Desmond

Great post Herbie. Most informative. Just one question, I am considering getting a trickle charger but like Bristol I am reluctant to keep dismantling the boot every time I use it. So I did think of getting something like a CTEK MX5 with a socket lead. Using the fuse box charger point would be easier especially if I rigged up an inboard socket. You imply that charge point is effectively universal so would any suitable charger work on it?

Sounds like a good idea. Thanks for that. Not far off what I ended up doing this morning in fact. People might talk even more though about that odd bloke that sits for an hour in his car every Monday morning reading Playboy!😄

True enough Herbie but it is an Achilles heel for a hybrid if you can’t leave it a fortnight. To be fair though, my mileage was well down before that in view of the virus restrictions so perhaps lack of mileage did not help the situation. Unfortunately I am not able to drive for very long at present so getting in some distance runs is a bit problematical. If I just do lots of laps of the village, that might work but people would start to talk!😄

For the first time ever in over 35 years of Toyota and Lexus, a car has let me down. I was in hospital for a couple of weeks, the car in the garage. Came to start it today and battery flat. Admittedly the mileage has been considerably lower of late like most people’s but 2 weeks seems a poor effort.

The road noise reduction from the factory Yokohamas was considerable and the ride appreciably more relaxed. I doubt if the handling is ultimately much different to factory fit but this is not really a push on sports car so that was not a factor. The road holding seems better than standard but that could just be subjective. I was fed up of swapping wheels in winter, this seemed a reasonable compromise though as yet I have not tested in snow. I did have them on the CT though and that revolutionised the grip in winter. Having experienced them before made this less of a risky purchase too. I understand there is now a version 2 of Cross Climates. It is still a relatively expensive thing to do I suppose if your tyres are not needing a change but I figured that if I was buying a car like this and going to spend a lot of time driving it then it was worth that bit more investment to make the improvements.

The NX is not the answer to all prayers but it is a very good motor, particularly for me here in East Anglia. It cruises very quietly at 60 on A roads, it rides and road holds quite nicely on B roads and cycle lanes and is no bother in the city. Fitting some Michelin Cross Climates made a big difference. To be fair I do very little routine M-way driving nowadays but when I do, the only time I notice the scream is when joining the motorway. Once at cruising speed it is very quiet. On an A road it is the same, only severe right clog causes excessive noise and I find in this motor I rarely need to do that anyway. I am average size but I do agree there is insufficient adjustment on the seat and steering wheel to find an ideal position. If it was a manual car and I had to operate a clutch it would be deal breaker but I can manage with the CVT. The seat itself is comfy enough though it shares an annoying Lexus trait of a hard cross piece right at the base of the spine. It is not quite as prominent as it was in my CT but it is disappointingly still there. More padding needed on the seat or my backside. On credit side it is very easy to enter and exit which for me is a big plus point. we all comment on the infotainment. It is poor but I’ve learnt to live with it. A big playlist on the iPod works well and I just leave it to play, it is a pain though that you have to re-select the iPod if the car stands for more than a few hours. You need a magnifier to read the map as well. You would think somebody at Lexus would have realised a bigger screen is useless if you still have miniscule text on the map. Overall it does about 42 mpg and is dead easy to drive. Just as well as it is a tight squeeze in the garage.

I would agree. To be honest I rarely even look at the screen now except to sort out some music. The map is useless and will not stay on the same zoom setting, the sat nav itself is untrustworthy unless you are on known A roads which rather ruins the point of it. The other week it wanted to send me through the centre of Lincoln at rush hour. None of the optional routes was the best and I ended up using my own instincts. I don’t know if this is a hardware or software problem and I don’t care or feel like wasting time to find out. That job belongs to Lexus and Lexus should be sending customers some advice and offering help with something virtually everyone finds a very weak point. It is certainly a big drawback to an otherwise excellent motor. I managed for decades without a sat nav so it won’t bother me, but it will be a factor if and when I change the car.

I have had the car a few weeks now and found my way around most things but I do find the map text hard to read.I thought it might be just me but passengers say the same. I know the whole map can be pinched to enlarge but this doesn't really solve the issue. Road numbers for example are virtually impossible to read at a glance on this screen. The colours don't help and the only display options seem to be contrast and brightness which don't improve matters either. Is this a common cause for complaint and has anyone found a solution or workaround for it?

