Lexus NX 300h: <b>car review</b> | Martin Love | Technology | The Guardian |
| Lexus NX 300h: <b>car review</b> | Martin Love | Technology | The Guardian Posted: 29 Nov 2014 10:00 PM PST Look sharp: the sculpted panels of the new Lexus NX. Price £29,495 "Have you got shit for brains?" shouts a fellow road user. It's raining hard and the traffic is at a standstill, but the man questioning my neurological make-up clearly thinks I should move forward anyway. He carries on shouting in fluent Anglo-Saxon. I decide to crack my window open an inch or two to give him a bit of my own mind (shit or otherwise) while, of course, staying safely in the locked car. But the one-touch electric window drops open completely, leaving us face to face. It surprises us both. The opening seems huge. He stares at me, raindrops running over the dome of his shaved head. Should he thump me or not? I could almost see his synapses sputtering and misfiring in the wet. He swears some more then trundles back to his car. I press the auto button and the window silently closes. He was frightening and depressing. But it was also ridiculous – being stuck in one of the most technologically sophisticated cars on the road next to a motorist permanently stuck in the dark ages. The car in question is Lexus's new NX. It's the luxury Japanese carbuilder's first foray into the hugely popular compact SUV market. The NX is here to break up the cosy cabal dominated by the likes of Audi's Q3, BMW's X3 and Range Rover's Evoque. Like the mean girls who run school playgrounds, these vehicles are chic, stylish, popular and ruthless. The NX has its work cut out to break into their sorority. It certainly has the looks to do it. The NX is one of the most eye-catching cars of the year. Its designers seem to have taken their inspiration from Toblerone. From the creased panels to the sculpted lights, it's triangles, pyramids and pointy angles everywhere. Curves are out; folded-paper corners are in. The front end is dominated by a vast spindle grille which sits between a set of squinting LED headlights and L-shaped daytime running lights. With its tiny eyes and pleated nose, the Lexus looks a bit like a Shar-Pei. When the Evoque landed on our streets it was both ridiculed and revered for its outlandish design. The same fate awaits the NX. But after so many years of boring, homogenous, yawn-making Mogadon motors, it's brilliant that we are once again getting some distinctive vehicles on the road. The small "h" in the name stands for hybrid – a combination of a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and a powerful electric motor. The entry-level S version is front-wheel drive only; all the other versions get four-wheel drive. As you'd hope with a hybrid, the NX has the skimpy appetite of a lady who lunches – a gallon of fuel will take you almost 55 miles down the road. No matter how often you sit at the wheel of an electric hybrid, the eerie silence is unnerving. In a big car like this, it seems even weirder. A monastery on wheels. Gently squeeze the throttle and off you waft. Despite all its unforgiving angles, the NX's interior is a warm, hushed place. A bubble of calm. The beautifully finished cabin is packed with a dizzying array of gizmos and gadgets – adaptive cruise control, LED auto-dipping headlights, bird's-eye parking camera, lane and blind spot assist, rear-cross traffic alert and a slightly irritating touchpad control for the infotainment screen. It's a remarkable feat of engineering – its cleverness a tribute to the men and women who build it. Shame they can't do anything about my fellow drivers… Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166  |
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