C<OLJ :8JKJ 8E <:F JG<CC
the inside or outside. Trouble is, once you’ve dragged your eyes away from its beautiful interior you look at the dashboard.
Yep, it’s another gorgeous work of art but the driver’s attention is grabbed by its dashboard display.
Queue
It tells how many miles to the gallon you’ve achieved, whether or not the engine is connected to the batteries, if you’re running on its electric motor and, slowly but surely, you get sucked into its goody-two-shoes web.
It’s addictive. I ended up more concerned about how much petrol I’d used than getting to places on time. Could I achieve its claimed average fuel figure of 54mpg. God I tried. I really, really, tried but the best I could achieve was 44mpg.
And, of course, when I was trying (nearly all the time) I ended up with a huge queue of traffic behind me. People must have been cursing but my eyes were stuck on the fuel consumption figure. Could I get it beyond 44mpg. Could I hell, but there again I’m not one of these mpg experts who continually drives within the car’s maximum torque band.
Mind you, on the NX 300h you can’t see it unless you change into “Sports” mode. That’s when the display turns red and you realise it’s not a “Sporty” display at all.
No, it tells you you’re heading for hell. So you quickly go back to “Eco” or “Comfort” mode. I have to admit, though, that as well as leaving me feeling comfortably smug, I loved the NX 300h. Its superbly crafted interior is so swish I ignored its steering wheel controls and instead used the radio’s grooved silver switches to adjust the volume and tune it in. If everything isn’t trimmed with white double-stitched leather, it’s electric. Even the steering wheel’s rake and reach along with opening and closing the boot. Keys? You don’t need them. I know none of this is new, but it’s in a car that costs less than 40 grand. Lexus doesn’t just do luxury now. It does value for money too. And practicality.
There’s stacks of passenger room, the boot is 3ft deep then a flat 6ft with the rear seat backs folded away, there’s a good sized centre console with a charging tray for your mobile phone and a glove box capable of holding considerably more than a pair of gloves. Shame, then, that the door pockets are so small.
It cruises in almost silence at 70mph at just 1,750rpm but, of course, I only did that once because I was so obsessed with fuel consumption.
So how was its acceleration, overtaking power and road holding?
Well there’s a second electric motor to drive the rear wheels when four-wheel-drive is needed but apart from that I’ve no idea, it’s totally irrelevant. It’s just not that sort of car.