Thanks for all the replies folks. I am sure the NX will be enjoyed. I agree First_Lexus, there is plenty of criticism of the navigation/audio system and to my mind no Lexus I've owned has ever seemed able to compete with the other top players in this field. Bearing in mind that at some stage an NX driver is likely to need to use or adjust the system while on the move the operations are over-complicated and physically difficult to operate. I can only assume the designers expect us to set up the system each time before driving off and then leave it alone, but that is not always going to happen. The trackpad does not bother me as much as some people because I use one daily anyway but the high res screen means that targeting on an option on the media screen for example is akin to the Golden Shot. (Younger viewers please Google!). It can involve taking your eyes away from the road too long. I also find the hi-res screen to be less effective for daylight viewing especially in sunlight and some "white" roads do not show up against the background. The night screen works better for viewing, at least it seems to for me. The problem is the same as the the system in other Lexus motors, it is design over practicality and not recognising that something like the nav/audio has to be used by all sorts of people from tech savvy to non-tech. It ends up pleasing no-one.

Well, after 5+ years with a CT and the same before that with an IS, I have succumbed to the dreaded SUV. A mercury metallic 2018 Luxury has stolen my wallet. It is the first used Lexus I have bought since a not great experience with an IS220d that used to stink of exhaust on the motorway and had a gearbox like a truck. In fact it was from a Toyota truck. However, time passes and my agility is not what it was. The CT is a very good motor but getting in and out had become a chore plus the fact that while I appreciated the economy and cruising around Norfolk is OK, the CT performance is lacking in acceleration on anything like a hill if you want to safely overtake a push bike. The other factor is the CT ride which although it has improved a lot and the car now has better seats, no-one can say it is really good. Let’s be honest, all good valid excuses for looking at a new motor.😀 So, the NX got a test drive. It really is super to drive isn’t it? I just got in and felt right at home straightaway. Dead easy to get in and out and, for an SUV, very comfy especially the seats. I have not mastered the widescreen TV yet but it looks basically similar to the CT Premier screen but in high res. I have never been a great fan of SUV styling but the NX is as good as you will get. The detailing is well thought out. I like the wheel arches for example, they don’t bulge and make the car unnecessarily wider just for fashion. It is BIG after a CT but on the move from behind the wheel it doesn’t feel it. When you get out and have look though - there is a lot of metal and plastic there. I can hear voices saying “Silly devil, why didn’t he get a UX?” Well, the only UX I could get for a little more that the same money I paid for the NX Luxury would have to be a base model. To get this Luxury level of trim on a new UX would be outside my price range, hence the used NX is very good value with less that 10k on the clock even if it is probably a size too big. One other factor is that UX is a brand new model and I have always liked to give a new model at least a year for obvious niggles to be ironed out, even on a Lexus. The ride is good, I love driving it. The steering is light but well weighted. I soon realised this is a very heavy car. It takes a good squash of the pedal to stop the forward motion. Once you know that though it can work to your advantage as a hybrid driver. The coasting distance when you lift off the pedal is huge on a flat road and it goes on forever down even a slight gradient. All that time that little green light is on but you are not holding up the driver behind like people did in a Mk 1 Prius. Economy so far is low 40s, we shall see what happens over a period of mixed Norfolk use. The cruising is quiet at 70+ apart from the tyre noise. I cured this quite well and improved the ride in the CT with some Michelin cross climates. Might try the same here eventually. The acceleration, particularly mid-range, is good too. There is bags of power there to swoop past even an electric bike on the hills. So far I have only done one cross country trip and the car just did absolutely everything a driver could want. Even sitting in a roadworks jam in an NX is a pleasure. 😄

I like adaptive cruise and have used it a lot on M-Way and A roads. but I have come across a problem with it. Where do you put your right foot? if you leave it flat on the floor you are away from the brake and accelerator if you need to restore manual control. It is only a little way but it could be an essential split second. The alternative is to keep your right heel on the floor and your foot sort of hovering in position near the pedals ready for action which soon becomes uncomfortable. This problem isn't so bad with light traffic but in heavy traffic where the control is quite active I find it a bit more worrisome. Maybe it is just me being ultra sensitive about leaving control of the car to the unseen hand or foot! Another point is that we might assume the adaptive cruise gives better fuel economy but I am not convinced this is the case. In adaptive cruise there are constant small adjustments and readjustments to settings that are simply not made by the driver in manual mode. The economy is therefore good but I find I can do better without the cruise control on.

Thanks for the confirmation Paul. I have a set of 4 cheap 16” alloys with low mileage Yoko winter tyres currently in a local tyre hotel and decided to sell them if I can. So I thought I remembered something about VWs which might widen the market if needed!

Someone told me that the CT offset was the same as on VW. Is that true?

Just looking at the latest UX pics, the interior looks good and all the oily bits and electricals seem to be an improvement along with the ride and handling, according to reports. The exterior styling does look marginally better than the Toyota equivalent but I am still convinced that SUV really stands for Seriously Ugly Vehicle.

That is what I heard. At the moment the UX is touted as the replacement but they are hedging their bets on a new CT to see what sales are like, what Auris sales are like too, and possibly do a CT in 2020.