Lexus LX600 vs Audi RS7

What's the difference?

There's absolutely no doubting the new LX's off-road credentials, nor the fact that it takes luxury SUVs to new heights in the four-seat Ultra Luxury model. Do you need a massaging chair and a foot-stool to get to your camping site? Probably not, but globally, there's a distinct market for that sort of decadence.

Closer to the other end of the LX line-up, however, there's a fair bit of cross-over in price and luxury terms with the Lexus' close cousin, the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series. That suggests there might be a LandCruiser that will do the same job for a little less money and, if that's the case, then the LX loses a little relevance, particularly the petrol-engined version here in Australia. Until, that is, you take into account buyers for whom the Lexus badge infers the bank-vault solidity and prestige that the brand has worked so hard to establish. Which is another way of saying; it all comes down to where you stand on the politics of envy.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The new-generation RS 7 Sportback heralds the further evolution of this large majestic beast, with more features, a beautifully finished cabin and with more grunt with the looks to match. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better combination of power, dynamics and comfort in the Audi range – apart from in the RS 6 Avant of course.

Perhaps the most left-field design element is the way the LX can, depending on trim level, be configured in terms of its seating. In the past, we’ve seen plenty of SUVs available with a choice of five- or seven-seat layouts, but the LX is the first time we’ve seen seating choices range from seven- to five- to four-seat layouts. If nothing else, it illustrates the breadth of applications a modern luxury SUV is expected to cover.

Those who use their four-wheel drive SUVs off-road will also note the shift back to six-stud wheel hubs. Toyota’s (and Lexus’) move to five-stud wheels a few years ago suddenly made the vehicle’s wheels incompatible with owner’s existing caravans and trailers.

The new LX has also become a committed subscriber to the engine-downsizing theory of modern vehicle design. While the previous model was available with a 4.5-litre turbo-diesel and a massive 5.7-litre petrol, the new engine capacities of 3.3 litres for the diesel and 3.5 litres for the petrol represent major philosophy changes. Both the new engines are now V6s, rather than the previous V8 layouts.

And to give the new car a James Bond moment, all models bar the entry-level version feature a fingerprint sensor to control the starter button function. Q would be pleased.

The big news is the RS 7 Sportback now comes with five seats. The previous generation car had just two seats in the second row. I'll talk more on practicality below but for now let's examine the new styling.

This RS 7 Sportback has new broad, black mesh grille, flanked by gigantic side air intakes, narrow headlights, and a thin upper air inlet which is a hat tip to early racing Audis.

While that new angrier, more angular and menacing face is a showstopper, everything about the new RS 7 Sportback seems to be accentuated further.

Look at the wheels. The previous generation came with 21-inch rims, now the new normal for the RS 7 are 22-inches – they're huge. Those wheel guards also flare out 20mm more than a regular A7's and the rear haunches have bulked up massively.

Come to the back of the car and the diffuser and bumper have also been beefed up. Nobody sitting behind you in traffic is going to think this is just a regular A7.

Don't expect the RS 7 Sportback's insides to be just as hardcore as its exterior. The cabin is almost identical to a regular A7's. It's a stunning cockpit dominated by a dash which protrudes back towards the passengers and houses the media screen. Anther display for climate is set into the big centre console which divides the driver and co-pilot into almost cocooned cells.

The cabin isn't without its RS touches though – there's the sports seats with honeycomb stitching, fully digital instrument cluster with RS specific meters, the RS steering wheel, the Nappa leather on the dashboard and the doors, the aluminium inlays. The level of fit and finish is up there with the best that I've seen on any production car.

The RS 7 Avant is 5009mm long, 1424mm tall and 1950mm across for a wide planted stance.

The practicality of each variant of the new LX is dependent entirely on how many people you need to move. The base-model version has seven seats with a two-three-two layout, while the Sport Luxury and F Sport feature five conventional seats in two rows.

The Ultra Luxury’s four individual seats obviously make it the variant of choice for the buyer who doesn’t need the extra seats, but clearly limit its appeal for families. But if luxury is your aim, the rear passenger seat in particular is the one to be in as it can be configured to offer up to a metre of legroom and even features a footrest when the front passenger’s seat is moved all the way forward. Both rear seats are also heated and cooled and reclinable to an angle that NASA has calculated offers the maximum support for the human body.

