Rear looks great despite the new trend of wrap around tail lamps. Alloys have satin black finish and looks decent.

BHPian PrideRed recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

When I had bought 3 series, I had enquired about ES300 and had dropped due to various reasons. Last year there were juicy discounts on various Lexus models and had checked NX and RX. NX350H was something that I liked on paper and wanted to check out. Last week sales representative mentioned about availability of 2024 model and said I can test drive and check . I had mentioned I may not buy as I had made other car purchase recently, sales rep told me to take a call after test drive. They agreed to get the car over to my place.

Positives:

• Interior is fantastic. Quality of materials used, features(lot more than competition).
• Paint finish was excellent. Lexus offers a wide range of colours and variants.
• Noise insulation was brilliant.
• Looks can be polarizing especially the spindle grille. Overall I would mention the design as "Nice".
• 240 HP strong hybrid engine has good enough power and grunt.
• Suspension is very European. Adaptive dampers works well and in Sport+ mode is quite fun.
• Fantastic fuel efficiency. During my test drive, MID was hovering around 15-16KMPL in city.

Negatives:

• Lexus has limited presence in India. NX is CBU, hence availability of some parts might be a challenge.
• Rear seat under thigh support isn't good and seat is a bit narrow too.
• While engine feels powerful, there is no kickback feel of punchy turbo petrol/diesels.
• Lack of spare tire can be problematic though car gets run flat tires.
• Smaller footprint compared to competition. Car feels a bit narrow and has a smaller boot space too.

The variant I liked is the Overtrail and coincidentally the variant that came for test drive was same too. This variant rides on 18 inch India friendly tires instead of low profile 20 inch, gets black treatment to grille/alloys, ORVM, nice sporty seats(Synthetic leather though), Adaptive dampers like F Sport and nice Mark Levinson Audio.

Exteriors:

Car isn't huge, may be as big a say Harrier. Front looks, many may not like, thanks to large spindle grille. From side, bonnet is disproportionately large and can look bit awkward. Rear looks great despite the new trend of wrap around tail lamps. Alloys have satin black finish and looks decent. Car has adaptive headlamps and gets fog lamps too. Headlamps look a bit too busy for my liking and fog lamps are place quite low. As usual, Lexus logo has inbuilt radar for ADAS and gets front parking sensors and 360 camera.

The paint finish is very good and black contrast roof goes well with white car. Body panels feel heavy and do not flex as much like a typical Japanese car. Door handles are different, they have a switch inside and one need not pull out like traditional handle. Once you get used to, is quite easy to operate.

Interiors:

Car has lot of features. You name it, car has it. Even cars like X5/GLE miss on equipment offered by NX. ADAS, heated/cooled seats, configurable HUD, heated steering, E latch door release, super Mark Levinson Audio, Large pano roof, reclining rear seats, Lumbar support, sporty seats, 4 driving modes, large digital display etc. Except for lower part of dash, most is soft touch plastic and quality feels at par with BMW/Mercedes or may be even a notch higher. Seats offer wide range of adjustment and was quite easy to find a comfortable driving position. Seats are big and have good under thigh support . The rear seat in comparison lacks under thigh support and you sit bit low. Width is good for 2 adults and a child. The seats can be electronically folded using a dedicated button or through display. Just like outside door handle, interior gets a latch and one can push it to open the door. This is more convenient than traditional door pull lever.

Audio sounds good, don't know how many speakers it has but had terrific bass and had good clarity. Gets wireless Apple carplay but android auto is wired. Head unit offers lot of options.

Driving the NX:

Being a strong hybrid, as expected, car has no sound on start and continues so until for about speed of 20-30KM/Hr. Once the 2.5L Engine kicks in, you can hear the engine. Initially I tried in comfort mode, car has good power and suspension was absorbing bumps quite well. There is no sideway movement and cars stay planted at speeds upto 80-100KM/Hr. Switched to Sport+ mode which is exclusive to Overtrail and F Sport variant. The car is quite fun in this mode. Suspension stiffens quite a bit, steering weighs up and engine has good grunt. Yet the acceleration is linear and not much push back feel. The handling though was a revelation, takes corner quite well despite the height. In Sport+ handling feels very much European and one can really push the car through corners at higher speeds. The e CVT has a bit of lag but did not find it problematic especially in SPort+ mode. Not as quick as dual clutch but lets say at par with a traditional torque converter but smoother when driving sedately. Engine note for some reason was not to my liking and not the typical Japanese screamer.

