Ours had even a few more extras that ran the total sticker up to $52,703 (including freight). The test vehicle provided to us by Lexus was one of the original all-wheel-drive models that came with the navigation system as part of the vehicle’s then-$48,535 base price (plus $650 freight). (Prices for 2007 have not been announced.) The $44,060 starting price now represents just a $7,000 premium over the base RX model for 2006. “It has helped sales that people can now get an RX 400h for a lot less than they could at the start,” he said. While industrywide midsize luxury SUV sales have fallen 17 percent this year through July, compared with the same period last year, the Lexus RX line is down just 2.6 percent for the year, buoyed by sales of the hybrid model. And while sales of the RX line overall have fallen this year from last as sales of midsize luxury SUVs have tanked, the hybrid model is still about 23 percent of sales overall, close to the sales targets Lexus had projected for the vehicle, Thome said. With both of those, the navigation system is optional. Consumer demand prompted the company to roll out a less-well-equipped front-drive model, with a base price of $44,060, and an all-wheel-drive version, also with less standard equipment, for $46,060, Lexus spokesman Greg Thome said. The original base price was just under $50,000, about $12,000 more than a -ase version of the RX 330.

At first, it was offered only with all-wheel drive, with some amenities that were optional on the gasoline-only RX 330 model – such as a fancy navigation system with a rearview camera. Lexus also has made the RX 400h more affordable than it was when it arrived in April 2005. The RX 400h has EPA ratings of 31 miles per gallon in the city and 27 on the highway, which puts it near the top of the SUV class overall, and well above vehicles such as the Lexus LX 470, with its ratings of 13 mpg city/17 highway. In fact, the RX 400h price, which begins at just under $45,000 for a two-wheel-drive model, really isn’t all that high in today’s market, where a fully equipped GMC Yukon or Chevrolet Tahoe full-size SUV can cost even more. There has been a feeling among automakers that luxury cars would pretty much be exempt from the pressures on sales that higher fuel prices bring.īut sport utilities such as the Lexus RX line, typically purchased for everyday family use, might not quite fall into the luxury class, where operating costs are generally not an issue. The only luxury hybrid SUV on the market is selling well even as sales of other midsize sport utilities are falling.īut the fact that consumers who can pay $45,000 and up for the Lexus RX 400h also would care about saving gasoline shows that perhaps even those who can afford higher gasoline prices aren’t particularly eager to spend more on fuel than they have to.

2006 lexus rx specs