Vents in the rear seat area allow for an air-shower (of cool air over the passengers) or an air-curtain (a blanket of warm air at shoulder height).

The seven-seat versions have a third row of seats that folds flat into the floor (a major improvement over the old fold-up third row) and the second row folds and tumbles into the footwell. There’s a 220-volt outlet in the luggage compartment, too.

Cargo space is slightly less than the old model, but with second and third row seats folded, the LX has cargo space of up to 1871L.

The single-piece tailgate of the new Lexus won’t win as many friends as the old, split tailgate design which formed an impromptu kitchen bench or covered picnic seat. But the single rubber seal of the new design may be an advantage in keeping dust out on outback roads.

The previous RS 7 Sportback was a four-seater, now it has five seats. That's right, a middle seat has been added to the second row, but, as you'd expect, it's not the best place be in the RS 7 Sportback, straddling the large driveshaft and ducking under the low roof-line.

That fastback profile does mean headroom in the second row is nowhere near as good as the RS 6 Avant's, but legroom is the same and, at 191cm tall, I can just fit behind my driving position with about 10mm to spare.

Up front it's not as spacious as you might think. That stepped dash protrudes into the passenger's space, the door pockets are thin and the centre console storage under the armrest is small.

Sportbacks are more practical sedans thanks the large opening offered by the hatch. The boot's 535-litre cargo capacity is great and only about 30 litres less than what you have in the RS 6 Avant.

For phones there's a wireless charger and two USB ports in the centre console storage box, while back seat passengers have two USB ports and a 12V outlets. There's also directional air vents and dual-zone climate control in the rear, too.

The Audi RS 7 Sportback lists for $224,000, which is exactly $8K more than the RS 6 Avant.

Coming standard are the enormous 22-inch alloy wheels, the matrix LED headlights with laser lights, metallic paint, a panoramic glass sunroof (which is new to the model), privacy glass, head-up display, soft-close doors and red brake calipers.

Inside there's the Bang and Olufsen 16-speaker sound system (that new, too), sat nav, the 12.3-inch virtual instrument cluster, wireless Apple CarPlay (new, as well), wireless charging, full leather upholstery with RS sport front seats that are heated and now come with ventilation as standard, and four-zone climate control.

I've left off all the standard RS mechanical equipment, but I'll cover that in the driving section below.

Is it good value? Well the Mercedes-AMG CLS 53 S is $186,435 but it has way less grunt, the Alpina B5 which I've also road-tested lists for $210,000 and there's the Porsche Panamera 4 Sport Turismo for $236,300.

While the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series is a diesel-only proposition, the Lexus LX takes a broader view of what its buyers will want in such a vehicle.

As a result, there’s a choice of petrol or diesel power for the LX range, with both engines covering all variants apart from one. To add weight to the theory that the Ultra Luxury model is for people for whom fuel costs really don’t matter, it’s available only as a petrol vehicle.

The turbo-diesel engine is the 3.3-litre V6 twin-turbo unit we see in the 300 Series. It’s unusual in that it uses hot-side-in technology where the exhaust system and turbochargers live inside the vee of the engine, rather than hanging off each side as is much more common. Lexus claims greater efficiency from this layout with less plumbing between the cylinder head and turbo units as well as a more compact design.

Outputs for the turbo-diesel are 227kW of power, with an impressive 700Nm of torque produced anywhere between 1600 and 2600rpm, which is where the engine will spend most of its operating life.

The petrol engine is also a V6 and also twin-turbocharged. It measures 3.5 litres and, again, features a design that allows a smaller capacity engine to exceed the outputs of the physically larger, previous model. To that extent, it makes 305kW of power and 650Nm of torque; both impressive figures.

There’s only one transmission available on the LX, and that’s a 10-speed conventional automatic. To compliment that rugged, ladder-chassis design, the LX also has a transfer-case with proper off-road gear ratios. This is what gives the vehicle its rock-crawling and river-crossing abilities, while permanent four-wheel drive and the Multi-Terrain Select system mean no-fuss operation.

The RS 7 may look like a large, well-mannered business class car, but think of it as a thug in a suit because this thing is a monster with a 441kW/800Nm twin-turbo petrol 4.0-litre V8.

