Of course, that alone wouldn't be complete without a nice cup of "tea" complete with gentle piano wafting you to cosy dreamland...
As you can see....3 different types of alcohol and soft drinks....making it a total of 9 different drinks... logically, you can have volka green tea, coke volka, 7-up volka in both blackcurrant and vanilia flavour, not to forget the whisky... my favourite? volka coke (blackcurrent). Simply delightful!
And for the first time in my life, I've finally sat and driven a Lexus RX-300 similar to the picture shown below:
First Impressions
Lexus has taken America by storm ever since the they penerated the American market back in 1990. Targeted at the luxury car segment, Lexus is well known for it's quiet ride, smooth engine, a 100% backed Toyota level of quality and tons of creature comfort thrown in. At a price that threatened the fundementals of the luxury car segment back then. Of which the RX300 was part of their lineup in the late 90's.
As a car that has always been marketed as a luxury SUV, i'm pretty sure that in urbanized Singapore, 100% of these RXs will never get their rubbers dirty. Hence, it was really never designed and engineered to be a SUV at all, more like a luxurious cruise liner, like SuperStar Virgo of the land. The only thing SUV about this car is that it has an electronically controlled 4wd, which you can never interfere with, stop short of literally smashing the ECU.
From the exterior, you may be deceived into believing that the car grith requires getting used to but once on the road, you will soon find that this luxury cruise liner feels as small as any other 1.6l saloon. It really is that easy to drive. The best part of it? You sit tall, and that, can't be a bad thing.
Power Overwhelming
Sporting a 3l V6 engine with Toyota's VVT-i technology, century sprint is dispatched under 10 seconds. But, like all SUVs, the size and weight of the car drops any pretext of "sportiness" as the engine struggles to get the car moving from stop. But once on the move, the RX accelerates rather quickly. However, power delivery is linear without those "in-your-face" shove that threatens to splatter wine from your lordship's wine glass in his face everytime you accelerate.
On road, the car absorbs bumps and road irregularities well, even though the car is running on 18" rubbers. The car element is it's cruising ability. On the highway, it glides effortlessly and wafts you from place to place in soft luxurious leather cocoons. All this in quiet comfort that makes your conversation feels loud even at the softest whisper.
Driving through the 99 S-bend, the car feels suprisingly composed around the bends, and maintains it's composure with minimal amount of body roll no matter how many twisty bends you throw at it. It really is that chuckable, for it's size.
Creature comforts
This car is feature laden and the list goes on, just to name a few:
- Auto HID headlights
- Auto rain sensing wipers
- Optitron guages
- dual auto climate control
- cruise control
- 5 speed auto with manual overide
- auto dimming rear view mirror
- Electric seats
It's a car that achieves what it is, a luxury marque. It drives and handles reasonably well, all in luxury comfort that leaves it's occupants feeling refreshed even after a long journey. Yet, I can't help but feel that it lacks a certain something...an X-factor. The car feels too sanitized and clinical. An engineering tool more than picasso's drawing.
I remember commenting on the way back that for S$160k, it's more bang-for-buck than, say, a BMW 3 series, and wondered why would anyone even buy a 3 series when they can have the bigger RX for the same kind of money?
Perhaps, it's precisely because a BMW is like picasso's art, an expression in form and motion, rather than a cold and emotionless precision engineering tool the lexus is.
Put it simply in another way, would you rather pay S$160k for a very expensive veneer caliper or for Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon?
1 comment:
Hope everything goes well for you :) And yes, you've been a great company too! :) Love ya company.... Cheers!
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