2015 Lexus NX 200t Prices
The new NX 200t will start at $34,480 plus $925 for delivery and handling*. As Torque News predicted, this is above a top trim Toyota RAV4 by about $2,000. The NX 200t AWD will start at $36,805 including destination and handling. The prices shown do not include the option packages that Lexus will bundle and offer on all models.
2015 Lexus NX 300h Pricing
The hybrid version of this new crossover from Lexus, the NX 300h will be priced at $40,645 including destination for 2-wheel-drive. And for All-weather drive the crossover will start at $42,235. Lexus expects roughly one in 10 of its NX sales to be a hybrid. This car will most likely be the most fuel efficient compact crossover in the US market for some time.
Lexus Packages Pricing
Lexus has not yet released options package information, but the basic Nav and safety packages run about $2,800 on most Lexus cars and the luxury level price package including Nav about $4,000. Finding a Lexus NX without added options at a dealership will be unlikely The most popular NX will be the NX 200t AWD with a package that puts it at the same price level as the Acura RDX, or about $39K to $41K.
- See more at: http://www.torquenews.com/1083/lexus....m9jwNuVN.dpuf

It’s always interesting to watch a company venture into new territory, like Lexus launching this compact SUV, the NX. Sharing key dirty parts with the Toyota RAV4, the NX is available as either the soft, fuel-sipping NX300h hybrid or the NX200t, the first-ever turbocharged Lexus. After a brief first-drive experience in both, we finally got an NX300h (covered separately) and this sportified F Sport version of the NX200t into our offices for track testing. Where does the NX fit into the field of compact luxury utes that has exploded this year, a class that now includes the Audi Q3, the BMW X1, and the Mercedes-Benz GLA?

We were particularly keen to see how this twin-scroll-turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder would motivate 4021 pounds of crossover. It uses two injectors per cylinder and an integrated four-into-two exhaust manifold said to reduce lag, and it mates to a new six-speed automatic transmission. The F Sport trim brings a higher-effort steering system and sport-tuned suspension aimed at elevating the NX’s handling to the level of Lexus’s performance bogeys, the Audi Q5 and BMW X3.

The numbers we got at the track won’t exactly light your hair on fire, the NX accelerating from zero to 60 mph in 6.9 seconds and hitting the quarter-mile in 15.3 seconds at 92 mph. That 60-mph time ties that of the last Q5 2.0T we tested yet lags more than 0.7 second behind both the lighter BMW X1 xDrive28i and the heavier X3 with the same engine. Despite Lexus’s work to reduce turbo lag, lag is indeed present, evident in a rolling-start (5–60 mph) acceleration time of 7.8 seconds, 0.8 and 0.2 second behind the X3 and Q5, respectively. Not helping matters, the six-speed upshifts at different rpm in each gear, at times shifting at 6000, other times at 6200 rpm or 6500 rpm, according to our tester. “Very odd,” he noted.

On the plus side, the four is quiet, more so than even the hybrid by two decibels at a 70-mph cruise (66 decibels versus 68). Activate the “active sound control” system in Sport mode, however, and the cabin fills with a pleasantly barky, if technically inauthentic, engine note.

When the road bends, the NX200t exhibits crisp turn-in, decent feel through the steering wheel, and excellent high-speed stability on its taut F Sport–specific suspenders—when driven tamely, anyway. But push it even a little and it succumbs to understeer. There’s only so much a tall crossover can do when 59 percent of its weight sits atop the front wheels; even with all-wheel drive and summer tires, the front end washed out at a modest 0.79 g on the skidpad, just 0.02 g more than the wimpy hybrid model and far lower than the 0.86-g target set by the X3 and the Q5. The F Sport stopped from 70 mph in just 167 feet (within two feet of the X3), and its brakes exhibited zero fade even after many repeated trials.

Say what you will about the styling, but Lexus certainly earns points for bravery. The F Sport’s black mesh-filled spindle-shaped grille, messy constellation of disjointed lighting elements (all LED, in the case of our tester), dark head- and taillamps, black mirrors, and 18-inch wheels earned about as many admirers as detractors both in-house and on the street. Opinions varied widely, but most of us agree that the sculpted body works better than the nose, and that the F Sport looks better than the standard NX200t. Indeed, this is one of those cars that “has a great body, butter face . . . ”

As with the exterior, the interior is busy, expressive, and compact. Lexus says that “active racers” were involved in the design of the car, including chief engineer Takeaki Kato, and their influence can be found in the F Sport’s excellent seating position, terrific F Sport front seats, aluminum pedals, and a highly contoured, small-diameter steering wheel that feels superb. Other elements tailored to the F Sport include gauge faces, scuff plates, and dashboard and door accents.

