Lexus RZ450e Long Term Review

Being a Lexus, the RZ is beautifully built and has lots of interesting technology. You also know it will work all of the time and that the dealer will be nice to you. That’s enough to convince a lot of people – especially those who have been driving rivals previously and spent time waiting for recovery truck, or been handed the keys to their £70,000 car in a tent and been told to use Google to see how it works. It really happens.

Let me start with the build quality. In most places, at least. The doors open and shut with a satisfying precision, and oddly you don't have to do anything as old-fashioned as pulling a handle. There is no mechanical connection, and instead they unlatch electronically.This is fine on the outside, but inside it just confuses everyone who gets in the car. It seems pointless and irritating, but then I swapped cars with Ginny and found myself begrudging having to pull a handle. Which is, weird as even I’m not THAT lazy. I thought it may have been some cost cutting measure but it seems there is an emergency override in case the battery fails so it's just twice as complicated.

But it’s all ruined by something you have to use everyday in the RZ – the charging flap. It feels cheap and flimsy, especially compared to rivals which have electrically operated mechanisms that glide up gracefully. There's a trick to getting the RZ's flap open and shut - you have to push at just the right spot about an inch from the bottom right corner. You can make it work, but it's worse than on the cheapest EVs I've tried.

The boot does open electrically - and accompanied with beeps to wake up the neighbours - and is a decent size. There's no rear wiper - bugbear of mine - but the rear view camera does have it's own washer jet, complete with its own switch on the wiper stalk. Mind you, my in-law's 2014 Nissan Note has software which means the camera knows when it's dirty and cleans itself.

Move to the front and there's a feature which is often mentioned by freinds - the black bonnet. I enjoy cleaning cars so like getting it to a mirror finish, but a witty chum asked if I got it from a scrapyard, which would have stung if I’d actually paid £1,100 for the option. It works better on other colour combos I think.

For now though, I'm going to put down the polishing cloth and look at some figures. More next month....

About our RZ450e

Our RZ450e is the top-spec Takumi, which costs £67,995. The Aether Blue/Black Bi-Tone paint added another £1,100 to the bill