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The Lexus NX, the smallest SUV in Lexus' lineup, is a near credible offering, with a nicely trimmed cockpit, long-distance comfort for four adults, and a choice of mainstream, sporty, or hybrid versions. The NX is the best seller in the meaty/luxury category thanks to Lexus' reputation for quality and a base of operations price several thousand dollars less than its primarily High german competitors.

The model year 2022 midlife refresh farther improves the NX, and addresses shortcomings such as a small navigation screen and quirky touchpad infotainment controller. The Lexus Safety Organization is now standard, including adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning. But blind spot detection still requires a split bundle costing $980 to $4,705.

Backside the Wheel of the NX 300h Hybrid

I drove the hybrid version of the 2022 NX, which came nicely equipped at $51,187 listing, including more than $x,000 in options on the 2022 model. The cockpit seating and trim was finished in buttery-gilt and black leather. Front seat motel overhead lighting works by pushing the low-cal itself, not a switch you have to hunt for. The dome light over the second row seats is a soft, diffused moon glow. Lift the top off a sunglasses bin in the console and the underside is a mirror. Small-scale niceties, but you notice. The rear seats recline, and rear seatbacks power-fold up and downwardly.

Total output of the two.v-liter gasoline engine and the hybrid electric motor is 194 hp, propelling 4,180 pounds (21 pounds per hp, far from class-leading). The gasoline engine powers only the front wheels of the hybrid version. The rear is electric-bulldoze only, acceptable unless you're driving a lot in heavy snow areas. I found the acceleration just-adequate at almost 9 seconds 0-60 mph. Once the car reaches highway speed, the noises common to a hybrid die down and it'south a serenity ride.

Standard wheels and tires are 225/65R17, with a 225/60R18 option available. The 65 or sixty series profile, meaning the sidewall is 65 or 60 percentage as loftier equally the tire is wide, is relatively high. That means you are far less probable to endure pothole damage relative to competitors who offer 50 or 45 series tires. A 65 serial tire would hurt your lap times on the racetrack, which is where you're most likely not going in a Lexus SUV. And you'll experience better hearing how your X3-owning co-worker has already blown out two of his $400, 45-series tires. This is why the discussion schadenfreude was invented.

The seat trim is attractive and comes in several color combinations. Here, Creme with Black. Our favorite is deep Rioja Red with Blackness.

Driver Hemmed in Past the Console

The driving position feels cramped because of the largish center console, providing merely 22 inches from the the console to the armrest, or only a few inches more than than a coach class plane seat. Competitors aren't this snug. The side of the console is nicely padded if the commuter rests his or her leg in that location.

The center stack is a busy identify, too, with an overhanging top section that bring switches and buttons closer to the driver and rider. The 7-inch LCD is set up well back (toward the windshield) and felt small; the 2022 has a standard 8-inch screen, or 10.iii inches if you lot get navigation. The touchpad with a push-to-click characteristic is difficult to utilise, so Lexus has reworked information technology for 2022 with a larger surface and better tracking, the company says. You can as well utilise vox input, but in that location'due south no touch on-screen input.

Lexus Enform, the infotainment arrangement, takes effort to learn and then operate. Plus, at that place is no Apple CarPlay or Android Automobile. Lexus and Toyota fearfulness with some justification that its system would wait much that of every other auto when running the Apple/Android apps (information technology would). As of 2022, Lexus bundled the Scout navigation phone app for buyers who want to replicate smartphone navigation on the car's bigger LCD.

The rear seats on NX are roomy for two adults (there are seat belts for 3). Just rear seat lacks USB jacks or a 12-volt adapter.

The NX Trim Walk

Unlike many cars, the Lexus NX has three parallel but non ascending trim lines — that is, the NX does non have good-meliorate-best variants, each with more gear, leather, and gadgets. Instead, you choose your driving and economy preferences, and and then you lot cull from the handful the options packages.

The 2022 Lexus NX variants are:

  • The gas-engine Lexus NX 300, $37,385 including $945 freight, comes with a 235-hp turbocharged engine and all-bike-drive. It is $ane,400 less for front-drive. This is the mainstream NX model and is rated at 22 mpg city / 28 highway / 24 overall mpg for all-bicycle drive. Front end drive is 22 / 28 / 25.
  • The NX 300 F Sport costs $40,920 for AWD. Information technology has the same engine and adds bolstered sporty seats and driver-adaptable electronically generated engine sounds (Active Sound Control), plus a G-force meter and turbo boost guess for the multi-information brandish. The F Sport has the same 7.2-second 0-threescore fourth dimension as the base NX 300, but slightly different fuel economy, 22 / 27 / 24.
  • The hybrid NX 300h, $39,330, is AWD-only. If y'all want an upscale compact SUV that is also a hybrid, this is pretty much your only choice as of the finish of 2022. In a calendar week'due south city and highway driving, I averaged 33 mpg with NX 300h. The hybrid'south EPA rating is 33 mpg urban center, 30 mpg highway, 31 mpg combined on premium gas for both 2022 and 2022 models. That's one-tertiary improve economy the the gasoline-powered NX. On an annual footing, the EPA says would fire $ane,250 of gasoline, while the non-hybrid NX models would use $1,900 worth.

