Review: 2023 Lexus RZ 450e Premium

What I've Been Driving

It's been almost 20 years since I bought my first and only car.  In 2006, I purchased a 2006 Lexus IS 250 that was manual transmission and ~200HP.  (Man, this blog didn't even exist back then, which is crazy to think about how old that car is).  It's currently got 210K miles on it and still runs really well, plus it's one of the last of its kind - Lexus no longer makes cars with manual transmissions and I don't think they have since 2013.

While my IS runs great, I know it's only a matter of time until it finally breaks down for good.  It has to be close, right?  We're just one major repair away from it costing more to fix the car than it's worth.  Hence, it was about time to buy a new car!  I wanted to stay with Lexus because I love the builds and quality, plus I'm also very loyal to a brand if it treats me well, and considering how long I had the IS without any major problems, I've been a very satisfied customer!

Why I Was Interested in EV

I was interested in an electrical vehicle because I simply just don't drive that much anymore.  I work remotely a majority of the week and most days I'll drive 30 minutes round trip and less than 15 miles.  Once a week I'll put in about 90 minutes of driving to go to work, bowling league, and then back home, for about 50 miles.  I will occasionally drive to Phoenix once a quarter, but that's about the most I'll drive as anything over a 3-hour drive I would prefer to fly.

I've been in a Tesla before and I will admit, they are very nice and fancy.  Like the iPhone version of a car.  I also witnessed their superior acceleration and was very impressed.  EV just sounded like something that could make sense for me, and when Lexus introduced their first ever EV in 2023, I was at least a little interested.  I gave it some time for reviews come out and it was mixed, and to be honest I simply forgot about buying a car until recently I just decided I should check it out.  Fortunately, Tucson had one RZ 450e on its lot that was available for a test drive.  I tried it out and instantly fell in love with everything about it, at least from a driving and riding perspective.  However, I knew part of that had to do with the fact that it was a new car and that I just love how luxurious Lexus cars feel.  I asked if this car I just drove was available for purchase, but they told me that it has been used as a loaner vehicle the past couple years and was not available for purchase yet.  If you don't know, a loaner vehicle is a dealer's car that they lend to people to drive while their car is in service.  The car had 7K miles on it and appeared to be in great shape since it has always been in care of the dealership.

My Lexus RZ 450e Buying Experience

After looking at all the models (300 or 450) and options (Base, Premium, Luxury) available, I decided that the RZ 450e Premium was the one I wanted.  I wanted the higher horsepower of the 450 and the little gadgets and features that the Premium offered.  I didn't get to see a Luxury model, but I was actually close.  I started looking online at used car websites like Cars.com, Carvana, AutoTrader, and CarGurus for anything RZ 450e.  There really weren't many options out there, probably because of the low amount of these cars they sold and the ones that are currently still being leased.  However, I spotted one on CarGurus, a RZ 450e Luxury that was going for a very low price at $35K because it was a manufacturer's buyback.  I don't know anything about buying used cars because I've only bought one car ever and it was brand new.  Located out of a dealership in Utah, I was so excited about the car being available and for that price that I put $500 down while I proceeded with getting a car loan.  While I never flew out to Utah beforehand to check out the vehicle, the pictures looked fine and the manager had ensured me that I could return the vehicle within 7 days if I found something drastically wrong with the car and just eat $1000 in shipping costs round trip.  While I waited for the loan to approve, I went to my insurance and found out that they could not insure a vehicle with a branded title.  I did some research and learned a lot about what a Lemon Law buyback was and even though the Carfax did not show it, the AutoCheck report had shown the car's battery had been serviced and replaced 4 times in a 5 month period!  I did a lot of research into Lexus RZ 450e batteries and found that there are some problems reported with the 12V battery dying inexplicably overnight, but it seems to be due to people leaving their Lexus phone app open and constantly sending requests to the car when it's idle.  My guess is that the previous owner's 12V battery died so many times that they wanted out of their lease, but I can only assume.  Regardless to say, I was pretty relieved that I didn't go through with the purchase of that car.

I had told the Lexus dealership in Tucson that I was interested in buying a used RZ 450e Premium in Iridium (silver) color, whenever they started becoming available.  I told them I was still planning to keep my IS, so I could afford to wait months to years if I needed to.  Welp, I guess someone was looking to make a sell, because they called me just a week after I was about to buy that car in Utah and asked me if I would be interested in buying that car I test drove if they could find a way to sell it to me.  I was excited to hear that the car was for sale!  I knew it was in good condition because it was under the dealership's control the whole time.  They also offered it to me as Lexus Certified Pre-Owned with a 0.99% financing rate and selling it to me for $42K, which it had originally MSRP'ed two years ago for $60K.  The price was a little higher than average, but I liked the peace of mind knowing that it was Lexus Certified, that the Carfax and AutoCheck reports both came up super clean, the financing was going to be very cheap, and I was also getting an extended warranty up to April of 2029.  I'd end up paying about $1300 on a 72-month loan.  Overall I was very happy with my eventual buying experience and ended up with the exact car I wanted!