With such compact dimensions, nothing is too far away from the driver’s hands. The center stack juts out toward the occupants, creating a shelf into which the BMW-like stand-up screen is nestled and bringing HVAC controls near to hand. Infotainment controls in our tester highlighted the best iteration yet of Lexus’s Remote Touch controller (included in the $2140 Navigation package), which has evolved into a haptic touch pad and an ergonomic wrist rest on the console. The flip side is that there’s no abundance of space, particularly for front-seat occupants, who’ll find that everything sort of feels like it’s been shrunken around them. The average-size driver could feel the cabin is tailor-fit (which a racer might appreciate), although the low-ish roofline and narrow body could prove too snug for larger folks.

At a base price of $38,905 for the all-wheel-drive model and an as-tested price of $44,375 (which included a Premium package, parking assist, a sunroof, and blind-spot monitors in addition to the aforementioned navigation system), we’re not sure we would recommend the NX200t F Sport over the all-wheel-drive $41,450 BMW X3 or the $39,825 Audi Q5, let alone the less expensive X1 and Q3, which we see as more direct competitors. We would, however, recommend the F Sport over the standard version, as it turns the NX200t into an appreciably more sporting creature for a reasonable $2100. Just don’t push it.

Wald International has released the first details about their upcoming styling program for the Lexus NX.

Looking decidedly more aggressive than the standard model, the crossover has been equipped with a front spoiler, extended wheel arches and unique alloy wheels. The sporty styling continues out back as there's a tailgate-mounted spoiler and a new rear bumper with center-mounted taillights.

As a refresher, the Lexus NX is available with three different engines including a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder that produces 235 bhp (175 kW) and 258 lb-ft (349 Nm) of torque.

So, while the Lexus NX seems to be a generally praiseworthy car, it has been criticized for not living up to its bold looks.

Its driving experience is competent but no more and the interior is not as good as it could have been – this poses a problem for it when rivals do everything so well these days…

KBB got behind the wheel of a hybrid example and they gave it the thumbs up for its best-in-class ride comfort and, of course, the noticeable styling. However, they say the dash design and materials choice could have been more inspired, and that with minimal modifications in certain areas, it would have been much more successful.

The NX will still probably prove a commercial success: its badge, styling, availability of a hybrid powertrain and not-ridiculous price will still make it appealing. Besides, for some prospective buyers, the fact that the outlandish exterior is complimented by a reassuringly-Lexus (and simple) interior may even be the clincher – they want to stand out but not have to put up with ridiculous practicality and usability concessions made to style.

WHEN A new Mercedes comes along, you know before you’ve even opened the door what it will be like. All Mercs feel broadly similar until the company changes direction, which happens about once every 4,000 years, and then, ever so slowly, they all start to feel slightly different.

It’s the same story with BMW. Its cars were all fast and light for a long time, and then they all became heavy and a bit terrible, and now they’re all as good as cars can be (except the X3, obviously).

With Lexus you never know what you’re going to get. It’s not swings and roundabouts; it’s rollercoasters and big buckets full of steaming excrement. Some Lexuses are so brilliant that you have to bite the back of your hand to stop yourself crying out. Others are so bad that you consider driving at full speed into a tree to end the misery. And then you have those that are beautifully made but a bit forgettable. I can’t recall their names at the moment.

Only recently I tried the new RC F, which is a four-seat, two-door sports coupé priced and powered to compete with the BMW M4. And despite what my colleague said last week, it misses the target by about 217 miles, partly because it weighs more than the Atlantic Ocean and partly because you drive around everywhere in a wail of dreary understeer.

So what of the car you see on these pages this morning — the new NX? Hmm. There are lots of letters that work well in a car’s name. T, for example, or S or R — R’s very popular right now. R says a lot about a man. It says nearly as much as Z. But N? No. N doesn’t work. It’s like U.

