Of all the places I am lucky enough to visit doing this job I enjoy America most. It’s not that I feel most at home there, quite the reverse. If you remove the passing linguistic similarities, parts of the United States are among the most foreign places on earth. Where else are you not allowed to smoke in public but can buy a weapon worthy of the Terminator on a street corner? And America’s bestselling car is not a car at all, it’s a truck.

The dubious merits of the Ford F-150 pick-up need not detain us but it does help to shed light on the single most extraordinary fact about the Lexus RX300. This car, almost unknown here compared with the BMW X5 and Mercedes M-class, is the bestselling luxury 4x4 in the world. In the past five years, half a million of these softest of soft-roaders have been built and itis the Americans who have been snapping them up. Less than 1% have found their way over here.

Its modest British sales never were a true reflection of the old RX, which was no X5 but likeable enough in an unremarkable way. It simply suffered as all non-European premium-priced luxury or sporty cars do in Britain: when prices head north of 30 grand we turn into a nation of snobs.

So don’t expect this new RX to be cluttering the pavements outside private schools across the land any time soon — though that, of course, might be a very good reason for buying one. Your car might not be any better than everyone else’s but it will be different.

The RX300 deserves your attention for more than its novelty value and it would be selling a capable car short to suggest that its greatest attraction is that it isn’t an X5.

In fact, while it lacks inspirational qualities the Lexus is a car with few serious faults, unless it’s the now academic point that it’s an off-roader with next to no off-road ability.

What it does offer is the most comfortable and refined ride of any luxury sport-utility vehicle (SUV) this side of a £50,000 Range Rover. Its 201bhp, 3 litre motor is one of the smoothest V6s on the market, while the air-sprung suspension of the range-topping SE-L offers exceptional ride quality for the class, even if it remains mediocre by conventional saloon standards. Topped by a Mark Levinson stereo capable equally of soothing you after a long day’s work or blowing the windows out, superb climate control and an astonishing array of standard goodies for £37,700, it’s a very pleasant thing in which to tool about. The problems start when you try to do a little more. Try, for instance, to drive it with even a modicum of enthusiasm and you’ll discover what many thousands of SUV drivers have discovered before: 3 litres and 200 horsepower sound impressive but when tied to a car weighing nearly two tons their effect is anything but.

Lexus says it will reach 62mph in 9sec flat but the car I drove felt slower. And if you drive it hard the high centre of gravity limits its handling while the new five-speed autobox, usually a paragon of predictive smoothness, starts shifting gears at the most unusual times.

Lexus might counter that much of this criticism can be levelled at all SUVs and I wouldn’t quarrel with that, except to observe that “they all do that, sir” never did rate highly in my book of excuses.

More damning is the fact that the RX300 remains almost as characterless as its predecessor. It’s a little better looking on the outside and its smart new cabin is positively attractive but I still can’t figure out its identity. A BMW X5 or Volvo XC90 leaves you in no such doubt.

So where does this leave the RX300? To me both the Volvo and BMW are more desirable, though I’d have the Lexus over the disappointing Mercedes M-class or dreadful Land Rover Discovery any day of the week, month or year. I have yet to drive the V6-powered version of the new VW Touareg, though experience in its diesel sister leads me to suspect it would get the nod over the Lexus, too.

Don’t dismiss it out of hand, though. For a certain sort of person — someone who is in the SUV market through circumstance rather than choice — I think it deserves a long hard look. Its ride and refinement are more akin to a normal car than any others in the class, it’s beautifully built, lavishly equipped and totally anonymous. We all have our views of BMW X5 owners and other SUV drivers but if you drive an RX you distance yourself from all of that. More than any other SUV, it says next to nothing about you.

In short the Lexus is an SUV for people who don’t like SUVs and, with certain exceptions, I count myself among them. Which is why, despite everything, I rather liked it.

Vital statistics
Model Lexus RX300 SE-L
Engine type V6, 2995cc
Power/Torque 201bhp at 5600rpm / 208lb ft at 4500rpm
Transmission Five-speed automatic
Suspension (front and rear) MacPherson struts, coil springs, electronically adjustable air suspension, anti-roll bars
Fuel/CO2 23.2mpg (combined) / 288g/km
Acceleration 0 to 62mph: 9sec
Top speed 124mph
Price £37,700
Verdict Good enough, just, to offer credible opposition to the more predictable choices among luxury SUVs
Rating