► Month five with our Lexus NX300h
► It’s not the best in its class, but…
► … it has an interior like none other
Being smitten with the NX300h isn’t easy. It’s an SUV with less room in the boot than a Focus estate and a staggering 172 litres less than the Toyota RAV4 on which it’s based (if you half fill the RAV4 with nickel metal-hydride battery packs first it equals things out a bit). The NX is a hybrid with poorer mpg than Jaguar’s diesel-powered F-Pace (54.3mpg plays 57.6), it’s heavier than an Evoque and it’s slower to 62mph than a Skoda Yeti Monte Carlo (whatever that is). So its CV creaks like the door of Dr Watt’s house in Carry On Screaming.
But neither the Toyota nor the Jag nor the Evoque nor the Skoda has these chairs. So sumptuous is the oatmeal leather (I’m making this up – it’s probably called ‘blonde ocelot’), so fabulous the 10-way adjustable powered seats, that you’ll never again be amazed while testing sofas you can’t afford in Heal’s. The interior of the NX has surely been fitted in error by some ghastly production mix-up. Seriously, if they had nicked it from – or sub-contracted it to – Bentley you couldn’t be surprised. It is delicious, and it reduces the NX’s shortcomings to scattered ashes.
Logbook: Lexus NX300h Premier
Price: £42,995
As tested: £44,640
Miles this month: 1255
Total miles: 7518
Our mpg: 39.0
Official mpg: 54.3
Fuel this month: £218.33
Extra costs: £0