lee789

Hi Eammon. It's problems like this that make the official handbooks useful. Not sure if it's the same procedure for Lexus Nav and Premium Nav, but here's what I did on my Premium Nav. If you go to the MENU hard key on the centre console, and then select SET UP, and then VOICE. You can enable/disable voice prompts from the options (voice recognition prompts), and also Voice guidance in all modes - which allows guidance to cut in over any media being played. Global window closure from holding the lock button on the remote is indeed a dealer programmable feature, which I think is damn stupid because it should be set to ON as the default, or at least owner configurable through the on-screen menus. Hope this helps. My guess is they defaulted it to off to prevent drain on the battery.

Can't imagine Jeremy with his foot anywhere but down to the floor, but he does seem to dislike Lexus, and hybrids, so I take anything he says with a large pinch of salt.

Eammon, similar comments were made by Jeremy Clarkson when he reviewed the NX. He said that queues of traffic built up behind him because the NX made such slow progress, and that it was embarassing. I can't say I'm displeased with the performance myself, but I live in the flat home counties. If the 2.0L Turbo NX 200 had been coupled with a hybrid drive, perhaps power in certain situations wouldn't be an issue.

Although I expect mpg to improve as the weather gets warmer, to achieve a real world figure some 40-50% below what Lexus claim is unacceptably poor, and undermines one of the main reasons for owning a hybrid vehicle. There are a lot of very high performance diesels on the market with better mpg figures, and as Rayaan points out, the RX 450H with it's 3.5 engine and extra weight can achieve better results than some NX owners are getting. For the record I do the majority of my driving in town, and a fair bit of it in electric mode. I am averaging 31 mpg. My previous car - BMW 640D Gran Coupe could hit 60 in just over 5 seconds, had a limited top speed of 155, weighed more than the NX, and achieved 46 mpg. Just wish it had been more reliable!!

As anybody who read my previous post on the subject will know, Lexus Customer Services kindly offered to order and pay for handbooks for my NX F Sport. These two volumes (Owners handbook and Sat Nav manual) arrived on Saturday. Placed together, they are about 3 inches thick and consist of over 1100 pages. It cost Lexus £8.50 to post them!! At last I can sit and read at my leisure, rather than scrolling through hundreds of pages of the on-line pdf version. One thing that rather mystifies me though is that the 750 page owners handbook costs around £24 + VAT, whereas the much smaller 350 page Sat Nav manual costs £42 + VAT. Both books printed by the same printer, so why almost double for a book only half the size?? Go figure!! My Lexus Parts Dept was impressed that Lexus had agreed to provide and pay for these books, having just spent 2 days, and used three ink toner cartridges, printing them out for an elderly customer who had no internet access. So, my advice is if you want the books for your NX, give Lexus Head Office a call, and ask them to provide them through your dealer free of charge. Good luck!

Sorry, misunderstood you. The original 3.0 Petrol XF was slow and expensive to run. Probably why it only stayed in production for just over a year. The Supercharged version is a lot better, and a much nicer and more refined car to drive than the diesel XF.

The software for the touchscreen has been updated, but it's still not very good. You are right about the diesel rattle, and mine was particularly bad every time you put your foot on the accelerator. The sound used to reverberate between the houses either side of the road. Build quality and electrics were the worst aspects though. Loads of annoying little glitches and unexplained warning lights. The DPF was a pain too.

Actually the standard 3.0 XF is slightly faster than the NX 200. 6.7 secs to 60 as opposed to 6.9 secs, and a top speed of 149 as opposed to 124. The S 3.0 XF is even faster at 5,9 to 60, and a top speed limited to 155. Way more torque too, 600nm for the XF, 350nm for the Lexus 200. However the ageing XF is far too common a sight on the road now, whilst the NX is a mere baby. Jaguars can be horribly unreliable too, as I found to my cost with an XF and two XJ's/

Possibly an unrealistic guess by the insurers, and the correct prices will be uploaded when the car is actually launched here.

It will certainly be interesting to test drive the 200 next month. When I was comparing insurance prices for my 300H I inadvertently entered the details as an NX 2L Petrol Turbo. I got quite a shock, as they were more than double those I had seen previously. I don't know whether the prices were accurate as the car is yet to be launched here, but if they were, they are up there (for me) with the likes of 3.0 XF's and BMW 640's. You are right about the 200 engine being a brand new development, so I can see your reasoning on pricing strategy.

