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SALT LAKE CITY — The RX350 is white, the RX450h is black. But there are other ways of telling them apart.
Both have heads-up displays and both have a lot of room.
"I am 6'5" and I am extremely comfortable in this car," said USU student, Justin Ecung. "My legs aren't nearly crammed or anything. Plenty of headroom."
Both models have puddle lights, fold-in mirrors, power seats, steering wheel heater that only covers 9&3 ‘cause the rest is wood, Voice Nav with stocks, weather, and both have power cargo doors that sound like they're crunching, but they're not.
"When you have an armful of groceries or something, you don't have to like balance everything in one hand while you try to get your keys out," said USU student, Victoria Hepworth.
And they both have a 3.5-liter V-6, but then they diverge.
A hybrid system somehow turns the 350 into a 450h. EPA figures are 20 for the gas-only; 29 for the hybrid, with the big hybrid advantage being in city driving.
"If it were me personally, and I didn't have to pay extra for it, I would totally do it," said student, Aaron Griffiths.
But you do have to pay. And the MSRP difference is $6,600. Ours were almost $12,000 apart, but the h had more luxury stuff on it. Calculating fuel savings was also tough because the window stickers used different gas prices for comparison.
If you go to fueleconomy.gov, the side-by-side messes with gas prices, too. And the h runs on premium. But using their calculator, you can plug-in Utah gas prices. The higher the price, the more the savings. Until you factor in the premium gas. It would take more than eight years to make up the price difference, but that doesn't bother these guys.
