LEXUS UX 300H REVIEW

The Lexus UX range of compact SUVs has been on sale in Australia since 2019, originally as the UX 250 with the choice of petrol or hybrid powertrains. A fully electric variant was added in 2021 with the current UX 300 replacing the UX 250 and dropping the petrol option. The UX 300e was discontinued earlier this year. We’re told the name stands for Urban Explorer which, sort of, identifies its target audience. A compact SUV, the UX 300 sist on the same platform as the Toyota Corolla hatch, Corolla… Read more

LEXUS GX 550 . . . BUILT FOR THE BUSH, TARTED UP FOR TOWN

If you look carefully, you can just make out the Toyota Prado that lurks under the skin of the Lexus GX 550. It’s more evident if you look at the car in profile, with its rising rear belt line, courtesy of the 1971 Holden HG Belmont wagon. Lexus has done a very good job disguising the Prado and the styling looks as though it has not strayed fast from the concept, especially the bold face with its spindle grille. The result is an arguably better-looking car than the donor, or… Read more

LUXURY UP; AND DOWN THE LEXUS LBX LINE

The boss said, ‘give me the best car in the world’. It was 1983 when Toyota president, Eiji Toyoda, challenged a crack team of 4000 highly talented staff to do his command. That’s how Lexus, a brand worth $US10.2 billion today, was born, with a luxury sedan, the LS400, generally accepted as a segment superstar, shading the best that Europe could make, including the best from Benz. It was a big day when the car came Down Under in the early ’90s. I was there. Since then, Lexus has pretty… Read more

LEXUS GX 550 OVERTRAIL TAKES TO HIGH GROUND

  Simplicity is the keynote of good design: ask any mechanical engineer or industrial designer worth his or her salt. Cue the Lexus GX 550, which, the maker says, is designed to act as an extension of the driver’s hands. Simple! The new Lexus GX 550 Overtrail controls have no supersensitive touch pad or buttons and switches of New Age automobiles, just knobs and levers of days of yore. At first glance, the iconoclastic off-roader with the looks of a bare-fisted bush basher, on the bitumen, behaves like a silver… Read more

ISUZU MU-X MAKES LIGHT OF IMPROVEMENTS

The selling of grocery items and automobiles grows ever closer, especially in these days of ‘shrinkflation’, where products are reduced in size without equivalent price reductions. I’m not suggesting that Isuzu is taking buyers for a ride with the addition of its smaller engine MU-X SUV but claims this brings added appeal (read sales) to the family friendly seven-seater. Prices start at $47,400 for the MU-X LS-M 1.9L 4×2, plus on-road costs, and top out at $67,990, drive away, for the MU-X LS-T 3.0L 4×4. Price increases are limited to… Read more

NO LEAVING ICE AGE FOR LEXUS

In typical attention to detail, Lexus (read Toyota) has updated its popular RX lineup with a hybrid or two. The fifth-generation family-size SUV introduces the RX 350h hybrid at entry-level and RX 500h F Sport Performance the flagship. Not that Lexus has turned its back totally on full fossil fuel power. Customers can also choose from the RX 350 F Sport with turbocharged performance internal combustion engine with electronically controlled all-wheel drive. Prices start at $90,060 for the RX 350h Luxury FWD, plus on-road costs, and top out at $127,434… Read more

LEXUS LM 350H AWD SPORTS LUXURY

Back in the old days people thought the world was flat. They thought that if you sailed far enough you would eventually fall off the edge. Lexus engineers seem to think the same thing, because the front doors of its new LM people mover won’t stay open on a slope. Then there’s the heavy, power-operated, second-row seats which won’t move forward and stay forward to access to the third row when the vehicle is also parked on a slope. For a luxury vehicle with a price tag to match, it’s… Read more

LEXUS LBX … SMALL BUT STYLISH

LBX is the Lexus equivalent of the Toyota Yaris Cross, but is it more than that? With a truncated, low-riding version of the Lexus “spindle” grille, the letters apparently stand for “Lexus Breakthrough X(cross)-over”. It’s a Lexus, yes and a crossover, but we’re not sure what makes it a breakthrough. Sitting below the UX, it is the smallest Lexus to date and only the second model to carry a three-letter name, instead of the usual two letters, after the halo LFA supercar from 2011. L was reportedly added to the… Read more

LEXUS ES300h SPORTS LUXURY

The growth in SUV sales has seen a corresponding decline in demand for traditional four-door sedans. In the case of Lexus only two of the latter have survived, the company’s flagship luxury LS and the medium-large family ES. The ES comes with the choice of the ES250 powered by a 2.5-litre petrol engine with outputs of 152 kW and 243 Nm names ES250, and the E300h with a 131 kW/221 Nm Atkinson Cycle petrol engine combined with a 88 Kw / 202 Nm electric motor for a total of 160kW…. Read more

LEXUS LX600 ULTRA LUXURY LIVES UP TO ITS NAME

Effectively an upmarket version of the Toyota LandCruiser, the Lexus LX large premium SUV has been around since the mid-1990s. The latest (fourth generation) LX arrived here at the end of 2021 shortly after the new LC300. It comes with petrol or diesel power, four equipment variants, three seating options and a host of new safety and tech features. The four variants are base LX, Sports Luxury, F Sport, and Ultra Luxury. The first three are available with either petrol or diesel engines, the Ultra Luxury is petrol only. Prices… Read more