RX270- good car?

Hi MB - one of the big wigs at work is going back to Sydney after his stint in NZ. He bought over his cars to NZ in a container 5 years back but with shipping costs the way they are and the cars now being older he’s going to sell them here.

One of the cars is a 2013 Lexus RX270 4cyl FWD- has only done 45K. Full leather interior and heaps of extras. I know this car wasn’t sold new in NZ but was sold in Australia. Drove it and it went well and good torque from the engine, bonus points for being non CVT!. The 2.7 1AR engine hasn’t been around in many NZ cars and II know the 2.4 2AZ-FE has some oil burning issues. Anyone in the MB have any experience on this car and engine? I don’t need 4wd and the economy is pretty good considering the size of the car

I have a 2006 Lexus RX400h AWD. Very nice car. Very comfortable seats Chocked full of sound deadening, and quite nice ride comfort. Soft suspension means lots of body roll, but otherwise handeling is OK. Mine is 200kW so quite quick when wanted, and the engine isn't working hard the rest of the time.

Mine is a 2nd generation Lexus RX, the 2014 would be a 3rd generation. Imagine Lexus only made the car better (but the styling is pritty bulky).

I don't know much about the engine, but frankly 138kW should be acquitted to move a car of that size. Same engine was used as the base engine of the toyota Sienna minivan in 2011 & 2012, so I imagine there will be a lot of comment on it from the USA if you want to go looking.

There are four fresh import 2011 Lexus RX's with the 2.7L engine on trademe, so it must have been offered in Japan (or perhaps singapore) at some point. I am a little surprised as I thought the Lexus RX was sold only as a Toyota harrier in japan.

Thanks s_nz. How is the hybrid battery holding up?

Re my hybrid battery, no issues and original to my knowledge. Done 205,000km now.

Had it inspected by the battery center prior to my purchase. They plugged it into a scanner and ran it down. In short it was "consistent with age and mileage" and the didn't give any concerns. (oddly the flagged the 12v battery as needing replacement and it is still running fine 2.5 years later).

Has used quite a few $$ in maintenance though. Prior car was a corolla hatch of the same year, and the 6 cylinder Lexus does cost a decent chunk more to maintain.

As the car had been looked after by the same lexus dealership all it's life prior to my ownership I took it their for it's first two services. First one was just a standard quoted service ($440 I think, ok considering they give me a $90k car off the lot as a loaner). 2nd one had a whole bunch of stuff due. Spark plugs ($600+ for iridium), coolant flush, rear break pads & disks. Paying $160/h for labour gets expensive fast. Found out that Lexus north shore stamped the 150,000km service (which includes the cambelt), without actually having changed the cambelt.

Decided to use my local garage from then on Cira $1300 for a cambelt change with genuine parts.

Also needed new fount suspension bushings, which apparently you are best to replace the whole arm 's to do. So another 4 figure bill.

And recently the radiator had a small leak from the plastic tank on one side so requred replacement, again costing 4 figures.

Still I really like the car. It's a car that was $99,000 when new that I brought for $13.5k. And the 200kW hybrid powertrain is awesome, so powerful and smooth. And the whole car is comfortable and refined. Even the $90k loaner car lexus gave me (one of their smaller SUV's) felt rough an unrefined by comparison.

Go grab a 2011+ RX450h, the RX270 is noisy and under powered for a 2 ton car. In fact, the RX450h drives better and picks up better off the line compared to the RX350 due to the very torquey electric motor. The RX has the most torquey electric motor compared to all other Lexus hybrids.

No one really buys the RX270 even in Japan or Australia, not even sure why they bothered with that engine.

And the RX450h is more economical than the RX270 by far.

Harrier is the same as the RX in the 2nd Gen, then from 3rd Gen, RX is RX and Harrier is a different car all together and is priced above the Rav4. Essentially same amount of room as an RX but with even a bigger boot.

Toyota introduced the Lexus name plate in Japan around 2003 ish and no longer have Toyota models that overlaps with Lexus models.