Summary:

At 90L OTR NX350H is now competitively priced against GLC/X3 and Q5. NX is a well rounded package and worth considering especially given how BMW have detuned the new X3. NX has segment best features, nice to drive , comparatively cheaper to maintain and cheaper to run too. That said, lacks the snob value of Germans and limited showrooms means you have limited options w.r.to dealers.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

We have done close to 1000 miles on the car now. So far, this has been a new experience for us.

BHPian ps_abhijith recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Background:
We moved as a family to the UK back in 2021 for our work. Initially, we were living in within London and the need for a car was not that much given the good public transport infra, congested roads, expensive insurance and 20mph speed limit. Once we settled in, we started looking to get a car for trips outside London and we ended up getting a used 2014 Lexus CT200h from Lexus approved. The car came with full warranty up to 2024 and 5 more years of warranty on the Hybrid system. CT200h was a small Hybrid car from Lexus, with a 1.8 NA Atkinson cycle engine paired to an e-CVT transmission and a small motor on the front axle, the setup is derived from the Toyota Prius. The car has served us well since then, we have done close to 22000 miles in the past 2+ years on the car. Other than the annual service, there were no other issues on the car. It had zero annual road tax, was cheap to insure, and ultra cheap to run. The car was regularly giving us 50 mpg in city, 55-60 on mixed, and up to 65 mpg on motorways. However, with 3 people and luggage on board did feel a bit underpowered on the motorway at times, and it did lack on modern tech with the only driver assist being cruise control.

Search for a new Car
Last year, we moved out of London to a suburban village, just outside London. Few months back my wife who works for the Tata group received an employee benefit list, offering up to 25% off on some JLR cars. This included the F pace, and 25% off on the car was an eye watering offer! Just out of curiosity, we decided to book a test drive for the car and were asked to come in the next weekend. The showroom experience was comparable to Tata in India, subpar customer service, advisors who were a bit shady and pushy etc. The car on the other hand, was a beauty to look at and the road Prescence was amazing. We did the test drive on a car with the 2.0 Diesel engine and came out with mixed feelings. The engine was not that refined but felt powerful and shockingly the interior quality was cheap, and didn't feel good even compared to our 10-year-old Lexus. On top of this the car was not known for reliability, especially concerns with the ingenium series engines. The insurance cost for JLR cars were already crazy high (5-10k GBP a year if you were living within London) because of increased theft of JLR cars in the UK. So, after consulting with few friends who knew cars better, we dropped the plan.

We thought of not getting a car till next summer, but casually kept looking at other options. The following cars were considered and test driven in the following months.

Mercedes GLB: 7-seater, Mercedes brand, good interiors.
poor reliability of the small petrol / diesel engines, low resale value, limited extended warranty options. Heard about a version of the GLB with the 220d engine, but dealership mentioned its sort of a Unicorn model, no one has seen it.

GLC: Good car, gem of an engine (220D), luxury interiors.
Felt a bit small compared to other SUVs, expensive to own, expensive to insure, again limited extended warranty options.

Nissan X Trail: Lots of space, good tech, 7 seats, reliable.
Cheap build quality, cheap interior bits, not so impressive fuel economy, rough ride.

Mazda cx 60: Great looking car, good reliability, not so expensive to insure.
Not many complaints, not known as a premium brand.

Volvo xc 60: Somehow was not interested in this one, didn't even check further.

Toyota Rav4: Good car, spacious 5-seater, relatively cheap to insure.
Cheap interiors, outdated tech, top ends are a bit pricey.

