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| The Lexus RX is a line of products that are all mid-sized luxury SUVs with a crossover element to them; all of which have been developed and produced by Toyota. The Lexus RX, when it was first released, was actually the first crossover SUV of its kind and was simply one more in a long line of innovative products to be released by Toyota into the Japanese, European and North American markets. It's also sometimes known by the name of Toyota Harrier in Asian markets and has been the bringer of a number of interesting innovations both stylistic and innovative in nature. The Lexus RX has always been the best selling Crossover SUV in the world. The history of the Lexus RX begins with the introduction of the first generation of Lexus RX vehicles in 1998. First Generation The Chicago Auto Show was the place that the introduction of the crossover SUV by Toyota took place in 1997. At that time, the crossover design was just a prototype and was designed to combine elements of a Sports Utility Vehicle, a wagon and a sedan. It was intended to combine the best of all three so that you ended up with a spacious and powerful vehicle that was better on gas mileage and the environment than any of the SUVs currently in business. The first actual release of the first generation RX under the name Toyota Harrier took place in the Japanese market towards the end of 1997 but it took another few months before a similar vehicle under the name Lexus RX 300 appeared in the United States. This vehicle was built on a car platform (not a truck platform) - which allowed it to drive much like a car while having the spaciousness of an SUV. While the Toyota Harrier allowed buyers to choose between 2.2 litre and 3.0 litre engines, the Lexus RX 300 only had the latter. The 3.0 liter displacement was combined with a V6 cylinder composition that resulted in a 219 HP engine overall. The transmission was automatic with no option for a switch to manual and the inside of the SUV itself had leather upholstery in addition to a central console that was made partially of wood with storage areas that allowed for convenience in driving. The light and sound systems were both powered up as well and all of this combined to make the RX 300 an exceptional hit right from the start. In fact, the Lexus operations in the United States were able to sell over 370,000 RX 300s in just less than five years. This exceptional success was something that Toyota was used to, although perhaps not on as large a scale as was given to them by the RX 300. Therefore, one can speculate that they might have been wary of changing the design of the RX 300 too much in order to make sure that they didn't mess with a good thing. Whatever the reason, the first generation of Lexus RX vehicles were only given one minor face-lift during their time in production and for the most part it only involved the addition of luxury items (GPS, cruise control, etc.) and no changes to the actual fundamental aspects of the crossover SUV design. This slightly upgraded RX 300 continued to be manufactured until the eventual mothballing of the first generation RX project towards the end of 2003. Second Generation The year 2003 also marked the unveiling and introduction of the second generation Lexus RX at the North American International Auto Show. Around that same time, an upgraded version of the Toyota Harrier was also launched as a second generation product within Japan. In terms of the actual vehicle itself, there was not much difference between the second generation RX and the first generation, but key changes to the outward design and the engine had been made in order to improve upon the already highly successful first generation product that Lexus had built. The second generation product was dubbed the RX 330 for sale in North America and it started rolling onto the floors at car dealerships in March of 2003. The RX 330 was the one of the first cars to be manufactured locally in North America as opposed to almost entirely in Japan; something that actually allowed Toyota to slice the cost of the SUV and gain an edge on their competitors within the North American market. The RX 330's main advantage over the previous generation's RX 300 was the fact that the engine had a larger displacement of 3.3 liters and indeed that combined with the same V6 format was able to result in an engine power of 240 HP; a very impressive number for a crossover SUV. In addition to a sleeker outward design, another improvement that was made to the second generation Lexus RX was that they were readily offered in a wider range of colours than the previous generation. In addition to that, the interior trim was that of either maple or walnut; both of which are designs that most agreed made the interior look much better in the RX 330 than the previous trim inside the RX 300. These two stylistic changes contributed a lot towards the vehicle's increasing success and where the RX 300 had been great in terms of sales, the RX 330 literally shot through the roof in terms of sales as many years saw it top over 100,000 in sold units; a very impressive number. The Future As with many of the other Toyota vehicles, the RX was eventually given a hybrid version with the Lexus RX 400h being shown in 2004 at the North American International Auto Show. Toyota's ability with hybrid machinery was proven again as this vehicle became extremely popular amongst some of the more affluent populations of both Canada and the United States . For the 2007 year, the RX second-generation model received an engine upgrade to a 3.5 liter engine with V6 configuration. This also resulted in a change of the vehicle's name from RX 330 to RX 350 and that in combination with a number of minor stylistic changes is the mid-cycle upgrade that Toyota has given to its second generation of RX SUV crossover vehicles. |
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