When is a 4x4 SUV not a 4x4 SUV?
When it’s a Lexus RX450h is the answer.

You may be confused, because it certainly looks like one, weighs as much as if it was one, and has drive to all four wheels. But that drive comes courtesy of a petrol engine and electric motor powering the front wheels and a separate electric motor that’s connected to the rear wheels.

In the past that has been a letdown because in circumstances with difficult traction there wasn’t the full 4x4 effect. The latest car, though, has a selectable Snow mode in its transmission which sends drive to the rear wheels when the front wheels lose their grip.

However, it’s in normal driving that I missed the full 4x4 effect the most. Hit deep surface water and a normal permanent 4x4 would see you through with no trouble at all. But the RX450h behaves like any other large front drive car with a powerful engine and that’s not the result you necessarily want.

I’m hopeful that following on from this Lexus second generation hybrid drive there will be a third that somehow does more to detect difficult driving conditions such as heavy rain and ensure the rear wheels get their drive when they need it and not just as the car pulls away from a standstill.

You may imagine from my comments so far that I don’t rate the Lexus that highly but in fact I do. I liked it for what it was, which is not a 4x4 SUV. Regard it as a luxury estate car and you’ll find it does a good job with the added bonus of the high driving position you get with conventional SUVs.

How can I like it when it doesn’t deliver what it appears to say on the tin? Well, the failings of the RX450h in the 4x4 department are no worse than other SUVs I could list – the difference is that Lexus has never claimed its hybrid RX models are any good in the field while others pretend their products will deliver when they patently won’t.

So address the Lexus in a different way and it has many pleasing features. Not least among these is that you don’t have to pull up at a diesel pump. It runs on normal unleaded yet delivers the type of fuel economy, or better, that you would expect of a similarly sized SUV with an auto box and diesel engine.

Efficiency is the name of the game with this car, although not to the degree that you will be led to believe if you rely on the official fuel figures. Just accept that the combined test result of 44.8 mpg is as much pie in the sky as the 42.8 urban and 47.2 extra urban figures and you’ll start to feel better when your RX450h delivers 31 mpg regularly or 34.5 mpg on a run.

It does this quietly and without fuss, although it will give your kidneys quite a punch if you hit the loud pedal too hard. Part of the clever electronic kit, though, is a system that muffles the response to the throttle. When we want to accelerate hard we all tend to stamp on the loud pedal more than we should, which rams extra, wasted, fuel into the cylinders. The Lexus counters this mistake and feeds in enough fuel to meet the engine’s actual response.

There is a delightful muffled growl from the 3.5 litre V6 petrol motor, which gives 246 bhp on its own. Total quoted power output when the electric motors are assisting too is 295 bhp. The result is a 0-62 mph time of 7.8 seconds and top speed of 124 mph.

Even with the four setting, self levelling suspension that Lexus uses, that is quite enough power and speed. Body roll is relatively well controlled but the slippery leather seats negate that slightly as they don’t hold you as firmly as they might.

What might grip you more is the price – the SE-L test car was £50,460 but you can spend as much as £55,505 if you buy the premium model or as little as £41,600 for the basic SE. Whichever you choose, metallic paint is st