The 2022 Lexus NX Is a Competent Small Luxury Crossover

This is the new 2022 Lexus NX 350h, and it's a small luxury crossover with mass appeal. I say that because it has many different powertrains and a wide range of price points spread across several budgets. And today I'm going to review it. Before I get started, be sure to check out Cars and Bids, which is my enthusiast car auction website for cool cars from the modern era with the best support of any auction website, fast turnaround time, and free listings. We've had some great sales recently, including this Mercedes 560 SEC, which sold for over $40,000. This fantastic BMW 330 Ci ZHP, which brought almost $20,000 after failing to meet its reserve with our closest competitor. And this Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 Spyder sold for almost $44,000. A great car and a great price. If you're looking to buy or sell a cool enthusiast car from the modern era, the 1980s and up, Cars and Bids is the place to do it with daily auctions and great selection at carsandbids.com. So let's talk a Lexus NX. Like I said, small luxury crossover, and that means its rivals are the Mercedes-Benz GLC, the Acura RDX, the Audi Q3 and Q5, and frankly, many, many others. This segment is really popular right now. And the NX has been popular, too, ever since it first came out back in 2015. But for 2022, there is now a fully redesigned, brand-new model. The base-level Lexus NX starts around $40,000, although well-equipped versions can run well over $60,000. And there are various different powertrain options depending on what you want, including two different hybrids. And today, I'm going to explain it all, including everything else. First, I'll take you on a little tour of the new NX and show you some of its interesting quirks and features. Then I'll get it out on the road and drive it, and then I'll give it a Doug's score. All right, I'm going to start the quirks and features of the new Lexus NX with the features that probably buyers of this car are especially interested in, and that means starting with technology. And I have to say, generally speaking, it is excellent. I have complained bitterly about Lexus technology in the past because of their remote touch controller with a little mouse pad thing. It was awful. They've ditched all that stuff, and there's now a new touchscreen. Large, easy to use, tremendously responsive, very intuitive. You can see it here. Very big, very easy. Now, this is the upgraded touchscreen in the NX. Base models get a 10-inch screen. This is a 14-inch screen, and it works masterfully. Like I said, easy to use. You can see everything's simply laid out. You tap on it. It does what you want. It's so intuitive, so simple, and it's really a fantastic upgrade from prior Lexus models, and I suspect most buyers would really happy with this screen. Now, there are a few nuances worth pointing out. One, they've moved the climate controls to the infotainment screen, which is usually something I don't like, but in this car, they've at least kept the climate controls fixed in the lower portion of the screen, and that means whichever screen you're on, the climate controls are always in the same place, so it's not as easy as like touching a hard button, but you know where everything is. It's always facing you, always in the same spot, and that makes it pretty easy. Also, speaking of the climate controls, I happen to love these little wheels that allow you to adjust the air temperature in the car. You can see they're integrated into the screen, and the temperature is in the center, and they look and feel very cool. To be totally honest, I don't really see any drawbacks to this infotainment system, except for the fact that you can't do multiple things at once. A screen this big, other automakers let you see like the radio and the navigation at the same time, or even three things at once sometimes, but not here. If you have the radio and you want to go to navigation, you got to move screens, and then you lose the radio to see the map, and vice versa if you want to go from the map to changing your song, which is a little bit disappointing, but otherwise, everything in this screen is fantastic, and again, huge step up over prior Lexus models. Now, interestingly, despite the excellent screen upgrade in the center of this interior, the gauge cluster screen isn't quite as good. Certainly leaves something to be desired. When you look in there, you can see you have a full screen, high resolution gauge cluster screen, but you can't really use it to do all that much. Only the lower tiny portion of this screen is configurable, and even in that portion, you can only use it to show like the song that's playing, or the tripodometer, fuel economy. There's also a g-force meter in there for some reason, like you would ever care about that in a Lexus NX hybrid, but you can't use the gauge cluster to show you, for example, a full screen map, which so many other rival cars have, you can't do it here, and actually, when you look a little closer at this screen, you'll notice it's not the full size of the gauge cluster. There are some actual fixed analog gauges on the sides of the screen, so the screen itself doesn't take up this whole gauge cluster area. Really, I think this gauge cluster screen is a big miss, and it's way behind the functionality of some rivals that have a lot more stuff directly in your line of sight, where it can be especially useful. However, with that said, one interesting thing about this vehicle, the heads-up display has an unusually large amount of functionality, which somewhat makes up for the gauge cluster's lack of functionality. To access the heads-up display, you have some buttons on the steering wheel. You can see on the left side, there's a button with pages, and then a pad with arrows, up, down, left, right. Over on the right side of the screen, again, a button with pages, and then a pad of arrows, up, down, left, right. These aren't labeled. I wasn't really sure why they're repeated on both sides, and the answer is, they control the heads-up display. So, you press the left button with pages, and the heads-up display pops up like a menu, and actually, as