Gadgetory

this is the 2015 Lexus NX and one of the things that you'll notice first about the brands smallest most compact crossover is that it wears the elfin s corporate spindle grille better than any other SUV in the lineup that's because it was designed from the ground up with this design language in mind let's hop behind the wheel of this 2015 NX 200t and check the title most of the Lexus in excess competitors have been in this compact luxury SUV market for years so Lexus is a little late to the game but we're glad to see it's here this is a pretty good first entry for Alexis now part of the reason why I've always thought Lexus is design was kind of weird is that they've been slapping these really aggressive front ends on what's generally a round and kind of frumpy looking at UV but that's not the case here this entire vehicle is drawn tight around some very strong lines that flow all the way from the front to the rear where we've got these very strong creases that flow out of these very futuristic LED taillights now the NX is all new on the outside but on the inside it's keeping a lot of what we'd like from Lexus and tech particularly this sort of black leather and silver color scheme pretty much everything you're going to need to interact is right here on the steering wheel and right here on the center console the everything's right over here where I can reach it not necessarily where the passenger can up top we continued the trend of pushing the main LCD further up the dashboard and more into the drivers line of sight it doesn't retract but it's pretty good and very visible even in direct sunlight we've got Lexus's in form infotainment system with optional navigation it's pretty much the system that we've seen on every Lexus vehicle for the last let's say three or four years not a lot of surprises here but we do have apps for Facebook Pandora and whatnot now the way that you're going to interact with this screen is where things start getting a little bit weird we've got this Lexus remote touch trackpad you'll move a cursor on the screen around and you'll basically push the whole thing in like a button when you want to make a selection the weird thing about it is it still has haptic feedback so as you roll over buttons you'll feel a small vibration in your fingertip now it's taking me a little bit of getting used to but passengers who are not necessarily familiar with car interfaces but are very familiar with the laptops they have at home have taken to this trackpad like a fish to water just above the trackpad we've got our drive mode selection that allows you to go from sport mode which is going to make the vehicle a little bit more dynamic with the powertrain and transmission programs to an eco mode that's going to program everything to be a little bit more fuel-efficient including the throttle response and then you'll push it in the middle for the normal default mode and just next to it we've got the shifter for the six-speed Automatic transmission that's the only gearbox option on the 202 now under the hood will find Lexus first ever turbocharged engine this is a 2-liter single turbo that uses an intercooler and a combination of gasoline direct injection and port injection it kind of seamlessly transfers between the two systems 235 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque now the EPA hasn't gotten his hands on this yet but Lexus estimates that you're going to get about 24 miles per gallon combined which is bang-on what I've got during my testing that breaks down to 21 miles per gallon in the city and 28 on the highway now one of the other things you'll notice is that the engine sits sidesaddle here and that's because the NX and its native default form is a front wheel drive vehicle but ours have been equipped with the all-wheel drive system so that's going to give you a little bit better traction and actually shave 2/10 of a second off your 0-60 time knock you down to seven seconds alright that's a pretty good amount of power there's a little bit of lag from the turbo but not a lot in fact if there's any hesitation it's going to be from the six-speed automatic transmission deciding that it's time to do the fast thing you can get around that by switching into the manual mode but there are no paddle shifters which would help there's also that sport mode that we talked about earlier it's vehicle print a lot smaller in person and from the driver's seat it feels a lot smaller a lot more nimble and a lot easier to park and that's important the fuel economy is okay at about 24 but if you're looking for better fuel economy than that then you're probably going to want to hang around for our NX 300h hybrid review coming up soon you