To make matters worse, it’s one of those crossover SUV thingies, which are popular because they are perceived to be more robust and safer than ordinary hatchbacks. They’re not. But they are more expensive, more wasteful and needlessly enormous.

What’s more, if you peel away the premium-brand badging, the NX is essentially a Toyota RAV4. So you can think of it as a sweatshop jumper with a Ralph Lauren horse on the front.

Oh, and here’s the clincher. It’s a hybrid. It says so on the side, so that cyclists will not be tempted to bang on your roof as they pedal by. Yes, you’re driving a large car, but it’s kind to the environment so that’s OK. No, it isn’t. It’s unkind and daft. A hybrid may produce fewer carbon dioxides from its tailpipe than a normal car, but the cost to the planet of making the damn things with all those motors and batteries is immense. Anyone who buys a hybrid for ecological reasons is telling the world that they are an idiot.

It’s one of those cars that compel you to turn round for another look after you’ve locked them up for the night

So, a crossover hybrid with an N in its name and low-rent underpinnings from a company that’s capable of turning out a howler from time to time. This is not looking good. But here’s the thing: it does. At first you think it’s all too complicated and fussy, but it’s actually very well proportioned and full of genuinely lovely touches. It’s one of those cars that compel you to turn round for another look after you’ve locked them up for the night.

And it’s even better on the inside. The driving position is good, the dials look as if they were designed by the International Watch Company, the quality of the materials is way better than you have a right to expect for this price and there are many toys to play with. And just when you think you’ve played with them all, you find another bank of switches and off you go again. I especially liked the touchpad that steers the arrow around the sat nav screen.

And I amused myself for hours with the head-up display system, moving it up the windscreen to its highest point and then wondering what shape a driver would have to be to want it there. Another game was pushing buttons and guessing what you’d done. Half the time nothing seemed to happen.

This is because, behind the scenes, the Lexus is phenomenally complicated. There’s a normal four-cylinder 2.5-litre petrol engine that produces 153bhp, but then there are other motors too, doing all sorts of trickery. There’s even one in the back to power the rear wheels when you are in a field.

And they are all linked together by sorcery. It feels, when you put your foot down, as if it’s fitted with one of those awful cones-and-belt continuously variable gearboxes — technology that fills me with such rage that my hair starts to move about and my teeth begin to itch. But further investigation reveals that although the transmission system is called eCVT, it’s different from traditional versions: all the units send their power into what in essence is a differential, and this sends the motive force to the wheels.

So you start the engine and nothing happens. You set off in electric silence, and then when you want to go faster you push the accelerator and the petrol engine zooms up to a certain point in the rev band and stays there until you decide you’ve had enough. I don’t like it at all and I cannot believe it’s the most economical solution. But the NX 300h is not aimed at me. It’s aimed at, um, people who don’t really care what the rev counter’s doing.

This is not a fast car. It’s not even on nodding terms with the concept of speed. Time and again I found myself driving along with a huge queue of cars in my wake, wondering why everyone was being so aggressive and sporty all of a sudden. But they weren’t. It was me. I’ve never driven so slowly in all my life. I actually had to speed up for the cameras.

Which is fine because in this day and age lots of people just want to get home at night. And it’s good at that. Very good. It is extremely comfortable and remarkably quiet. There’s even an EV mode button that puts it in a pure electric motor setting, which would make it quieter still, but every time I pushed it I was told the system was temporarily unavailable. I therefore went back to playing with the head-up display.

This is not a fast car…I’ve never driven so slowly in all my life. I actually had to speed up for the cameras

It’s strange. The Lexus is sold as a hybrid, and it has two different power sources, so technically it is. But it can’t really run on batteries alone. So if you are looking for a car to save the polar bear you’d be better off with a McLaren P1 or a Porsche 918 Spyder.

However, if you are normal, the Lexus is pretty good. It worked in a field, the boot is huge, the back is spacious and the air of good quality is all-pervading. The handling also is good for a car this tall and heavy — it’s really heavy — but despite its bulk you can do hundreds of miles on a single tank of fuel. I enjoyed my time with it and would recommend it to anyone who for some reason doesn’t want a Range Rover Evoque.

I can’t for the life of me work out what that reason might be, but if you have one, then the NX, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is your answer.