Lexus reckon 90% of NX sales in the UK will be the 300H, and 10% for the 200. In the States it's 90% 200, 10% 300H. I think if Lexus had priced the 200 to undercut the 300H by a few grand it would be a really big seller here. As I said in another post, it makes no sense pricing them almost identically because the 2.5L engine and all that hybrid equipment must cost a lot more to produce and build than a 2L turbo. Also, if you think the consumption figures are bad for the 300H, they seem a lot worse for the 200. Some owners are reporting sub 20 mpg, or very low 20s. Most hybrid owners say the 300H seems to be averaging around 35, so a massive difference. The current price of UK fuel will go in the 200s favour for a while, but when it rockets back up again the hybrid really starts to make sense. I think the hybrid feels a lot quicker than the official figures, and with immediate torque available from the electric motors, I bet it is quicker off the mark than the 200 - at least until it hits 40mph!! Great if you want a nippy town car, but not so good if you want to get anywhere fast on a motorway.

The salesman I deal with at Lexus agrees with me that the NX200 pricing is crazy. I know Lexus don't expect to sell many in the UK, but to price it at slightly more (after taxes) than the 300H F Sport doesn't make sense. The F Sport 200 has the same spec as the 300H F Sport, but surely the 2.5 engine and hybrid system in the 300 must be a lot more expensive to produce than the 2.0 turbo?

I think you are right Eamonn. I'm finding some of the features on the car difficult to work out without a proper manual, and sometimes looking at the on-line version only adds to the confusion. I have found that the official MPG figures given by Lexus for the NX are wildly optimistic, and not even close to what drivers will achieve in the real world. I am currently averaging 30.4 mpg on a mixture of 40% town and 60% motorway driving. I got similar figures a few years ago from my old RX450H with a 3.5 V6. So, anybody who buys one of these thinking they are going to save money on fuel is in for a bit of a disappointment.

I thought the MPG could be viewed in the car settings on the main nav screen, and also by scrolling through the info pages on the smaller display, but I wouldn't swear to it. I read somewhere that a digital clock is available on screen, but I can't find it. One other thing that really should be present on the car is a digital speedometer that displays on the information screen. I believe this is standard on some cheaper Lexus cars, so why not the NX?

My gripes.....1. Lack of driver memory seat on F Sport, with no option to upgrade. Should be standard in this price band, and pretty stupid not to offer it as an option across the range. 2. Remote touch pad - far too sensitive, and unusable if you wear gloves in winter. A good job the car has forward collision alert, because if you are trying to use this pad whilst driving you are likely to need it. A triumph of design over usability. 3 Electric tailgate - wake me up when it's finally shut. 4.Position of the remote jump/charging points, and the 12V battery if you ever need to charge it - why put the positive terminal inside a fuse box, and the recommended negative/earth point under the engine cover? I normally trickle charge directly to the battery, but Lexus have decided to hide this away under a difficult to remove, and even more difficult to refit piece of trim in the side of the boot.

Same here Malcolm, I never read through them cover to cover, and certainly wouldn't dream of starting with the 1120 pages in the owners and sat nav manuals for the NX. It's just handy to sit in the car and flick to pages where you need a bit of clarification on a specific item. Mind you, even with a book version it sometimes isn't easy to find what you are looking for. Lexus handbooks tend to refer to many items by names not familiar to us in the UK. Too many Americanisms and pseudu-Jap terms...oh, and pages of superfluous waffle that only serve to confuse. I actually got the books by calling Lexus Customer Services, who then instructed the parts dept at the dealer to order and post them on to me. The dealer had no intention of offering them to me for free. I noticed a few customers on the US site complaining about how the NX owners manuals covered every option in every model, and saying that Lexus really should print individual manuals for each trim level. I think they are fortunate to still be getting manuals, and suspect that Lexus know that their American customers wouldn't stand for it. I think they get a better deal all round - lower prices, longer warranty period, more spec options etc.

True David, it's probably the case (as with most manufacturers) that Lexus have printed one sat nav manual, and that it covers all systems in the NX, including features that are exclusive to the Premium Navigation.

