90s and what I mean by that is even the top of the steering wheel the bottom of the steering wheel the center the door panels are all wood in those packages this that is the one thing that puts me on the fence of which one to buy because I like the wood on the steering wheel on those other packages just just for the fact that it's slippery and like I can kind of just like when I'm making a quick turn I can kind of just like run my hand on it it does hold up very well I would say the wood seems to hold up a little bit better than than the full leather but I'm not one that is super stressed out about flaws and leather I think it gives it a little bit of character so even on a pre-owned steering wheel if it's a little shiny you can always you know use a product to make it match again and if it does have like a little Nick here there there are vendors that can repair them when we have them here at the dealership but it's not the end of the world to me even the perforation on the seats has held up very well in a lot of these cars now sometimes I've seen on the armrests maybe a divot from someone's arm or same thing on the door panel just from that type of wear tear that is a little bit harder to fix so as you're looking at pre-owned if you see two of them at the same price and one of them maybe has a divot here or something some damage to the door panel those can be costly to fix so definitely keep that in consideration when you're looking at um you know price or comparisons that sort of thing um also obviously having the mark Levinson sound system is absolutely amazing the heads-up display the panoramic sunroof um and then the screen now those three features aren't going to be in anything 2016 even up to 2020 to 2021 but the big difference is going to be the way the multimedia system works in 2020 and up it is a sharper screen it's closer to you and you can also touch it where in anything that's up to 2019 so 2016 and 2019 it's further back it's not quite as sharp it is the older system and instead of this really nice mouse pad it uses sort of the Lexus remote where it's like this little rectangle and it's actual physical moving thing that's even from those pre like those previous generation ones like the 2013 and 2015 had that as well so it is a little bit about preference but again when we talk about future proofing this new system is a lot sharper so if that's something that matters to you definitely go for this one and I think that's a big reason why the 2020s are more more money than the 2019s by a bigger Gap than a normal ratio a lot of it is because of how nice that multimedia system is um otherwise like I said the features are going to be very similar between the two there is one thing though that the luxury and the executives have and that's on the rear door panels there's a curtain that can come up on those packages it's a manual curtain it's really good if you have kids and you want to block the Sun from shining on their face especially if they're in a car seat still where the escort doesn't have that you'd have to put something else up so just keep that in mind okay so hopefully this gives you a little bit of insight into why the RX 350 has been so strong in the used car Marketplace and also some things to look for when shopping for one another big thing that I forgot to mention earlier is it does take regular gas in most of these years so that's also great when you're comparing it against the competition let me know what you think in the comments below what package you would get what year what color this one is the Nightfall Mica which is one of my favorites it sort of looks black at nighttime but then when the direct sunlight hits it it's got a really nice navy blue and when you're looking for a used RX don't be too afraid of ones that have swirl marks or light scratches the paint on this is a little bit thicker there is a little bit extra clear coat there so all that stuff can be buffed very easy because it is soft paint so that never scares me a code you'd be amazed with a coat of wax a buffing and a good detail can do for one of these cars so thank you again for watching I'm Dustin Mason from Performance Lexus in St Catharines if you like this video let us know in the comments below if there's any other cars you're shopping for that we can do some expert reviews on and let you know kind of what we know thanks again guys take care [Music]

Channel: Performance Lexus

Views: 48,853

Keywords: Performance Lexus, Performance Auto Group, Lexus, Performance, Lexus Canada, new car, used car, Ontario, vehicles, cars, Luxury, Niagara, Niagara Falls, used lexus, used lexus rx, lexus rx 350, used rx, used rx 350, used lexus rx 350, used lexus rx 350 guide, used rx 350 review, rx 350 review, used rx review, lexus buyers guide, lexus buyer guide, lexus used car

Id: YlnxA0KZWyo

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2023