BEHIND THE WHEEL
2015 Lexus RC 350
Rear-wheel drive 2 plus 2 sport coupe
Price as tested: $52,490 (excluding destination charge)
Fuel economy: 19 mpg city/29 highway/22 combined
Reasons to buy: Looks; power; handling.
Shortcomings: Controls; rear leg room; road noise.
It’s easy to forget as you survey parking lots full of Camry sedans and Sienna minivans, but Toyota has pretty good credentials as a maker of sporty cars. Exhibits A & B: the powerful Supra and the delightful first-generation MR2.
Despite that, the Toyota brand seems drawn back to stolid family vehicles. Nothing in its current model line is likely to raise your pulse above a resting rate.
Toyota’s loss could be Lexus’ gain. The 2015 Lexus RC 350 sports car is in many ways a latter-day Supra, styled and equipped to justify a Lexus MSRP.
Prices for the RC 350 start at $42,790 for a rear-drive model with a 306-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6 and 8-speed automatic transmission. Adding all-wheel drive raises that to $45,025. AWD RCs use the same V-6 as the rear-drive model, but get a six-speed automatic transmission.
For those who sneer at a 306-horsepower V-6, Lexus offers the $62,400 RC F, which comes with a 467-horsepower 5.0-liter V-8. All RC F’s have rear-wheel drive and the eight-speed automatic.
I tested a well-equipped rear-drive RC 350 that cost $52,490. Its features included Mark Levinson audio, leather upholstery, adaptive cruise control, 10 air bags, the F Sport appearance package, navigation system and more. All prices exclude destination charges.
The RC 350 competes with luxury coupes like the Audi S5, BMW 435i, Cadillac ATS V6, Infiniti Q 60 and Mercedes-Benz C350. My test car’s price and features were competitive with those cars.
The RC’s styling is aggressive and distinctive, particularly with the optional F Sport package. Its profile has the classic sports car proportions: long hood, low profile and short rear deck. The sides are sculpted, with flared wheel arches and crisp lines. The nose is prominent, featuring a bold, jutting version of Lexus’ spindle-shaped grille.
It’s a new interpretation of Lexus styling that works well on a sporty coupe.
The interior is spare. My test car had black leather, plastic and vinyl covering nearly all surfaces. Small pieces of chrome trim on the shifter, buttons and dials provided the only visual relief. The instrument panel features a large, simple display. Lexus’ voice recognition for phone calls, audio and navigation is very good. That’s important because the small touch pad that’s the alternative way to control some of those features is terrible. It’s distracting and difficult to use in a moving vehicle.
The front seat is roomy and comfortable. The back seat is cramped, but pretty good for a dramatic-looking coupe. The trunk is about average. A wide opening and even shape make it quite useful, with room for two people’s bags on a road trip.
The RC’s steering is fast and direct. The suspension is tuned for handling more than comfort. The car remained stable and planted in quick maneuvers, despite a rather nose-heavy weight distribution of 54 percent front/46 percent rear. (The ATS coupe and 435i check in at a balanced 51/49, in contrast.)
The V6 provides good acceleration for typical maneuvers around town and on the highway. The RC 350’s claimed 5.8-second 0-60 mph time is notably slower than the S5 and 435i and slightly quicker than the C350. Cadillac and Infiniti do not publish 0-60 times for their coupes.
The eight-speed transmission is quick and smooth, contributing to an EPA rating of 19 mpg in the city, 28 on the highway and 22 combined. The combined figure beats the AWD S5, trails the 435i and C350 and matches the ATS and Q60. The ATS’s V6 is designed to use regular gas rather than the RC’s premium, however, making the Cadillac less expensive to operate despite identical EPA ratings.
Whether the EPA’s predicted difference of $300 a year will mean much to Lexus buyers is debatable. What’s certain is that the rakish RC 350 adds some excitement to the Lexus profile.
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