The beefy front bumper and pronounced fender flares are designed to suggest the rugged, off-pavement expected in an SUV. Its door handles are of the reach-through type, which are generally more hand-friendly than the fingertip pull-up type, with less opportunity to break long fingernails or snap away from your fingers when you’re in a hurry.

Viewed from the rear, the RX reveals a visor-like spoiler over the top edge of its rear window, a short radio antenna at the right-rear corner of the roof (promising better reception in marginal areas than the also-included imbedded-in-glass type), and clear-lens tail lights.

Subtle styling differences distinguish the RX 400h from the RX 350. Among them: a front bumper and grille designed to allow more air into the RX 400h engine bay for more cooling and tail lamps with LEDs instead of traditional incandescent bulbs.

For 2008, there are a few tweaks to the appearance of both models, with a new front grille design for the RX 350, a new grille finish for the 400h, and chrome door handles on both. The 400h models without a towing package sport a blue hybrid badge on the front, and the rear spoiler is color-keyed.

The RX 400h is also available with the 18-inch wheels and tires offered on the RX 350, and it says something about the thinking behind the hybrid. Lexus could have used hard, low-grip tires that reduce rolling resistance and further improve fuel economy, but chose to enhance handling instead.

The 400h hybrid powertrain adds less than 300 pounds to the curb weight and that’s an impressive engineering achievement, given the powerful motors and batteries. They’re all placed low in the vehicle, so they don’t substantially raise the center of gravity or affect handling. While the hybrid does give up two gallons of fuel capacity, its 17.2-gallon tank is still larger than that in most vehicles, and it loses none of the 84.7 cubic feet of cargo space available in the RX 350.

The Lexus RX feels spacious when you settle in. It’s luxurious and inviting. The optional leather upholstery is luxuriously soft and slightly bunched.

The RX 350 has splashes of walnut or bird’s eye maple on the doors and center console and on its steering wheel. The RX 400h has brushed aluminum that resembles the metallic plastic used in both models around the gauges and switch plates and its steering wheel is wrapped completely in leather. For 2008, black bird’s-eye maple wood trim is available with light-gray interiors on either model.

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