2019 Lexus RC 350 Review: The Fast and the Curious

The Lexus RC 350 is a bit of a curious case. Actually, that’s not entirely true; it would have been a curious case about four years ago, before Lexus started adding big spindle grilles to everything and had customers actually buying models coloured in something other than silver.

I say “curious”, here, because it’s a bit of a tale of two cars, this Lexus coupe. On one hand, you’ve got the big front and rear bumper extensions, chrome mirror caps and blacked-out spindle grille. Add my tester’s Flare Yellow exterior paint (which, as it happens, is also offered on the gorgeous, futuristic LF C Coupe), and you’ve got a head-turner of a two-door that, just a few years ago, Lexus seemed incapable of producing.

Too much?
The question that remains, though, is have they turned the trick and delivered an eye-catching (as opposed to retina-burning) design, or is it too much of a good thing? That depends, I guess, on what you’re looking for from a coupe with an “L” on its spindle grille in terms of styling.

If you’re looking for angles, aggressive vent cuts and aggressive head- and taillight lenses, then the RC could very well be your car. The grille is a major styling piece for sure, but since it’s flanked by such aggressive headlamps it doesn’t dominate the scene as much as it does on the RX SUV, for example. Plus, since it’s a more compact fascia overall, it doesn’t look quite so much like it’s about to open up like a baleen whale and swallow you whole. Unlike other Lexus models, however, the RC350 only comes with the F Sport package, meaning this is the only grille style you get.

‘Round back, the scene is slightly more tempered as you don’t have stuff like a bloody great big underbody diffuser flanked by potato cannon-sized exhaust tips. You do get “intakes” either side of the bumper, but they’re not actually “intaking” anything and are there just for show. What type of show, however, I’m a little unsure of. I see no need for these, and would much rather have a clean rear bumper. More troubling still is that they’ve had to make bumper cutouts in order to fit the “intakes”, and what’s left juts out when in side-profile view in an unseemly manner. There’s a pair of these faux intakes on the front bumper as well, but they’re not quite so bothersome there. So, if you’re looking for maximum subtlety from your coupe, you may want to look elsewhere.

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