That's almost 600 horsepower and the supercar acceleration that goes with it is brutal: we're talking 0-100km/h coming in 3.6 seconds. That also matches the RS 6 Avant and it's a tenth of a second faster than the Audi R8 V10 RWD supercar, (and also the previous-gen RS 7 Sportback Performance) and this is a large, four-door, five-seater.

Compared to the previous generation RS 7 Sportback Performance the power is down by 4kW, but torque is up by a whopping 100Nm. Give me torque over power any day.

Shifting gears is an eight-speed automatic transmission, sending the drive to all four wheels.

Much has been made of the new LandCruiser’s fuel-tank reduction to its new total of 110 litres. The LX follows suit with an 80-litre main tank and 30-litre auxiliary tank, but it’s worth remembering the improved efficiency of the new drivelines will maintain the range to a useful total. The base-model diesel version also misses out of the second tank for an 80-litre total.

Toyota claims a combined figure of 8.9 litres per 100km for the diesel and 12.1 litres for the petrol. On the open road, both variants will get pretty close to those targets (even though they’re a combined urban-highway figure) so the touring range remains useful and better than 1000km for the turbo-diesel with the twin tanks.

This is a large, all-wheel drive car with a 600 horsepower V8, but it also has a mild hybrid system in this new generation, which will switch the engine off at let the car coast down hills or at speeds under 22km/h.

Audi says this can save up to 0.8L/100km in real-life driving. That's great news, but consumption is still fairly high with Audi saying that after a combination of open and urban roads the RS 7 Sportback will have used 11.6L/100km.

Lexus surprised us a bit with its choice of test roads for the LX’s launch. As well as some twisty bitumen which might not, on the surface, have seemed the most LX-friendly terrain, the launch also threw in some steep if not otherwise too taxing off-road work.

The steep downhill section highlighted the fact that the LX has probably the best hill-descent control we’ve sampled. Not only is it simple to use with speed variation via the rotary knob that otherwise controls the drive modes, it’s also consistent and doesn’t stumble or lock-up wheels and bang brake calipers intermittently.

The second surprise was how well 2.6 tonnes of luxury off-road SUV handled the winding blacktop. It’s no performance-oriented SUV with its live rear axle and off-road-worthy suspension settings, but it can be hustled along in a pretty tidy manner if you concentrate and keep it flowing.

Beyond that, it was pretty civilised at everything else, too, and although it’s not a compact vehicle by any means, the cameras and sensors ensure that it’s not too much of a brain-teaser to park.

The LX seems to have slightly better noise suppression than the LandCruiser on which it’s based and the diesel version doesn’t seem quite as vocal under load. That said, it’s still very quiet and when rolling along at highway speeds and low engine revs, even the diesel is tomb-like in its silence.

But the petrol is next-level refined. There’s a small degree of engine raspiness when you rev the petrol V6 hard (and you won’t mistake it for a V8) but it’s a sophisticated soundtrack and, at a steady throttle, the petrol LX is even more silent.

The two engines have vastly different torque curves, but the 10-speed transmission is so on top of things that it can tailor its shift-pattern to make the absolute most of whatever torque and power are being produced. You can just feel the transmission holding a gear a little longer when the driver dials up max thrust, but in the interests of getting a heavy vehicle moving swiftly, using a clever transmission is the smart, modern way to do it.

Steering is a fraction light to be completely tactile, but that’s a function of the off-road abilities, and we’re pleased to report that the turning circle is very good given the exterior dimensions and makes tight city work much easier.

The shift paddles are, ironically, likely to be of most benefit when off-road and it’s here that the LX lays the SUV pretenders to waste. With low-ratio gears in the transfer case and that clever 10-speed, the LX will climb up some amazing places. It’s fair to say that, like all good off-roaders, you’ll run out of brave pills before the LX runs out of talent.

And while the suspension does a good job off-road, the live rear-axle and independent front suspension also combine pretty well on the blacktop. There’s some initial thump on pattery bumps that are felt more than heard. But as the bumps get bigger, the LX gets even better at dispatching them.

The variable ride height feels like air-suspension but is actually a clever hydraulic adjustment to the dampers to increase their length and, therefore jack the vehicle up for off-roading. Strangely, the ride seems to become a fraction firmer (and we mean a fraction) as the height cranks up, but most owners will never notice it.

