10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
2,985 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2018 Lexus RX 350 engine problems

engine problem

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2018 Lexus RX 350 Owner Comments

problem #5

Oct 012024

RX 350

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

1. At [XXX] on [XXX], I was pulling into my gym's parking lot, when I stepped on the break to park my car, instead of stopping, the car accelerates rapidly and crashed through the other side of the sidewalk where there were light pole and cement walls, throwing me forward and backward with seat belt on, I was in total shock! 2. My insurance sent a field inspector to the body shop 2X in hope to repair my car but ended up declaring it a Total Loss. 3. Lexus said they would send a field tech to get the EDR (Event Data Recorder) data from my 2018 Lexus RX350 within 30 days, but the results won't be available for 30-45 days after that. Lexus's slow response to this accident concerns and disappoints me b/c it was a serious crash that Lexus should treat it seriously and promptly. 4. The disbelief of a 'young' car with only 12297 miles could have issues like this puzzled me and drove me to do a lot of online research, then I came across this site [XXX] which contains an article titled '10 Common Problems of A Lexus RX350'. Problem #5 described exactly what had happened to me: 'ONE RECURRING PROBLEM THIS CAR HAS IS THAT THE SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONS SEVERELY. THIS TYPICALLY HAPPENES WHEN THE DRIVER IS TRYING TO PARK THE VEHICLE. REPORTS PAINT THE SAME PICTURES REPEATEDLY: THE DRIVER IS PULLING INTO A PARKING LOT, THEY PUSH THE BREAK PEDAL, AND INSTEAD OF STOPPING, THE CAR ACELERATES RAPIDLY, WHICH RESULTS IN A CRASH." Based on this article, it seems that Lexus should have issued a recall, but no! 5. The strange thing was that NO airbags were exploded/activated, yet the vehicle was damaged to beyond repair, it makes me wonder if there was an issue with the airbags too. If this incident had occurred at an intersection, I dare not imagine the outcome...I could have been killed or critically injured along with other innocent people on the road. I am very traumatized by the whole experience and sadly, the feeling seems to have gotten worse as time goes. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5

- Phoenix, AZ, USA

problem #4

May 312022

RX 350

  • miles
Car displaying parking brake malfunction and and cruise control malfunction intermittent when using the parking break, seem that TSB (T-SB-0168-19) was open for Camay from 2018 to 2020 exhibiting the same issue but not for this car. This a safety concern since parking brake becomes disable, this issue resets after restarting the car again.

- Davie, FL, USA

problem #3

Jul 242018

RX 350

  • 100 miles
When stepping on the gas petal one of three things happen. 1. normal acceleration which you expect after 60 years of driving and which we obtain from a 2014 Lexus RX350 that we own. 2. hesitation of between 1 and 5 seconds before acceleration begins. 3 excessive acceleration ( surg of acceleration much more than expected). This excess acceleration may happen after the hesitation or there could be "normal" acceleration after the hesitation and happens when accelerating after being stopped.. the hesitation and excess acceleration can be from a stopped position ie stop sign or traffic light or while moving and normal speeds. There seems to be a consistent hesitation at the 60 to 65 mph when attempting to accelerate on highway. At 70 mph everything seems to work as expected. The surging and hesitating seems to be at lower speeds and and when making turns in city streets and moving up or down hills and in parking lots when moving out of parking spaces, but it happens at all speeds up to 65 mph. The cars has accelerated with out depressing the accelerator - this could have been a delayed acceleration after pressing the accelerator a half block before. This happened with a Lexus representative was in the car with me - I was driving so he could not tell if that actually happened or if I accelerated. Starting in early 2019 we have told Lexus when the car was serviced( twice yearly that the car behaved in this manner. Each time that have told us they did not re-create the described behavior and the car was performing as designed.

- Keller, TX, USA

problem #2

Apr 152020

RX 350 6-cyl

  • 9,825 miles
On April 15 2020, was entering a parking space in front of a sprouts supermarket at 12500 westheimer rd., houston, Texas 77077. The Lexus RX350 (2018) failed to stop and crashed into a large building support column which did serious damage to the Lexus and to the column. This is an expensive car and came equipped with the emergency crash system. This feature did not work to stop the car from hitting the building. In the past it has stopped the car but only most often it does not work...no one was injured nor were any people on the parking area affected.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #1

Jul 072018

RX 350

  • 5,000 miles
Hesitation upon acceleration. The engine does not respond in a linear manner when pressing the gas pedal.

- Avon, IN, USA

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