All this time we were not considering a Lexus as we knew the only available option for us was the NX series, which somehow didn't appeal much to us. The RX series was bigger, and still had the can bus security vulnerability and associated bad press. I went in for the annual service of our CT200 in last July, while at the showroom saw an NX350h in person. This was a new one and looked entirely different from the previous gen NX350. Th car was tall, big, and the interiors seemed to be nice and premium. So, we visited the showroom again on the weekend with my wife for a test drive. The showroom experience was premium, and we were really pampered there. We were given a 2023 model car for a long test drive.

The car looked imposing from the front, beautiful from the sides and somehow unremarkable from the rear. Interior was nice, everything you touch was wrapped in premium leather or other nice materials, no scratchy plastics anywhere. The highlight was the large 14inch touchscreen. We liked that there were few physical buttons too, and not everything was on the touch screen. The seating position was much higher compared to the CT which was almost close to the ground. Ride was okey, given that the car had 20inch alloys with run flat tires, which are not known for ride comfort. The cabin was heavily insulated, once you close the door, it was completely isolated from the outside world. The car also felt powerful, overtaking and merging on the motorway was effortless. It came with a whole lot of safety features and full ADAS level 2 systems, including adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist, auto emergency braking, rear cross traffic alert, safe exit on all doors, 360 deg camera, and a nice heads-up display. The touch buttons on the steering wheel felt a bit annoying and distracted us at times, but we got used to them quick. All in all, we loved the car during the test drive.

On top of this, Lexus were offering 10-year full warranty on the car (as long as you service the car on schedule with Lexus), and 5 more years warranty on the Hybrid system. That was a lot of confidence on the car from Lexus and offered a lot of peace of mind for us too. Once we were back in the showroom, we tried to narrow down on the model and the variant. NX was offered in two models, in FWD and AWD configurations, and multiple variants in both models, with lots of customization options. Below two models were available:

NX350h : Normal self-charging Hybrid, available in fwd and awd options
NX450h : Plugin Hybrid, in AWD option.

The 450h was about 4k more than the 350h in price. For that you get a plugin hybrid with 47 mile claimed range and 50 more bhp. However, you had to give up on a bit of boot space and get a car which is 200+kgs heavier than the 350h, and slightly less fuel efficient once the battery runs out. And the 450h was 6 categories above in insurance than the 350h (means a lot more to insure).

Even though spending 4k more to get a more powerful plugin hybrid looked like a steal deal, we decided to go for the 350h for the following reasons:

1. Our purpose of getting the new car was mainly for motorway use, and we were planning to keep the CT200 for day-to-day use around town and commute to station etc. 35-40 mile on the battery was not that beneficial on the motorway.
2. We had no provision to install a charger at home, as the car was to be parked in a garage on the other side of the house. Hence an EV / plugin would mean that we will have to charge from a public charger, which is expensive.
3. Was concerned about the insurance costs, 450 was in category 42 which is really high in the UK.

Coming to the variant, we wanted to go for the Takumi model which is the top of the line for Lexus in UK. However, the sales advisor advised us to reconsider the Takumi model as it was 6k more expensive than the model below that (premium plus). The main difference was Mark Levinson audio, heated rear seats, and wood trims inside the car and safe exit assist (assistance while entering a main road from a smaller road). It made sense not to spend the added 6k on the car as the only thing we cared about in that list was the mark Levinson audio. So, in the end, we went for the Premium plus model.

Ordering Process:

The cars are built to order in Lexus factory in Japan and shipped to the UK. Every car can be customized in exterior color, interior color, options for sunroof etc. We went with the graphite black (black with shiny metallic flakes in it) with an all-black interior package, black alloys, and an electrically openable panoramic sunroof as the additional option. The final price of the car depended on this configuration. Once the order was placed, we were able to see the progress on the Lexus link app. We were notified once the car was built, and when the car was shipped to the UK. Our ETA for delivery was around end of Sep. Additionally, we were able make use of our Costco membership, and the car was bought via Costco auto program, giving us about 5k off on the car.

