Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota, so naturally, Lexus makes some great cars. That said, since Lexus makes luxury cars, its cars aren’t as affordable as Toyota’s cars are. But, despite the price tag, the 2020 Lexus RX is a very affordable SUV in the long run.

What’s great about the 2020 Lexus RX

Lexus, like Toyota, is well-known for making great cars that are reliable and dependable. A Lexus, just like a Toyota, is so reliable that some owners often don’t even do any routine maintenance or repairs on it. They should be doing routine maintenance, but because of how reliable the cars are, they will rarely break down suddenly.

Not just that, but the RX, in particular, offers customers a lot of great options. For example, Lexus has recently started offering a third-row seating option for the RX. This will increase its seating capacity to seven people.

On top of that, the RX has two great engine options. The first is the standard 3.5-liter V6 that gets 295-hp and the second is a hybrid engine that gets a combined 305-hp. The standard V6 gets 20 MPG in the city and 27 MPG on highways, while the hybrid gets 31 MPG in the city and 28 MPG on highways. 

And of course, since it’s a luxury SUV, its interior is high-quality and there are a lot of standard features on board. Like its Toyota counterparts, the RX, as well as other Lexus cars, all come with a lot of standard safety features.

But, since the RX is a luxury SUV, it’s somewhat expensive. It starts at about $45,000 and the hybrid version starts at about $48,000. But, here’s why that shouldn’t faze you.

Cost to own matters too

Cost of ownership is a measure of how much money it costs to own a car after you’ve bought it. This matters a lot because the price tag that you’re offered at a dealership isn’t all that you’ll pay for your car. 

The amount of routine maintenance that you should be doing on your car is another price that you’ll have to pay for it. It’s the same story for repairs. It’s cheap to buy a beater for a few hundred dollars, but most beaters will suffer a severe issue that’ll cost you the price of the car to fix. 

And of course, there’s fuel. Every car, whether it’s powered by gas, diesel, electric or anything else, needs fuel. And fuel always cost something. Right now, due to global events, gas is cheap, but it won’t always be. A gas guzzler can potentially cost its owner thousands of dollars a year for fuel alone. 

The 2020 Lexus RX has the lowest cost to own

Due to the RX’s great reliability, dependability, and gas mileage, it’s unsurprisingly pretty cheap to own, especially compared to its counterparts. Kelley Blue Book said that the 2020 RX costs about $56,000 to own over 5-years. This might seem like a lot of money, but remember, that’s over 5-years and it’s the cheapest luxury SUV to own over that period.

In comparison, the runner-up was the 2020 Cadillac XT5, which cost about $61,500 to own over 5-years. In third place was the 2020 Lincoln Nautilus, which cost about the same as the XT5 did to own over 5-years.

This means that, compared to its best competitors, the 2020 RX is at least $5,000 cheaper to own over 5-years. Even though the XT5’s price tag is about $1,000 cheaper than the RX’s, with the RX, you’re essentially saving about $1,000 a year compared to the XT5.