2018 Lexus NX300h Review
Car Tested: 2018 Lexus NX300h; Road Test No. 880; Test Location: Goa
Price OTR Mumbai: Rs. 70 lakhs (est.)
The biggest USP of the NX300h is its super sharp design which is a massive attention grabber & feels very exclusive
Just when the luxury car market has started to see a big boom in the Indian market and the big three German luxury car makers have stepped up their game, a new player has entered. Not too long back, Lexus launched three cars in India and now they have brought in their fourth, the NX300h, where NX stands for Nimble Crossover (X). The SUV segment is gaining a lot of popularity and even though this isn’t the cheapest Lexus you can buy in India right now, it seems like the best bet to bring the Toyota-owned brand more volumes. We take a brief spin in the Luxury variant of the NX300h in Goa.
Motor Quest: Lexus has been contemplating an India entry since long and time and again have postponed its plans. However, it’s the first and only luxury Japanese manufacturer to enter India, the other two being Honda’s Acura and Nissan’s Infiniti.
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The whole design philosophy revolves around the signature L shape
Exteriors – In terms of design, the Lexus NX300h gets all the traditional Lexus design elements like the spindle-shaped grille, and the L-shaped LED DRLs. The car has a sporty appeal and gets sharp lines. The F-Sport variant gets a black honeycomb grille and 18-inch alloy wheels with black and silver finish while the Luxury version that we drove gets a gloss black finished grille and 18-inch alloy wheels finished in black and copper colour. You get LED headlamps, LED tail-lights, dynamic turn indicators, large fixed panoramic glass roof and black finished ORVMs (in the F-Sport variant only). The Lexus NX300h looks similar to the RX450h but gets more aggressive styling cues.
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The dashboard is well sculpted and feels very premium with its materials
Interiors – Like the RX450h, the NX300h gets a large sporty dashboard which comes with good sculpting. The centre console houses a large 10.3-inch touchscreen which can be controlled by a touchpad on the console that has a fantastic iPhone-like haptic feedback but we feel the regular joystick that comes with the other siblings is more intuitive to use. There are some bits borrowed from the Toyota siblings such as the key, which feels a bit weird for such a premium car but that again is compensated by the soft-touch materials and the fantastic leather upholstery.
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Legroom is ample at the rear but headroom is limited for tall passengers
The interior of the Lexus NX300h is highly customisable, various leather options available to choose from
The seats themselves are supremely supportive and comfortable. Both the front and rear seats get electric adjustability and heating function (missing at the rear in F-Sport trim), but the Luxury trim also gets ventilated seats (front and rear). The second-row has generous knee room but lacks headroom for tall passengers. Due to the low seats, the rear bench lacks under-thigh support as well. Though the 475-litres of boot space looks huge on paper, the full-sized spare wheel almost eats up the whole boot space. Other features on offer are powered tailgate with kick sensor, drive modes – Eco, Normal, Sports and Sports+, Mark Levinson 14-speaker audio system that churns out amazing acoustics and cruise control.