Dom, to be honest, apart from the upgraded stereo, touch pad and extra USB port, I'm not sure what the difference is between Nav and Premium Nav. Just a guess here, but if there is no manual for standard nav, then perhaps the instructions are the same as for the premium??

Thanks Rayaan, I do have the option to upgrade to the Premier within 30 days, but the one they have is in silver. That isn't my favorite colour, and coupled with that grille it is unlikely I will decide to switch. Besides that I would have to pay an extra £4500, and I don't think the toys I would find useful are really worth that. But, it would have been nice if Lexus had given us the option to up the spec. I think the 0-60 time in the hybrid depends on having a full battery. Anything less and the time drops to as long as 10 seconds. Best times seem to be achieved in normal drive mode with traction off. but I am only going on what is stated in you tube reviews. A few reviews give the 0-60 tiime in the RX450H as sub 7 seconds.

Attaching a few photos taken at the dealers, and will try to upload some better ones when the weather improves. Sonic white looks great (IMHO), very similar to the arctic pearl. The rose red leather is a nice subtle red, and the black inserts set it off nicely. My friend in the US is driving the NX 200 FSport, and although he was able to spec his up with the toys we can't get here on that model, he is not terribly impressed by the MPG. He told me he is only averaging 20 in the City and 25 on the highway. I'm not sure how Lexus have arrived at the pricing strategy for the NX 200 FSport over here, where it sits at slightly more than the FSport 300 Hybrid. There is normally a pretty big price difference between petrol/petrol turbo models and hybrids, so maybe the 200 FSport will come with more kit, although looking at the equipment spec on the Lexus UK website it seems exactly the same as the hybrid. A couple of reviews have put the hybrid at 7.8 to 60, with the 200 at between 7 and 7.2. To be honest I would find it difficult to justify the increased fuel consumption and higher tax/insurance of the 200 if the difference in low down performance is only marginal.

Got the rose red and black leather in my F Sport, and sonic white paint. Lexus dealer has offered me a silver premier if I change my mind within 30 days, but the lure of the toys isn't as important as the overall look to me. The Premier is still a great looking car, but I just wish common sense had prevailed and it had been offered with the option of a grille that made it stand out from the entry level models. You are correct David, the missus doesn't read the forum. Far too busy talking!!

Cheap and reliable, but she's more annoying than the warning "buzzer" in the car. Wish I'd gone for the ML stereo to drown out the sound of her and her mother gossiping!!

Might be worth waiting David. I mentioned to my dealer that I thought Lexus had really made a major marketing error by not offering the equipment on the Premier as options on the F Sport, and they said that many others had made the same comment, and won't commit to buy for that reason. The general feeling was that these options will probably get offered to UK customers in a few months time, once the back orders for the car have been cleared. The Lexus HUD does look very nice indeed, but not sure on the panoramic cameras. They look great in the advertising material, but don't always turn out to be that useful. I hardly ever used the cameras in my BMW because the view was often badly distorted, and it was very difficult to work out exactly what you were looking at. I'll reserve judgement on the Lexus system because it does look better than BMW's, but at the end of the day if you can't park a car without front, side and rear cameras then you shouldn't be allowed on the road...lol!!! I feel the same way about the rear collision alert system, which warns you if you are backing out in the path of an approaching vehicle. I'll leave that job to the wife, it's cheaper and more reliable.

Hi David. The last couple of cars I owned were both BMW,s - an X5, and a 6 series Gran Coupe. The X5 was great in all weather conditions, but the design did nothing for me. The Gran Coupe was very poor on wet roads, let alone snow and ice. I did have an ISF a couple of years ago, and that was undriveable on anything but bone dry roads. I really like the latest IS, but I've finally got to that stage in life where sitting down low in a car has become less appealing. The NX F Sport is ideal for me because it is practical, cheap to run and maintain, and looks a lot more aggressive than most 4WD or AWD SUVs. I would have liked the options of head up display, panaoramic cameras etc, but felt the NX Premier model looked far too bland in comparison. I think the NX is going to hold it's value better than the IS, but as deliveries start to take off, it could soon become the next "Evoque".

Yes. I've got the AWD 300H F-Sport and it handles quite well in snow (approx 4cms) and ice. Nowhere near as sure footed as the wife's Grand Cherokee, but much better than I expected.