Lexus NX350h is luxurious & useful family wagon… but sporty it ain’t

PEOPLE will call the Lexus NX350h a sports utility vehicle.

It has a big knob on the dash for both Sports mode and Sports+. This particular version is the F-Sport trim.

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Don’t be misled. It isn’t sporty.

Still, it’s a useful and luxurious family wagon with lowish fuel consumption, and that’ll be enough for many people. Prices begin under £40k.

The styling is a bit mad. It looks like the grille came off a car two sizes bigger. Down the side, it’s creased like an origami swan. But if the aim is to make sure it won’t be confused with the rivals — Volvo XC40, Range Rover Evoque, Audi Q3 — they certainly succeeded.

Inside, it’s a massive leap from the old NX.

That one had a hopeless multimedia system.

 Its weird mouse-like controller pad was appallingly difficult to operate on the move. And the graphics were ugly.

That matters, because these days the screen systems are one of the main battlegrounds between cars.

The new NX has a big, clear touchscreen, good traffic-aware navigation, surround cameras, and it’ll mirror your phone by Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

The rest of the cabin has logical switches, lots of equipment and nicely-stitched leather.

It’s also decently roomy in the back and boot. So families will be happy.

Lexus’s main draw, apart from a pretty flawless reliability record, is the hybrid system. 

It means this hunky four-wheel-drive will do 40mpg any day of the week, town or country.

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In town queues or when you’re coasting, the system is eerily quiet, because it frequently shuts down the engine and goes a few hundred yards by silent electric drive.

On many trips the engine is stopped for half the time (although nothing like half the miles).

The engine chips in when you accelerate, or when the buffer battery needs charging. 

Annoyingly, it’s a rough and noisy four-cylinder, against the character of this otherwise refined car. I like to drive briskly without my passengers noticing. But in the NX the soaring revs and grumbly noise make it obvious every time I flex my toe.

Still, it does actually give you decent acceleration and overtaking performance.

And the steering and cornering are well up to par among the posh crossover rivals.

This could be a soothing trip-hop kind of car.

But if you’re in a hurry you really need to be playing heavy metal to drown out the engine.

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