The pick-no-more-than-one options include the Comfort, Premium, or Luxury packages. The Comfort Package, $980, adds blind spot detection and rear cross-traffic alert, heated and ventilated front seats, and auto-dimming exterior mirrors with automobile-tilt-downward in reverse.

The Premium Package, $3,270, includes the Comfort Parcel features plus a moonroof, 18-inch (instead of 17-inch) alloy wheels, enhanced LED daytime running wheels, front seat retentivity, and a power tilt/telescope steering wheel.

The Luxury Package, $four,705, incorporates the Comfort and Premium Parcel features and includes blackness shadow woods interior trim, perforated leather trim, rain-sensing wipers, and a heated leather-trim steering wheel. People who cross-shop mainstream SUVs may exist surprised that information technology costs $3,270 to get seat-memory buttons, or $four,705 to get your main mirror to automatically dim, but that'due south how Lexus currently arranges the placement of desirable features.

There is also a Navigation Package, $1,800, with a 10.3-inch display (instead of 8 inches), Destination Assist (live operators for telematics), premium audio with 10 speakers instead of eight, a second USB port, and an auto-dimming rear-view mirror with HomeLink (garage door openers). A Towing Package, $160, allows pulling up to 1,500 pounds; many directly competitors tow 3,500 to four,000 pounds while mainstream meaty SUVs (similar the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V) are more frequently express to 1,500. These two options are independent of your Comfort-Premium-Luxury (or none) choices.

Notation that ad teasers say $35,985 buys a Lexus NX, meaning the base NX front-bulldoze without aircraft. The base price of the 2d-best-seller Audi Q5 starts at $41,500, with standard all-bicycle-drive. The about promising new-for-2018 model, the BMW X3, has a base price of $42,450, also for all-wheel-drive.

The Lexus NX measures 183 long, 74 inches broad (mirrors folded in), and 65 inches high. That puts it squarely in the meaty SUV class, pregnant 180-190 inches long.

Should You Buy the Lexus NX 300? Which One?

The Lexus NX should be role of your initial consideration set because of its clear price advantage, about $3,500 to $4,000 over the Germans if you compare all-bike-bulldoze vehicles comparably equipped. This could be your car if you want room for four adults on long drives, if you want a hybrid, if yous want integrated telematics, if you want a well-priced premium car, or you want a make ranked loftier for reliability. Information technology could too be your machine if you don't similar being hassled by pushy sales reps; Lexus dealerships rate high on client satisfaction.

The NX is not your automobile if you want lots of cargo room without folding downwards the rear seats; Lexus comes up short because of its steeply raked rear window. Nor is it your car if you want sporty driving; sport seats and bigger road wheels exercise not a sportster make. The primary drivers should sit for a while in the cockpit and run into if they're comfortable with the space behind the bike; information technology'southward snug.

The changes for 2022 seem minor, only should make driver and occupants more than comfy: a bigger center stack LCD especially with navigation, larger and improved touchpad, and the now standard Lexus Prophylactic Suite, needing only an options packet to consummate the near needed safety features.

Lexus NX has been at or near the top in sales it debuted in 2022.

Lexus vs. the Competition

Who is the competition? The Volvo XC60, the Lincoln MKC, and the Buick Envision share luxury attributes with the NX; the XC60 offers a plug-in hybrid drivetrain. If yous want something sportier, look at the others in the top 5 on sales: Audi Q5, Acura RDX, Mercedes-Benz GLC, BMW X3. The Porsche Macan is often regarded as the best small SUV, but like Lexus is saddled with just 18 cubic feet of cargo bay capacity and the Porsche costs more. The base Macan is $47,000, but yous can pick your infant Porsche upwardly to $132,000 (leather-edged carpet mats for $650, anyone?). The Jaguar F Pace, new in mid-2016, is like the Macan: fantabulous handling, luxury cockpit, and priced higher than the norm. The Infiniti QX50 has a stiff engine and drivetrain; a long-awaited redesign comes next year.

If you're fractional to Lexus, expect as well at the midsize Lexus RX, 10 inches longer than the NX's 182 inches, with an even tastier cockpit, and nigh $8,000 costlier. (There is no subcompact Lexus SUV, not yet at least.) As for the NX, the about desirable version may be the hybrid 300h followed by the regular NX; the NX F Sport isn't every bit sporty as other Lexuses with their F Sport badging. If you're offered a 2022 NX on closeout, make sure you understand the three or four things you aren't getting — a bigger middle stack LCD, a bigger touchpad, bullheaded spot detection unless y'all buy an options package (though the aforementioned goes for 2022), a second USB jack unless you buy the Navigation package — and cistron that into your decision.

About of all, recollect: There are very few unhappy Lexus owners. They typically beloved their cars, the dealer feel, and the reliability.