A passenger who accepted a lift in the RX 300 halfway through this test gave a brief but accurate appraisal of its styling, as follows: "It's a bit ugly, isn't it?"Even bearing in mind the impossibility of making a large off-roader look svelte, this car is certainly not the last word in elegance. But then few Lexus products are. Since Toyota's upmarket brand first appeared in the UK, the badge has rarely been fitted to anything (with the notable exception of the IS 200) that came close to the top of its class in terms of visual appeal.However, the RX 300 also has another very common Lexus characteristic. Some large 4x4s are basically off-roaders with various luxury items tacked on. Others are attempts to enter the class by manufacturers who build many different types of car without particularly specialising. Lexus (if we separate it from Toyota for the purpose of argument) operates at its absolute peak when it is designing luxury cars, and the RX 300, whatever its off-road abilities, feels to all intents and purposes like a luxury car on stilts.It is beautifully kitted-out inside, and indeed the test car was particularly impressive in this respect for reasons we'll come to shortly. The ride is basically superb (though it's obviously compromised by the need to cope with the car's considerable height) and the steering in particular is magnificently smooth - few other vehicles in the class even begin to compare with it in this respect.The three-litre V6 petrol engine provides decent pulling power, with an inevitable cost in terms of fuel economy, and it's also pretty smooth, though not to the same extent as the four-litre V8 in the very first Lexus to be imported to this country.All of this applies to the RX 300 range in general. The test car was in SE-L specification, which bumps up the basic price by nearly £9000 to £37,825.You do get a lot of extra kit for the money. Among the more predictable items are 18" alloys, leather trim, heated front seats, a 40/20/40 split rear seat, rain sensor wipers and what Lexus describes as "electrically modulated air suspension".Some of the other goodies are more exotic. I particularly liked the adaptive headlamps, which point towards the inside of corners as you turn the steering wheel. The most obvious evidence of this is the way that the slight distortions at the outer edge of the beams moves across, but apart from that everything seems very natural. It's only when you move from the Lexus to a car with fixed beams that you realise how effective the adaptive system is.I was also greatly in favour of the rear vision camera which shows what's behind the car on the central display screen every time you select reverse gear. The system is by no means unique to Lexus, of course, and the view is slightly more distorted than it is on other cars, but this is still an appealing option.The SE-L specification is completed by rain-sensitive wipers, a powered tailgate, the excellent touchscreen Lexus Navigator system (which is where the rear-view footage appears) and a splendid Mark Levinson sound system.This array of equipment is all very fine, but it's not being used to disguise an otherwise unimpressive car. The RX 300 is a thoroughly effective luxury 4x4 and well worth a look if this is the kind of vehicle you want. And not the least of its advantages is that you don't have to look at the styling from the inside. Engine 2995cc, 6 cylinders Power 201bhp Fuel/CO2 23.2mpg / 288g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.0 seconds Top speed 124mph Price £37,825 Details correct at publication date
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