Price Summary:
NX350 Premium plus Pan roof AWD.
Base Price: 54.5k
After customization, additional options, first year tax, registration and other costs, the on-road price was around 59k, and we got about 5k off that.
Lexus gave 1k as deposit contribution from their end.

We also got the Lexus care packs:

• Minor damage protection (small scratches, stone chips, small pin dents etc
• Supaguard (Paint and interior coatings for protection)
• Tyre and alloy protection : Free repairs on the alloy for scratches, free puncture repairs and upto 5 tire replacements in 3 years. Need to note that the car came with run flats from factory and mostly will have to replace the tyre in case of a puncture.
• Lexus Service Pack : Pre paid service pack for 3 services or upto the 4th year.

Front and rear dashcams were installed by the dealer for free (This was the only freebie from their end, the cost for the dashcams with installation was 749), which was indirectly for purchasing the 3 protection packs from them.

We took delivery of the car on 30th Sep, and the delivery experience was pleasant. We were asked to sign few documents, and the keys were handed over to us in a welcome pack. The car was parked on a delivery bay right next to where we were sitting. Following this, they helped us to setup the connected car features on the car to our phones, gave us a demo of all the basic features on the car, went through with the basic controls etc. The car was handed over with a full tank of petrol. I checked with them if I need to bring the car in at 1000mile or a month for a checkup, which was answered by "see you next year for your service".

Initial Impressions:

We have done close to 1000 miles on the car now. So far, this has been a new experience for us. The car is packed with tech which makes driving it a lot more pleasant, but the first hour was a bit hectic for us. There were so many warnings / alarms while driving it (speed change, road signs, missing road marking etc etc), was kind of a sensory overload for us. On top of this, had to get used to the seat height as well as increased size of the car.

The seating position is high, real high, you almost look down on pedestrians on the road. This is with the seat at the lowest seat height setting.
The ground clearance is an added boon, no more worries about scraping the underside on speed breakers or kerbs.
Once you are inside, you are fully isolated from the outside world. No noise creeps in. The car feels solid and premium in every bit.
The engine sound is not audible in low speeds. On the motorway, it comes into the cabin more as a sweet growl when the car accelerates. While cruising, only noise you hear is a small bit of tire noise.
The suspension is not that plush, but not very firm too. Car drives in a settled manner on most roads. It doesn't feel like a rocking boat.
The default audio unit on the car is not bad, comes with a 10-speaker setup and is more than adequate for us.
The 360-camera system is really useful, especially while parking and going though width restrictions on small roads.
The car has 3 driving modes, eco, normal and sport. Switching to sport mode changes the throttle response by a large margin. Eco mode has felt more than enough for me, most of the time.
The car also has paddle shifters, which I had tried few times, but the smooth cvt in full auto is much less work for me.

The safety systems work exceptionally well. On the motorway, adaptive cruise + Lane keep assist is a real boon, you can be relaxed and not worry about someone in front slowing down. It requires you to keep at least one hand on the steering at all times. Emergency stop works, especially while reversing.

The car also recognizes speed limits and other road signs and lets u know the speed limit at all times. The adaptive cruise control, if you use it on small roads, recognizes turns on the roads, and brakes while turning. We are still getting used to all of this. The built in Lexus navigation is similar to google maps, and has live traffic updates. The cruise control works in slow speeds, which is really handy on roads with 20mph limits. Most older cruise controls need a min of 25 mph speed to work. The car has auto high beam with Lexus blade scan, it really works. It turns parts of the headlight off against oncoming traffic, while lighting up the rest of the road ahead. You no longer need to be doing the low high beam switching manually.

The car has a claimed fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg, we have seen anywhere from 42 to 49 mpg on long drives so far, it seems to be having a larger Hybrid battery, and the ev driving ratio is impressive. Also the switching between the EV and engine mode is seamless, you don't even hear the engine coming on at times in slow speeds. The regen braking is not that aggressive, and the car can coast longer without the regen kicking in. The brakes are a lot more progressive, but you still have the weird feeling when you start to brake. Initially it engages the regen, goes upto the max regen level, holds it there for a moment, and then the actual brakes kick in, and you can feel when that happens, the car looses speed much more rapidly. However, this is not noticeable unless you focus on how the braking in going, to a normal user this will not be even noticeable.