Jeremy’s verdict ★★★☆☆
Crossover, hybrid…but it’s OK, honest
Lexus NX 300h Premier specifications
Engine 2494cc, 4 cylinders, plus electric motors
Power 194bhp (total)
Torque 152 lb ft @ 4400rpm
Transmission Electronic continuously variable
Performance 0-62mph: 9.2sec
Top speed 112mph
Fuel 54.3mpg (combined)
CO2 121g/km
Road tax band D
Price £42,995
Release date On sale now

Lexus has increased production of the NX compact crossover to 10,000 units per month in order to capitalize on the vehicle’s impressive launch.

The initial expectation was for 80,000 NXs to be sold worldwide in 2015, but the forecast has now been raised to more than 100,000 units.

The NX is produced at Toyota Motor Kyushu in Fukuoka, Japan.

The NX premium compact crossover is the first model in Lexus' UK range to receive the brand's new 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four petrol engine.

Named the NX 200t, the force-fed model starts at £38,095 on the road, with first customer deliveries from mid-March. It joins the already available NX 300h hybrid priced from £29,495 OTR, which according to Lexus, has amassed over 1,000 sales in the country since its introduction in October last year.

The NX 200t's 2.0-liter turbo unit produces 235hp between 4,800 and 5,600rpm, with peak torque of 350Nm (258 lb-ft) delivered at 1,650rpm, paired to a standard six-speed automatic. Lexus quotes a combined cycle figure of 35.8mpg UK and CO2 emissions of 183g/km.

The petrol model will be offered exclusively in F Sport trim with standard Dynamic Torque Control all-wheel drive system that can direct up to 50 per cent of available torque towards the rear wheels, as well as performance dampers.

Lexus said the 200t F Sport mirrors its NX 300h counterpart in in its equipment specification featuring a sported-up exterior with a mesh spindle grille nested in a deeper front bumper with a metallic coated lower section, black finish mirrors, and 18-inch alloy wheels in 225/60 tires. Inside, there are standard leather sport seats, perforated aluminium sports pedals and an F-Sport steering wheel.

Other equipment highlights include:

Headlights with LED high and low beam functions
F Sport heated electric leather front seats with lumbar support
F Sport suspension with performance dampers
Electric steering column adjustment
Power tailgate
Wireless smartphone charger
LED fog lamps with cornering function
Rear privacy glass
Parking sensors
Auto-dimming rear-view mirror
Smart Entry and push-button start
Integrated roof rails
Pre-Crash Safety system and Adaptive Cruise Control
Reversing camera
Dual zone climate control
Lexus Media Display with Remote Dial controller
Eight-speaker audio system with DAB digital radio and CD/DVD player
USB multimedia port
60/40 folding rear seats
Electric, auto-folding door mirrors
Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management
Hill-start Assist Control
Eight airbags
Remote double door locking
Speed-sensitive automatic door locking
Rain-sensing wipers

If you’ve paid attention to the IIHS crash test data (which you can find in the “Technical Measurements” tab, under each model’s test category, on the IIHS official webpage), then you may have an impression that, compared to its German luxury car competitors, Lexus usually has inferior crash test results.

For example for the moderate overlap front test, when measuring the footwell intrusion, the current GS sedan has structure deformation around 6-9 cm; but for the Mercedes-Benz E class, BMW 5-series, Audi A6, they all have those numbers in the 1-2 cm league, which means in the crash test, the Lexus GS has more severe deformation in its safety cage, while its German competitors has almost no deformation at all. The same applies to the roof strength, side impact test and also the small overlap crash test.

In the past, although Lexus vehicles were luxury, have high ride quality and reliable, their car body were indeed not so solid compared to the German luxury cars. From my point of view, this is the only major shortcoming of the Lexus brand previously.

But Lexus is finally catching up. Starting from the 3rd-generation IS sedan, new Lexus models have much better and even the best in the industry when it comes to body solidness. This is especially true for the latest two new models: the RC coupe and the NX CUV.

The NX CUV follows the same pattern, which very strong car body, easily passed and get good results in all testing categories. You can see from the below images of its strong safety cage (with minimal deformation during the test). IIHS test details is here.

So it looks like Lexus is starting to put out a big challenge to its rivals again, just like how it did in 1989 when the first Lexus LS was announced.

Feel free to leave a question or share an opinion in the comment box below.