2024 Lexus TX 550h+: Futuristic, but maybe the future isn’t ready yet

2024 Acura MDX SH-AWD Type S Adv vs. 2024 Lexus TX 550h+ Luxury: Two ways to spend $80k on three rows. This week: the Lexus. (We covered the Acura last week.)

Price: $78,050 for the trim level.

Conventional wisdom: Motor Trend likes that it’s “roomy in all three rows,” with a “quiet and smooth ride,” but “we’d prefer power to be more balanced front to rear, gas engine kicks in at higher speeds even in EV mode, gear shifter can be clunky.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Experience amazing.”

Reality: It’s definitely futuristic.

What’s new: The whole thing. Lexus has unveiled the new three-row SUV, and this plug-in hybrid version is the top trim level.

Competition: Besides the Acura, there’s the Audi Q7, Cadillac XT6, Infiniti QX60, and Land Rover Discovery.

Catching up: Last week, we took out the Acura MDX, a very nice ride but a little long in the tooth. (It’ll get a redesign in 2025.) Now, here’s the all-new Lexus three-row, taking a different, more modern approach.

Up to speed: The TX 550h+ gets a 3.5-liter V-6 engine coupled to a plug-in hybrid system. Lesser versions get a four-cylinder.

Combined power is 404 horses, and the TX gets to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds, according to Motor Trend. That leaves the MDX in the dust, arriving at 60 mph 0.7 seconds later.

Contrary to Motor Trend’s complaint, I found the EV setting leaving the engine off during hard acceleration. I’m sure there’s a mode I can change hidden somewhere. But then, this was a theme of the Lexus.

Shifty: Lexus and Toyota have adopted the Prius shifter for their hybrids and EVs — up and left for Reverse, down and left for Drive, a button for Park. I’ve never found this too hard to remember or too easy to make mistakes with.

On the road: I spent six days torturing myself in the TX. The vehicle handled like an old Tundra, flopping from side to side, scaring me on narrow lanes. I felt like it was steering through cotton or driving with old-time Dolby noise reduction on.

Day six, I finally remembered to check for driver assists left on, and sure enough, they were. I turned them off, and the thing suddenly got pretty close to the MDX, offering dynamic handling and superb cornering.

But then, why are the driver assists even there? They’re useful on a limited-access highway, but then you have to dig through the hard-to-see touchscreen to find them and switch modes. Actually, the lane tracing is on the steering wheel, using a button that you have to hover over to turn into your button before it actually functions.

The TX 550h+ comes only in all-wheel-drive form.

Driver’s Seat: Even more controls have disappeared into the screen, and argh. Sport mode? In the screen. Driver assist? Screen. HVAC? Same.

The touchscreen is a mighty, mighty thing, 14 inches diagonally, and you’d think that helps, but you’d be wrong. The icons are too small, and there’s not nearly enough contrast.

The seat itself is also not up to the usual Lexus cuddliness. I thought this would be the big honking Lexus SUV that finally got things right, but no.

Friends and stuff: The middle and third rows have their ups and downs. Space in the middle-row captain’s chairs is generous, with room to spread out your legs and feet, and lots of headroom as well. The way, way back does OK, certainly better than the Acura.

Getting around from middle to rear is fairly simple; a button moves the middle seat out for access to the rear, while ducking around the middle row is not a terrible choice either.

Cargo space is 97 cubic feet with everything folded; 57.4 being the second row; and 20.2 behind the third. This far exceeds the MDX, with 71.4, 39.1, and 16.3 cubes.

Play some tunes: The lone knob on the TX 550h+ screen is for volume. The 14-inch touchscreen is there for the rest, and it can be challenging to operate with the vehicle in motion.

Furthermore, the steering wheel controls don’t “wake up” until you hover your finger over them. So essentially the first time you try the button, it doesn’t work. Except when it does. Oh, Lexus, I thought once you got over the touch pad, you’d gotten smart, but no.

I might make allowance for all this if the stereo was Lexus awesome, but it’s just OK. It does many songs well and misses some of the tough ones. B+, in part because this vehicle is so darned expensive and should be better.

Parking: Something about the corners on the front make the TX exceedingly difficult to park. They drop off to the sides, and it’s hard to get a feel for where the edge is. So I must confess I managed to put a scratch on the Lexus in my own garage, an embarrassing admission. But did all the bells and warnings alert me to that particular issue? No.

I consoled myself by remembering that I parked a Suburban in this very same garage and always knew where the corners were, and never scraped it. Also, all manner of other full-size SUVs and pickups as well.

Keeping warm and cool: The touchscreen has several functions available along the bottom of the screen without having to dig deeper — fan speed and air source, plus seat heating and cooling. A strange pair of dials controls the temperature; I watched Mrs. Passenger Seat struggle with the same confusion I experienced a couple Lexuses ago. Not hard when you learn, but the dials are shallow enough that it’s easy to brush the touchscreen and accidentally reset something.

Fuel economy: I averaged about 26 mpg in a very plugged-in round of testing.

Where it’s built: Princeton, Ind.

How it’s built: Consumer Reports predicts the TX 550 to be a 4 out of 5 for reliability.

In the end: If you need more space and want to be more eco-friendly, it’s all about the Lexus. But the Acura can be far less irksome. Let’s see what they offer for ‘25.