Owning a 2023 Lexus RZ 450e Premium (after 2 weeks)

So here's the part that people probably want to know: How's the car?

I was coming form a car from almost 20 years ago, so when it comes to look and features, basically anything was going to blow my old car out of the water, lol.  This car is loaded with features: multiple cameras for parking including panoramic and bird's eye, adaptive cruise control that you can set the follow distance from the car before you and it assist with keeping you in the lanes, wireless Apple CarPlay is really nice oh and so is that area to wireless charge your phone, the HUD on the windshield is fun, the car can park itself although I can easily park it faster, and even the Lexus app is cool although it won't be free after a year.

I also love the way it drives, it's so fast!  I'm afraid that I will get many speeding tickets with this car because I just want to pass everyone on the road with its torque.  Plus it just looks super sleek and sexy.  My friends have asked if they're "going to be riding in a spaceship?"

The biggest complaint I've read about online is the low range on the car.  They advertise about 196 miles on the RZ 450e.  Last weekend I drove my car from my house in Tucson to my parents' house in Scottsdale in one fell swoop and from 100% I got to my parents' garage with 13% battery after 126 miles of driving.  I even had the thing in ECO mode with the climate off (fortunately I drive late at night so the temperature was cool around the high 60's that night).  However, most of that drive is also highway driving at 85mph except for maybe 15 miles.

Before I went back home, I knew I would have to charge my car before I went back to Tucson, since I had driven around Scottsdale and my parents don't have a 240V outlet installed, I was simply charging off 120V.  I downloaded 3 apps: ChargePoint, EVgo, and Plugshare.  Chargepoint sucks, it did not find many stations even in a big city like Phoenix.  EVgo was really nice, I could even select the type of charger I have which is J1772.  But Plugshare was the best because it had the most locations and users rate their experience at each station.  I found a convenient station off Wild Horse Pass, charged my car up from 50% to 73% for $9 after waiting 15 minutes and was on my way!

To be honest, this is not a car you should drive from city to city unless you like waiting around for it to charge.  Fortunately, I am still planning to keep my IS so that I have both an electric and gas vehicle and my IS will be the car I take anywhere out of the city.  It was just nice to show this car off to my parents and my friends and test its range, but yeah, probably never again lol.

As for installing a 240V charger at my house?  I'm not going to.  Like I mentioned earlier, I really only drive about 15 to 30 miles a day on average, which usually consumes about 13% of battery.  With the 120V charger, I can get that back in about 7 hours, which is overnight while sleeping.  And since I have the other car still, I could always use that in a pinch.  I want to drive the IS once a week still anyway.  I did however install this fancy holster and hook for my cable though, only $36 off Amazon!

Oh and some other things about the car I want to comment on that I've discovered: You can have the dealership disable the constant beeping that is on by default when you put the car in reverse mode.  I don't like that you can't open the roof windows like you can with the moonroof on my IS, plus I tried to buy some $100 roof shades off Amazon and they are more of a pain to attach then its worth.  There's no glove compartment but there's plenty of space in the arm rest cubby or underneath for your registration and insurance binder.  The owner's manual is so thick at 600+ pages that it's probably easier to just throw it away and rely on an online version.

Overall, I am pleased with my purchase.  I really enjoy driving an electric vehicle and it fits the bill for all my needs.  It's also nice to have a new car!  Thanks for reading and hope this helps if you were wondering about the Lexus RZ 450e!

Review II: Nationwide Pet Insurance (After 5 Years So Far)

You may recall last year that I wrote about a couple pet insurance claims with Nationwide for my dog Lucy that involved removing a bunch of benign masses from under her shoulder.  Well unfortunately, 2024 included three more claims: one for my cat Benzi and two for Lucy...

OPERATION #1 (BENZI - STOMATITIS):

Benzi was born with some pretty unfortunate luck.  I didn't blog about it, but back when Benzi was 8 months old, he actual developed Acute Kidney Failure and had lost so much weight, down to 4.5lbs after not eating for days.  I honestly thought he was going to die.  I took him to St. Mary's Animal Clinic because it was close to my house and the vet Dr. Laura Maillard diagnosed the condition.  Dr. Laura was great and offered me an affordable, at-home treatment to help save my cat's life and Benzi made a full recovery from that.  You can read about my review on Google here if you're curious about it.  Dr. Laura eventually left St. Mary's but I followed her to Bernarda Veterinary Hospital and will basically follow her now wherever she goes.  The kidney failure was before I acquired pet insurance for him, so that $1,000 in diagnostics and treatment came out of pocket and since this is a pre-existing condition before the insurance was activated, no future kidney failures can be claimed.  Let's hope it never happens again...

