• Impressively well made and equipped
• Weird and annoying quirks
• Steer-by-wire wheel is badly designed

How is the quality and layout?

Frankly? Impeccable. The interior fit and finish is one of the RZ’s best qualities, with a level of quality that few other cars can offer for similar money. Everything feels impressively well screwed together, with no creaks or rattles, and many of the car’s regularly touched areas feel solid and built to last.

The powered and dimmable panoramic roof is really impressive. It can easily and quickly switch from transparent to opaque, rather like the windows on a Dreamliner aeroplane. It’s also coated to reduce heat build-up on warm days and keep things toasty inside in colder conditions.

The climate controls are on neat configurable dials, as with a Land Rover Discovery or Skoda Superb, but the other, important things, such as the driving modes, are buried within a sub menu. This makes it a bit tricky to operate, with some systems taking several prods of the screen to use.

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Infotainment and tech

The infotainment set-up is excellent – with a large, clear screen that’s easy to operate – and we’re glad to see there are some physical buttons to control the set-up. But it’s not good use with the rest of it. The other controls are a bit of a hotch potch, and this is what can let the RZ down a little.

The steering wheel buttons on higher versions are haptic, touch sensitive and multi-functional. So much so that when you rest your finger on a button, a graphic on the head-up display or instrument cluster shows you what that button will do at that time. It’s immensely fiddly and forces you to take your eyes off the road.

Which then isn’t helped by the extremely low-resolution digital instrument cluster. We suspect the reason for it being so blurry is the considerable layer of anti-glare protection applied to it, but it can make even those with the best vision question their own eyes.

Comfort

Soft materials are everywhere, including the impressively supportive seats. That said, the F Sport seats are tight; it seems the overly thick and huggy side bolsters aren’t really meant for anyone with more than a 5% BMI.

You can spec an RZ with radiant heaters at knee level up front, which are part of a package which includes heated seats and a heated steering wheel. This directs infrared radiation at your knees and works a bit like an air blanket. Lexus says this speeds up the warm-up process for occupants, and therefore is more efficient because it’s loading up the battery for less time.