Advice needed on UX models

[AJ500]

I am drawing up a short list of potential cars to replace our current daily driver.With zero experience of hybrids I have selected the UX as a candidate,along with a couple of its Toyota stablemates as they share the latest chassis platform which the NX does not yet.

It would mean a departure from a very powerful hatchback but my wife and I want to at least consider the hybrid and now is not the time to be trawling around showrooms etc,hence asking existing owners for their comments.My questions are;

1. The boot size and usability.Regular mention is made of the small boot but in practice is it sufficient for day to day use and monthly tip runs etc.There is normally just the two of us so nothing major to carry.Our dog regularly goes in all our cars,harnessed on the rear seat with suitable covers to protect the upholstery.I think the shape of the hatch and height of the boot floor would eliminate this area for a dog anyway.
2. Specification. I admit confusion on the Lexus configurator. 
     I think I need F Sport to get flappy paddles but what about the largest nav screen and possibly leather trim. Ideally the Mark Levinson sound but what is the standard set up like.The Takumi version appears to eliminate the paddle gearshift and I am not bothered about the glass roof.

3. Possibly my biggest concern is the power delivery.I am not bothered about amazing 0-62 times as this will run alongside my LC for that.But reports do mention the noise and experience when needing to accelerate hard to,say,overtake on a motorway.Is this really an issue or just a case of getting used to a different experience.

Ordinarily I would borrow a car from the dealer and work a lot of this out but its clearly not the best environment at the moment and therefore I would welcome comments from existing owners from this forum.

Many thanks,

A J.

 

 

[Ed the Ted]

AJ500 I have had my UX250h since the 14^th September 2020. In answer to your questions :-   

1) Boot size is small but my weekly shopping fits in ok with no trouble but one thing that can annoy is the flimsy parcel shelf. If your grocery bag is full placing it under the shelf can lift it or distort it slightly upwards above the rear window line especially with several bags under it and this can partially obscure the view out of the rear. Solution is to remove the shelf temporarily when shopping or not fill bags to the top. It’s not a deal breaker. 

2) My UX has the Premium plus pack, it gives me Adaptive cruise control, lane deviation, auto head light dipping, kerb side illumination,18” run flats, leather interior with heated seats, heated steering wheel and mirrors. I only have the 7” screen but this can made full screen and I find it adequate, I do get a reduced illustration view of the upcoming junction on the front instrument panel fascia.The standard sound system is fine for me. 

3) Previous car was a CT200h and the UX is defiantly quicker off the mark and the ride is better. Accelerating hard can be noisy but surely this applies to most internal combustion engines and it quickly subsides. Motorway overtaking hasn’t proved a problem for me. 

I’m delighted with my UX purchase it drives and rides superbly. It’s not a large SUV compared to NX or RX models and as a result my wife also loves driving it and I’m able to garage it.

[ALAW]

I recently got FWD F Sport premium plus with driver assist end of Sept 20. My 1st hybrid. Regarding the boot size it sounds like you know what your demands and needs are so you will be fine. The FWD version has more space than the AWD a bowl provides more space under the lift  up. Someone on this forum has removed the bowl and put a lidl boot liner in. Incidentally these Lidl boot liners are in store right now. The boot has more space than what you imagine first looking and there are a couple of side pockets as well and don't forget you can easily put the seats down if you want more space. I have the paddles but never use them i never used them on the Audi i had. I didn't want the glass roof. I have the large nav screen its very good and you can customize it to show different things with the screen split very useful. I have leather sport seats they are comfortable easy to get in and out of. The sound system isn't a ML but it is good. The power delivery is superb and spontaneous immediate pick up from a standing start. The noise you refer to is the CVT gearbox and the UX has ASC (active sound control) that can be turned on or off. Yes if you hit the pedal hard you will hear the engine but I've driven others with the CVT and Lexus without any shadow of doubt is far superior in my opinion. You will get used to it. The car handles very well i don't have any issues at all, i even had a play in sport mode the other day just to see. I would certainly test drive one nearer the time. I would definitely put it on your shortlist. 

[AJ500]

Thankyou for the two replies above. Very helpful and I will be shortlisting this model.

Any further pointers will be gratefully accepted.
 

A J.

[EvilRacer329]

Hey AJ,

I've only had my UX for 5,000 miles, but I agree with the comments from everyone else. Smaller-engined CVT's can drone because you have to keep your foot in it for longer to get up to speed, but the UX's 0-60 time is around 8 seconds, which is the same as my previous Mazda MX-5. With 180bhp on tap you'll get up to speed quickly and there's honestly very little drone unless you're pushing well over the speed limit. In-gear acceleration for overtaking is more than enough, and I've chased down motorcycles through the Scottish highlands. Mine is an F-Sport which means it gets the supportive sports seats and nice sports steering wheel, but the paddles really are a gimmick - I barely use them, even when in Sport mode. I personally thought the non-f-sport steering wheel was too squidgy, and the dashboard on the standard cars isn't anywhere near as nice in my opinion. The F-Sport gets an all-digital layout cribbed from their sportier cars, whereas the standard car's is more old-fashioned.