The remote access features work as expected. You can lock / unlock the car from your phone, you can open the boot. You can also start the climate control to pre-condition the car. It also comes with heated and ventilated seats for the driver and passenger, heated steering wheels, heated outside rear view mirrors, and an auto dimming outside rear view mirror for the driver. No more being dazzled by the light of the car behind you via the outside rear view mirror. It also offers a basic tracking feature for the car.

Other observations:

The car is heavy and tall, that shows if you try to push the car on tight turns in small roads.
On rough road surfaces, the suspension + run flat tires get noisy.
Audio quality on android auto is pathetic, the first time we heard it we were disappointed on the whole audio setup. But it was worlds apart once we disabled android audio on the phone and connected via Bluetooth for audio. Apple CarPlay seems to be having better audio quality.
The car doesn't come with a spare Tyre or a Tyre repair kit as it has run flats.
The panoramic roof is tinted. Once the shade is open, it brings in a lot of light into the cabin. Only the front part of the glass can be opened.

The safety systems seem to get confused in the below situations:

• On roads with no road markings / faded road markings, car starts to show all kinds of warnings + steering vibrates.
• On roads where the left end of the road is not marked properly with a solid white line, the Lane keep assist sometimes struggles.
• When you are driving up a small rolling hill and the moment car reaches the crest, it gets confused as it no longer sees the road / road marking ahead for a second, shows all kinds of warnings, but is all good as soon as you go over the crest.
• If you are driving in a road with cars parked on the side, the car will auto stop if you don't steer away from the parked car sooner.

Notes:
This car is a 2025 model year build. There were spec changes which were a surprise even for the showroom people.

• The official spec says there is no support for wireless android auto, but the car has it. Strangely, it still came with a USB type c cable for android auto.
• Electric under thigh support for driver & passenger seats, this was not in the official spec list
• LED cornering lights, which were not mentioned anywhere on the spec.
• Even though we had opted for an all-black interior and all the seats and other leather bits were black, the roof liner and a-b-c pillars of our car came with cream / light color material. People at the showroom were also confused on this one.

All in all, we are happy with the car and are still getting used to it. The overall purchase experience was smooth and seamless. Looking forward for many years of fun with it.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The NX 350h Overtrail comes in a unique exterior colour called ‘Moon Desert’.

Lexus has launched the NX 350h Overtrail in India. The new variant is priced at Rs 71.17 lakh (ex-showroom) and is positioned between the Exquisite and Luxury trims.

The NX 350h Overtrail comes in a unique exterior colour called ‘Moon Desert’. It is complemented by blacked-out grille, ORVMs, door handles and roof rails. The SUV rides on 18-inch alloy wheels that are also finished in matte black.

Inside, the NX 350h Overtrail gets black leather upholstery with contrasting brown trim on the front armrest, seat edges and door panels. The SUV is equipped with a leather-wrapped steering wheel with a heating function, electrically adjustable seats, ventilated front seats, a 17-speaker Mark Levinson audio system and a powered tailgate. The Overtrail variant also gets several active safety aids as part of its ADAS suite.

Under the bonnet of the NX 350h Overtrail is a 2.5-litre petrol hybrid powertrain. It produces 237 BHP and 239 Nm and is paired with a continuously variable transmission (e-CVT). The Overtrail version also features Lexus’ variable damping system.

Would prefer a reliable and safe automatic SUV with a good ride comfort & rear seating to replace the Fortuner, mind you we have been spoiled by the Hexa and that too with captain seats.

BHPian curiosity recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Well this puzzle of what should be the next car (cars?) cannot be solved by me alone and I would certainly do good with advice from experts here.

Some background:

Here is the list of our existing cars:

• 2010 Toyota Fortuner MT.
• 2017 VW Polo GT TSI.
• 2020 Tata Hexa XTA 6 Seater.