What they will notice is the composure that the LX has in most settings. No, it’s not the fastest or tidiest handling SUV out there, but it’s well beyond good enough. And off-road? Very, very little is likely to touch it.

I've never met an RS model that hasn't been great to drive – these cars are way more than just tough body kits and big wheels. The engineering which separates the RS 7 Sportback from the A7 makes them more distant cousins than siblings.

As I mentioned before the RS 7 Sportback and RS 6 share more than the same twin-turbo V8, there are also the giant brakes in form of 420mm discs at the front with 10 piston calipers and 370mm discs at the rear.

The optional carbon ceramic brakes are the largest ever to be fitted to a production vehicle at 440mm at the front and 370mm at the rear, saving 34kg in mass over the steel brakes.

Now standard for the first time is Audi's Dynamic Package, which adds dynamic steering (a variable ratio) paired with all-wheel steering, a sport differential, and a 280km/h top speed.

Coming standard is adaptive air suspension and for $2850 you can option the Dynamic Ride Control suspension, which is a hydraulically activated adaptive damper system 

At the Australian launch, Audi supplied two RS 7 Sportbacks: one with the air suspension and the other with not only the Dynamic Ride Control system, but also the RS Dynamic Package Plus which adds the ceramic brakes and increases the top speed to 305km/h – this was the car I started off in.

I'm going to say right away that you don't need ceramic brakes for regular road use. Sure it means you can tell people that you have the biggest brakes in the world and they save you almost 35 kilos in weight, and, yes, they're resistant to fading, but they're expensive to replace and the steel ones are incredibly good.

I also feel the Dynamic Ride Control sports suspension isn't necessary in a car like the RS 7 Sportback. This is a Grand Tourer designed to eat up hundreds of miles at lightspeed in comfort.

So, while I found the first RS 7 Sportback with the big brakes and sports suspension sharper and firmer than the standard car, it didn't seem to fit with this vehicle's intent.

The regular RS 7 Sportback still accelerated with the same brutal force and roared at the scenery flashing past. It still handled through the tight corners superbly with excellent turn in, mind-boggling traction and grip, and excellent body control, but all in far more comfort.

This is the point – we covered hundreds of miles at the Australian launch of the RS 7 Sportback in a range of RS models, and sports suspension can go from great to gruelling on Aussie roads with their coarse-chip bitumen and potholes. The RS 7 Sportback, with its air suspension, not only made driving far more comfortable, but easier, too.

ANCAP tested the A7 in 2018 and gave it the maximum five-star ANCAP rating, however, this rating does not apply to the RS 7 Sportback high performance model.

That said, the RS 7 Sportback is fortified with nearly every piece of advanced safety tech there is in Audi's cupboard. There's AEB which can detect and brake for cyclists and pedestrians at speeds between 5-85km/h and vehicles up to 250km/h; there's rear cross traffic alert and intersection crossing assistance with braking; lane departure warning and corrective steering to keep you in your lane, and blind spot warning.

Not a fan of parking, the RS 7 Sportback can do it by itself, or there's a 360-degree camera that'll help you do it yourself. There's an exit warning system, which will warn you if a vehicle is approaching as you go to get out, too, and if the RS 7 Sportback detects that it will be hit from behind, it will prepare the cabin by tensions the seatbelts and closing the windows, including the sunroof.

Along with all that there are Audi's new Matrix LED headlights with laser lights, rain sensing wipers and adaptive cruise control.

For child seats you'll find three top tether points and two ISOFIX mounts across the second row.

There's no spare wheel – instead, there's a tyre repair kit.

Lexus Australia recently upgraded its factory warranty to five years/unlimited kilometres (up from three years). That’s better, but by no means a real advantage over most of its competition.

Capped price servicing is available at $595 per service for the first three years. The catch there is that servicing is every six months or 10,000km, an area in which Lexus trails its main competitors.

The RS 7 Sportback is covered by Audi's three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty which not only falls behind in duration compared to mainstream brands but also its direct rival Mercedes-Benz which now has five-year, unlimited kilometre coverage. 

Service intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km with a three-year plan costing $2380 and a five-year plan for $3910.