Jeremy Clarkson is a polarizing individual. You either love him or you hate him. But you really can’t ignore him. In his latest The Sunday Times review, he tackles the hybrid Lexus NX 300h Premier. I can see you already thinking, “he’s going to hate it.” But really, he doesn’t.

December was more than merry for Lexus. Its venerable RX sold more than 13,500 last month, putting the segment leader at over 100k for the year, and IS model sales were up nearly 50% over 2013.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A fixie-rider, a rock super babe, a fashion plate, a snappy snowboarder and a determined Doberman Pinscher walk into a shipping container. How many vegan hot dogs do you order?

One killer option we won’t see stateside is the panoramic roof. I grabbed the photo above from Lexus Europe’s Facebook page, and having driven a few vehicles with a panoramic roof, I think it would have been popular? What do you think?

The CL editors have written a lot about how much we love the aggressive design language Lexus has developed. And seldom does a vehicle make such a smooth transition from concept to consumer as the NX has. Find out how it drives!

Last week, Lexus flew me to Canada to experience every flavor of the NX on the glorious roads surrounding Whistler, BC. I even got to spend a few minutes chatting with Chief Engineer Takeaki Kato. Hit the jump for everything I can report about driving the new NX!

Something tells me, he’s not bluffing about the NX being “the world’s best SUV”. Part of the feeling comes from my belief that the NX will be a very important car for Lexus. People want tall cars and they want to save gas. Simple. Making a crossover that doesn’t suck? Not so simple.