I've known about another condition for a while now called Stomatitis, which basically involves Benzi's teeth and gums.  He was unfortunately born with it and now that he's 5+ years old, Dr. Laura suggested it was time to treat his mouth.  The operation was successful and I submitted Benzi's first ever claim, which was reimbursed for $1,190.44 after my $250 annual deductible and omitting the dental cleaning.

Nationwide Insurance Claim #1 - Benzi (tuxedo cat), Stomatitis

OPERATION #2 (LUCY - VALLEY FEVER):

I went out of town for Labor Day weekend and left my dog Lucy in care of a friend who had never taken care of her before.  The friend would end up taking Lucy on all kinds of trips, for example to Mt. Lemmon or the nearby apple orchard farm.  When I got Lucy back, she stopped eating for a couple days and I it was near impossible to get her to eat anything, even boiled chicken (which most dogs will always scarf down).  After two days of her not eating, I had to take her to Urgent Vet, which is unfortunately more expensive than my normal vet because it is urgent care.  The vet couldn't tell what was wrong with her at first, but asked if I wanted to pay for additional diagnostic tests.  The nice thing with having insurance is that you stop thinking about how much medical care costs, because there is some peace of mind that it will be reimbursed later.  So I opted for the additional tests and one of them was for Valley Fever, which turned out to be what Lucy had!  If I didn't have insurance, I might have opted not to run the test for $100 and it would have taken longer or more to find out what Lucy's condition was.  It's likely that Lucy picked up Valley Fever from those excursions during my friend's care for her, from spores in the air or dirt.

The treatment for Valley Fever is simple, it just lasts a while.  I pick up bottles of Fluconazole that cost about $50 for 2 months worth and I give Lucy .4mL by mouth twice daily.  I am told from Dr. Laura that this treatment will last 6 months before we are able to revisit her levels and see if she's fully recovered.  But at least Lucy is fine and eating well again!  Here is Lucy's second ever claim, which was reimbursed for $895 after the $250 annual deductible.

Nationwide Insurance Claim #2 - Lucy (terrier dog), Valley Fever

OPERATION #3 (LUCY - MASS AND TOOTH REMOVAL):

Poor Lucy.  While she was diagnosed with Valley Fever, I also discovered a mass growing on her skull.  My vet had done some research about Lucy's "breed" of dog when the first mass appeared and learned that they are just a factory for developing these masses, albeit benign.  This one was on her skull however, and I definitely didn't want it to grow any larger, so I scheduled surgery a few months after the start of Valley Fever treatment to give Lucy some time to recover from that.

Here is Lucy's third claim, which also included a removal of some of her teeth since they were in a pretty poor condition.  We opted to do this now since it was inevitable and Lucy would be sleeping from the mass removal anyway.  The total reimbursement for this operation was $1,632.75, which only omitted the dental cleaning since my annual deductible from the previous claim had already been met.

Nationwide Insurance Claim # 3 - Lucy (terrier dog), Mass & Tooth Removal

A POST-ANALYSIS OF INSURANCE COSTS VS SAVINGS:

A lot of people will ask me if pet insurance is worth it.  Honestly, it's like any insurance in the world: it's worth it if you use it or if you have trouble setting aside money for when things go awry.  It's up to you to decide if you'd rather save chunks of money for when your pets eventually get sick or if insurance is something that can work for you.  I will say however that like in Operation #2 with Lucy's Valley Fever, it was nice to have the reassurance that insurance would cover the additional diagnostic tests that I may have not elected for had I been paying out of pocket.

When I first started the pets on insurance, it was $18/mo for the cats and $30/mo for the dog.  Now it is $23/mo for the cats and $44/mo for the dog.  The monthly insurance went up for the cats as they are getting older (or maybe inflation?) and I'm not sure if the increase for the dog is higher because of the previous claim or age/inflation or both...

Regardless, we can "estimate" if pet insurance is worth it by doing some ballpark math.  I don't know exactly when my rates changed, but let's just say it was $18/$30 for the first 3 years and $23/$44 for the next two years, just to give us an idea of how much I'm spending versus saving:

Benzi = ($18 x 42 months) + ($23 x 24 months) + ($250 deductible) = $1,558 paid over 5.5 years.  With $1,190 reimbursed, that means I'm -$368 for Benzi so far and 1 operation.

Ember = ($18 x 38 months) + ($23 x 24 months) = $1,236 paid over 5 years.  This means I'm -$1,236 for Ember so far and 0 operations.

Lucy = ($30 x 28 months) + ($44 x 24 months) + ($250 deductible x 2 claims) = $2,396 paid over 4 years.  With $1,147 + $934 + $895 + 1632 = $4,608 reimbursed, that means I'm +$2,212 for Lucy so far and 4 operations.

So there you have it.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...your pets will eventually get sick.  So far the pet insurance has definitely been worth it and I'm happy that I went with Nationwide's Major Medical Plan for all three pets!