2013 Lexus RX350 problems
Owners have filed 87 complaints with NHTSA about the 2013 Lexus RX350. Brakes is the most reported problem area, at 15% of complaints. Next are electrical system (13%) and body & structure (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 87 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 15% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 19 and 6
- Injuries and deaths
- 26 and 3
- Typical mileage
- 58,000 miles 66 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 15 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 11 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 7 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 12 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 9 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 7 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 4 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 66 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 58,000 miles. For brakes specifically, the median reported mileage is about 21,000 miles (10 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 19 complaints mention a crash; 6 complaints mention a fire; 26 injuries reported; 3 deaths reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 98% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2013 ranks 6th most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Lexus RX350 with enough data (65 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Vehicicle shot forward gaining speed with brakes fully applied whch did not engage the brake override of acceleration. Ran through the garage door gaining speed then collided with the garage back wall. There was no control of the vehicle. The adjacent kitchen wall collapsed which moved the refrigerator forward trapping our two friends between it and the kitchen cabinets on the parallel wall. The air bags did not deploy even though the black box indicated the car hit the garage wall at about 17 MPH.
Applied brakes to slow vehicle coming to a stop sign, the car would not stop and the brake pedal felt like the traction control engaged, the brake resisted and made a grinding noise, the car finally stopped,there were no light indicators on the dash. I continued for about 1/4 mile with 2 more stop signs with no incident, on the 3rd stop ( at my destination) the car again would not come to a complete stop for about 30 feet, no dash light indicators, the brake resisted again. I have not driven the car since.
The contact owns a 2013 Lexus RX350. The contact stated that after closing the liftgate door and reversing out of the car port, the liftgate door erroneously opened and struck the car port causing damage to the liftgate. The local dealer and manufacturer were notified of the failure. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The contact stated that recently the liftgate lowered independently. The failure occurred several times while placing items into the back of the vehicle.