Since there is a decent amount of daily travel for work involved two out of these three cars are chauffer driven and the third would be self driven occasionally on weekends etc. Currently the Fortuner and the Hexa are chauffer driven and the GT TSI does the job for when we want to self-drive but occasionally we also drive the Hexa for outstation trips without the driver. You might be thinking why not drive the Fortuner for outstation trips? Well because we do not want to drive a manual anymore.

The problem:

Now the Fortuner is 12 years old and has started giving a lot of pain in terms of maintenance. I also have started feeling that the authorized dealership where the car always get serviced has started trying to milk us with major repair bills, hence the decision is made to replace the Fortuner. We looked at the NX350h and liked it. YOLO played its trick and with the urge to move to a "luxury SUV" we have made the booking but the car is expected in 2023 only. With time on our side, it has lead us to re-evaluate our car buying strategy. Anyways it will be self driven only so the problem of replacing the Fortuner still exists because the NX will replace the GT TSI if we finally decide to continue with the booking.

The requirement:

Would prefer a reliable and safe automatic SUV with a good ride comfort & rear seating to replace the Fortuner, mind you we have been spoiled by the Hexa and that too with captain seats. Hexa will remain in the stable since it is considerably new. One car out of the three will only be self driven, second car will be chauffeur driven mostly but should be good to take out for occasional outstation trips, and the third car will be chauffer driven only. Not keen on owning a badge, but the car should be reliable.

The confusion:

• Should a sedan be added to the consideration? Considering Mumbai potholes and water logged roads during the rains, will it be a wise decision?
• EV, if yes then which one? Or is it too early to jump in the EV bandwagon?
• Should we cancel the NX350h booking, get a new Fortuner and continue with the GT TSI and Hexa? Mind over Heart!
• Should we replace the Fortuner with another car based on recommendations here and continue with the NX350h booking and replace the GT TSI for self drive.
• Come over the fear of owning a badge look at the BMW X3 or Audi Q5 to add to the confusion.
• I did like the new Mahindra Thar.
• Find a good FNG and get the Fortuner overhauled. Mechanically it is still doing good.

Looking forward to discussing with the group on ideas. Thank you!

Here's what BHPian lamborghini had to say on the matter:

The Lexus NX is a really good choice for a chauffeur driven car that occasionally will see you behind the wheel unless the chauffeur is a poor driver who will mess up the vehicle / suspension.

If for any reason you don't want to give such a loaded or expensive car to the chauffeur, you could look at options such as the:

• Superb / Camry: I wouldn't be worried about driving a sedan in Mumbai unless you live in an area with impossible speed breakers / prone to water-logging. The Superb has better ground clearance than the Camry from what I understand based on others experiences.
• Pick up an Innova ZX 7 seater automatic and call it a day: The Hexa will still remain the better vehicle to drive but the Innova will be more comfortable than the fortuner and also gets the captain chairs.
  Not suggesting the Carnival as the long wheelbase makes ground clearance a touchy topic literally.
• Mahindra Thar: Too bumpy and impractical unless you want it for self driving to replace the Polo.
• EVs : Depending on your road trips, EVs may or may not make sense. Something like the MG could be a good city run-about to replace the Polo and also for longer trips to say Pune, etc. But if by road trips you mean stuff like Mumbai-Goa non-stop, an EV may not be the best idea.

The way I see it, your options are:

• Replace Fortuner with NX. If the chauffeur is good, let him use it daily and it's always there for weekends. Polo is a perfect city hatch for Mumbai - you would miss something that nimble.
• Replace Fortuner with Superb / Camry : A good long test drive should ease all doubts about these cars capabilities.
• Replace Fortuner with something like an Innova Crysta.
• Replace both the Polo (with something fun, but also highway and city friendly like the Octavia / Mini / A4 / GLA), and the Fortuner (with a sensible chauffeur driven car like the Innova / Superb / MG Hector too is a good option).

I wouldn't recommend keeping the Fortuner unless you're happy with the ride quality as a purely chauffeur driven car (since you won't drive manual).

With 12 years, even though the mechanicals are sorted - one cannot escape wear and tear related expenses and consequent service visits.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.