I currently own a 2003 Rav 4 that I love. I am looking to buy a new SUV. I narrowed the compact SUVs down to the 2015 Subaru Forester Touring turbo with Eyesight/Navigation but no dealer has one to drive yet. I would prefer a more luxury vehicle and love the Lexus RX350 but the tailgate is a no go because it is not adjustable and will hit my garage when open. My next choice in the luxury SUV category is the Volvo. I need higher car due to physical limitations and want AWD for the weather in my area.

My Lexus salesperson called and asked how much of a hurry I was in and told me about the NX. I am not in a hurry to buy and have been researching it. It appears to have the same system as Eyesight and an adjustable tailgate. I states lower hip height seating, which might be a concern for me. Any word on that yet?

I know nothing about engines and you all seem to be experts. Is there any concern about buying a car with the first of its kind engine, like the NX? Would you suggest turbo or hybrid?

Thank you in advance for all of your help.

 

Yep, saw tons of FXs in Russia when I was in St. Petersburg last year (not to stray off topic). You are exactly right.

 

I think it is wise to sit out the 1st model year of any new vehicle to allow any bugs/kinks to be worked out. As for engines, Toyota has a good track record with their hybrids, I am sure the turbo will also be excellent, but no track record.

 

Forgot about Toyota using the 3S-GTE?

 

Agreed. My impression of the interior of the 2010 2IS was quite good, it was definitely what sealed the deal for my wife when she was looking for a car. We test drove a 3-series immediately afterwards, and the interior felt/looked embarrassingly cheap comparatively.

If the NX in fact does have a better interior than our IS, well I guess I'll just be very happy about it...

 

The eyesight system is very nice, in fact to be fair, has one or two more features than Lexus' system like the Lead Vehicle Start alert, but you do get pre-collision, lane departure, HUD, etc on the NX. Note that chances are, the total of these features will likely only be available on the top-line 300h (hybrid) and not the 200t F-Sport, based on the information we know of today for the US.

The Hybrid engine in the 300h has its roots and many years of reliable history in applications like the Camry, ES, and Avalon. The Turbo is brand new. HOWEVER, Lexus took almost 10 years to develop this engine since 2005 and Toyota/Lexus' track record on powertrain reliability has been second to none.

If you are considering the Forester, the ingress/egress of the NX will be similar since the Forrester was never a tall SUV. Also, if you want to get a feel for how the seats are in the NX, sit in an IS regular and IS F-Sport and adjust the height that's comfortable for you. They are the same shaped seats. Of course, the NX will be a few inches taller and easier to get in/out.

One major caveat that your Lexus dealer may not have told you is there is speculation the NX will be in limited supply end of 2014 in the US, almost like a soft launch, with supply ramping up in 2015. In Canada, supply is limited to only a handful per dealer for 2014 which is why I locked mine in with a deposit. But nothing confirmed yet for the US as of this time.

In short, if you want the NX by December 2014, (as I in Canada) you may be limited to what is available Turbo or Hybrid, or a combination of both. Both suit different needs, but if lower operating costs and a more luxurious and quiet operation (albeit slower accelerating) is what you want, the 300h is for you.

Good luck.

 

Ugh, yeah I did, I am relatively new to Toyota/Lexus have been a Honda/Acura guy since mid 80's, but I am here to learn because I am not liking the direction Acura is going, but do like the direction of Lexus

 

Interesting info from Russian brochure about NX200t:
http://content.v10.lexus.ru/pdf/broc...chure_2014.pdf

NX200t
0-100kmh - 7.2s
CO2- 199g

NX200 CVT AWD:
CO2 - 176g

Vs Russian RAV4 AWD:
2.5l 6AT - CO2 - 198g (0-100kmh in 9.4s)
2.0l CVT - CO2 - 173g

vs ES350 (Russia)
0-100kmh - 7.4s
CO2 - 224g

Once again, EU cycle and EPA cycle are not comparable at all, very different and same cars get rated very differently between EU and EPA (for instance CT200h gets better rating in Europe than Prius while in US, Prius is better by 6 MPG).

But it is still interesting to see how these compare to the same exact models on sale in Europe/USA right now.

 

of course, these NX200t numbers could be placeholders, but they seem to match those Japanese numbers for consumption, as in not really the greatest but also pretty good.

 

I think the lack of an 8AT is seriously hurting Lexus's competitiveness.

http://www.bmwblog.com/2012/02/13/ne...-turbo-engine/

2012 BMW X3 xDrive28i
0-100kmh - 6.7s
CO2 - 175g
Fuel Economy - 7.5L/100km
Dimensions (L/W/H) - 4648 / 1882 / 1661mm

 

Good find. I had always been thinking in the back of my mind that the 200t may still not crack the 7 second mark. Lexus is just too obsessed with linear acceleration.

 

Great find. Also from Lexus Russia web site,

http://nx.lexus.ru/?4p

NX300h AWD
0-100km/h - 9.3s

NX200 FWD or AWD must be really slow and so it is interesting to see the 0-100km/h is not published and it is probably fine as the targeted customers probably do not care about this performance figure.

Another observation: on this particular spec page, they use the picture of LF-NX instead of the picture of production NX. Note the side mirrors are different.

 

after looking at the Russian site I'm scratching my head. It shows the bar grill with mesh lower for all 3 models. What's up?

 

Agree, its not acceptable to introduce a new engine in 2014 with a gearbox construction that originates from the nineties. Especially when there already is an good 8AT in the house !

 

It does seem a bit unusual to launch with the 6 speed transmission - Although, it is a good one.

I suppose Lexus could offer an 8 speed down the road in a mid-cycle refresh which would give them some new news.