I've got the 10" screen, and having borrowed a demonstrator with the smaller one I'm glad of it, but you might not miss the extra real-estate if you'd not gotten used to the larger screen first. I'm something of an audiophile, so I really wanted the mark levinson, but couldn't get the packs to combine in the end. But then I had a chance to spend a couple of weeks with a Takumi-spec UX and honestly, I couldn't hear the difference. It has some nice spatial audio effects, but those gimmicks get old fast, and for simply listening to music or podcasts, the 10-speaker system in my car sounds damn near the same.

Glass roof - massive disappointment. I tried it in another car, and discovered that it's mounted so far back that it doesn't really bring any more light into the cabin for the front seats. As such, I don't miss it.

Boot size isn't great, admittedly, and if you were travelling with four people they'd have to be efficient packers to squeeze everything in. On my recent week-long trip in Scotland everything bar the cooler fit under the parcel shelf with room to spare.

Let us know if you have any other specific questions or would like photos of any particular bits and pieces!

Nick

[Ed the Ted]

"The F-Sport gets an all-digital layout cribbed from their sportier cars, whereas the standard car's is more old-fashioned."

Nick your statement above doesn't apply to my "standard car" I also have an all-digital layout and it was one of the reasons I bought the car. I also have privacy glass for rear passengers like the FSport and automatic tail gate. Perhaps your "old-fashioned" quote should apply to the very basic models in the line up.  

[AJ500]

As I said in my first post,its not easy to work out which combinations of trim and features you get from the configurator so its good to get this actual owner feedback.

I think my base must be F Sport and then see how little I need to add to get to my ideal spec.I have eliminated ML sound and glass roof as Nick has confirmed my suspicion.

AJ.

[EvilRacer329]

55 minutes ago, Ed the Ted said:

"The F-Sport gets an all-digital layout cribbed from their sportier cars, whereas the standard car's is more old-fashioned."

Nick your statement above doesn't apply to my "standard car" I also have an all-digital layout and it was one of the reasons I bought the car. I also have privacy glass for rear passengers like the FSport and automatic tail gate. Perhaps your "old-fashioned" quote should apply to the very basic models in the line up.  

Thanks Ed, maybe there are three different configurations then! I'll include a photo of my F-Sport dash here for reference, as well as a few other photos to showcase some of the options. Brochures make everything look a little nicer than they do in real life! 😉

I've also fired up the Configurator to list out what's on my car:

• F-Sport FWD
• Mercury Grey paint
• Flare Red F-Sport interior
• Premium Plus Pack (F-Sport)
• Adventure Protection Pack
• Style Pack

My car was an ex-demo configured almost exactly how I'd have wanted anyway. I lost a couple of extras that might've been nice (adaptive dampers, blind-spot monitoring, HUD) but nothing critical that I'd miss. And keeping the features I wanted while staying under the £40k VED barrier is tricky. All-in-all, I'm very happy with my car's configuration.

Nick

[AJ500]

That looks lovely.Like the upholstery and the digi dash is clearly in the same family as my LC.

I am keen to Stay below this pathetic £40k tax limit so will have a proper crack at the configurator.

When I am sure of the right spec I can do my usual due diligence on likely discounts,more likely on physical stock or pre reg.

A J.

[Ed the Ted]

Nice car Nick.

I have similar digital display as yours. Mine is the standard car with the Premium plus pack. I also wanted Ivory leather interior having had this in all previous Lexus models I've owned, never been a big fan of dark interiors and it's not available in the Sport. I couldn't afford an F sport anyway (I'm a pensioner). My must haves were Adaptive cruise control, automatic dipping headlights and lane deviation the extras that came with the car were an added bonus for me. Just one question for you the sport has stiffer suspension does this make for a harder ride? I think the UX is a fabulous looking vehicle and the American motoring corespondents have nothing but praise for it compared to the criticisms from UK motoring correspondents. 

[EvilRacer329]

Hah! Interesting, I guess it's just the base model that gets a more boring display. Good to know!

I know what you mean about light interiors. My partner has a Honda CR-Z with a lovely white/grey interior and it really opens up the cabin. It sounds like you've got most of the extras that the F-Sport comes with anyway, so you're not really missing out. The suspension is an interesting one - Lexus say that it has stiffer dampers, and I'm pretty good at judging car/motorcycle suspension on various different surfaces and situations. But I drove it back-to-back with a standard car and the only difference I noticed was that the standard car seemed to take a little longer to settle itself after big chassis inputs - it wasn't any better at absorbing them. Or to put it another way, the F-Sport wasn't noticeably harsher or bumpier, which might have been a deal-breaker for me.

I can sort of sympathise with reviewers (shameless plug https://boymeetsbike.com/) - they've got to deliver their verdict in the context of their personal preferences and those of their readers. In the UK, people don't seem to care about build quality or reliability, and buyers of premium cars seem to swap them out every few years, so the staggering out-of-warranty costs you'd get with a German car don't factor. Hence the reviews suggesting a Volvo XC40 or X2 as faster, more economical, more spacious etc. In America, folks are used to 300bhp six and eight-cylinder engines, and a mere 180bhp seems slow. Plus low fuel prices mean that the impressive economy numbers we're seeing don't impress them as much.

And you know what? The UX is not perfect. There's lots of little things I'd change if I could. But stuff that would make it unattractive to some don't matter to me, and the things that others wouldn't consider value-adds are must-haves in my eyes. The world would be a dull place if we were all the same!

Nick