My 48 hour test drive (FWIW)

EssexGonzo · December 16, 2017

Well, more of a courtesy car than a test drive really. My wife's new NX needed some minor paintwork sorting out so they brought a 67-reg CT200 with 2k miles on the clock for us to use. We've done about 250 miles in it including some motorway, urban and a trip into central London, right across to the west, and back again. Pretty mixed driving.

I don't know what trim level it is but it seems to be specc'd OK with satnav, cruise, heated seats, rear camera etc.

So here goes:

Likes:

MPG: 49 and I was not driving for economy. That includes a lot of fairly "assertive" central London driving and 80mph motorway driving. Not bad at all. And it's still new and relatively tight.
Smooth. It really is, especially in traffic.
Good pickup in Sport mode, which it was in for most of the time.
It seems to go much further on Battery than the NX does which is a major plus.
Build quality - whilst the inside feels a little cheap in places compared to a Golf, it feels really solid. And we know that the Prius upon which it is based lasts forever............

Dislikes (sorry, there are a few ):

Road noise. Seems rather excessive. Probably the low profile tyres.
Ride. Bordering on terrible. I'd just eaten and had a coffee before I went out in it for the first time and I could feel my dinner jiggling around in my stomach over our fairly average local roads. And this isn't a "sporty" car, so why's it so hard?
Headlights. They're like half-awake gloworms in jars, and I'd just cleaned them. Very poor. I'd expected LEDs or xenons on a well equipped model.
The satnav. Aaaaarrrrghhhhhhhh.........I can't even begin to list all of the issues. One example: I needed to enter a road name in London rather than a postcode. It would not let me enter London on its own as a Town and then move onto the street name. I tried. And tried.. This stuff should be intuitive, as it is on a £100 Garmin. But to be fair, the premier system in the NX is similarly frustrating.
Satnav routing. Weird. Just weird. And I'd checked the settings. I got to see some weird and wonderful parts of London last night on the way home.
Telephone: I've paired phones in the NX but didn't stand a chance with the CT. The same phones and the system just could not see each other. Again, this should be intuitive.

So overall, mixed. Fundamentally, the actual drive itself was very impressive. I guess a gazillion Uber drivers in similarly platformed but less plush Prius' can't be wrong. It's the details and tuning that don't work for me. I've read about the 2018 model and would be pretty confident that Lexus will improve some of these things. and we know that every Lexus is a fantastic long term buy.

If they fixed one or two of the irritants, I'd definitely consider it.

rayaans · December 18, 2017

Interesting. I agree with the ride and noise.

Satnav to me is easy to use. I can input London without hassle and the road name if needed. Never had an issue with phone pairing either.

Headlights are just syandard affair compare to NX which is probably why you thought they were bad. Additionally lower cars give a perception of less light given out on the road.

Remember the CT is nearly 7 years old now despite all the facelifts that they keep bringing out.

It just needs a complete overhaul to be honest.

colin79666 · December 18, 2017

Good honest review.

While I can't refute your comments on road noise, ride and lights 2 out of 3 are improved with different tyres and upgraded bulbs. Ride is down to personal preference, I quite like it being on the firm side. I found pairing my phone to be quite easy and while I can work the sat nav, the general infotainment system is definitely not the best designed from a usability standpoint.

As Rayaans has stated it is a 7 year old design and some aspects are beginning to show their age. My worry is they dump the CT as they have in the states which would be a shame as it is a good gateway car into the Lexus range and not everyone wants or can afford the NX/a SUV CT replacement.

Ian J. Parsley · December 30, 2017

I understand the "risk" is the CT will be "replaced" by a smaller (Q3/X1-size) SUV. I'm not totally opposed to that idea, although if it's as wild as some of the "CX" concepts I've seen, I'm not sure it'll work out well.