you press the page button, it changes what your little arrow button can do. You can see the functionality of the arrows is changing depending on what you select inside your heads-up display, and it's the same thing over on the other side. You tap the little page icon, and then you can use the arrows to do various different functions in the heads-up display, including moving it up or down. It's kind of an interesting thing to be able to control a lot of that stuff just on the steering wheel, and even when you're not controlling it, the heads-up display has a lot of useful information. It shows, obviously, your speed, your driver assist situation. It can show where you're navigating, that sort of thing. I suspect this heads-up display situation is sort of the beginning of showing more things across the windshield. Some automakers are talking about, like, giant displays in the entire windshield while you're driving, and this controllability of the heads-up display, don't see that too often. I think that's kind of a start. But anyway, on this subject, I want to talk about driver assist technology in this car because it, too, is absolutely excellent. You turn on the drive assist system, of course, it speeds up and slows down for you. That's pretty common. It will also steer for you quite well on the highway, and the steering wheel is capacitive touch, meaning you don't have to, like, jiggle it to let it know that you're still monitoring what it's doing. You can just rest a hand on the steering wheel, and then it will continue to drive, and it'll know that you're sitting there and monitoring it, and it won't have to babysit you all the time and force you to do jiggles of the wheel. Now, with that said, one drawback of this driver assist system, it cannot change lanes. It can stay in your lane, it can accelerate, speed up, go around corners, but it can't change lanes for you. You have to do that. Obviously, not a huge drawback, but worth pointing out since some rival systems can indeed change lanes, this one can't. OK, next up, some other notable tech in this interior. For one, you have a wireless cell phone charging pad here in the middle, as you can see, but I don't understand why it looks like this. Toyota charging pads always have so many warning labels in their ugly plastic trays. Other automakers have incorporated these beautifully into their center consoles, but for some reason in Toyotas, it's just so ugly, and I'm not sure why they can't make it look nicer. They've got to have all these warning labels and ugly, cheap-looking plastic. Now, one thing I really love in this interior is the rearview mirror. You can see right now it is a mirror, but if you flip this switch, it has just become a camera showing what's behind you. The camera has a huge advantage because obviously you don't have to look through your interior to see out the back, so you don't have to look through your rear passenger's heads, or if you have the cargo area full, you can still see perfectly in your rearview mirror camera. It's a fantastic feature that is sweeping the car industry very quickly. Now, on the subject of cameras, this car has a rather disappointing camera showing what's around the perimeter of the vehicle. You can see I've turned it on here, and it's just sort of showing you what's around the car right now, which isn't so bad, except you can't direct what it's showing. You can't make it go left or right or up or down, and it just sort of shows the perimeter at its own pace. You can stop it, but you can't go back, and you can't move it around. So stupid. It's such a bizarre system, and basically every other automaker does this perimeter around the car camera better than Lexus and Toyota. Also, here's another weird one about the new Lexus NX. You approach the car, you look at the door handle, it looks fairly normal, except you stick your hand inside, and it doesn't pull the handle like every other car. Instead, there's a little electronic popper button in there. You press it, and then the door pops open, and you open it the rest of the way, which is kind of unusual, and it's even more unusual in the interior because you don't have a traditional door handle. Instead, you have this, which you press. Instead of pulling like every other door handle, you push it, and again, the door electronically pops open, and you can climb out. Now, in case you're worried about not being able to get out of your Lexus, in case the battery dies or you're in an accident, and all the electronics shut off, well, there is a manual release as well. You can pull that same handle you just pushed, and that will manually open up the door, and you can climb out. But for normal day-to-day usage, just press on the little door handle, and it pops right open. Also kind of unusual and weird in this vehicle is the operation of the gear selector, which you can see here. When you start the car, of course, you're in park. To get it into drive, you pull it over and down, and then you're in drive. Reverse is over and up, and you're in reverse, and then just straight to the left if you want to go into neutral. Now, you can also pull it down to go into a shifting mode in case you want to shift gears yourself using the paddle shifters on the steering wheel, or if you're going down a hill and you want to keep it in a lower gear, whatever. This is a rather odd gear selector, but it is kind of standard fare on Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles. Most of them have this, but if you haven't owned one of those before, you might find this to be rather curious, and it is. Also, one other cool quirk about the NX worth noting up front is the center console lid, which appears to be magic. You're on the driver's side, you press this little button, it opens toward the driver. Very convenient. But you're on the passenger side, you get your own button, and the very same lid opens toward the passenger, and so it can open either way depending on what you're looking for, which is wonderfully magical, and frankly, I love playing with it, and I suspect you will too. Now, also worth noting this interior, generally, it's fine. I wouldn't say it's the best in class in terms of materials and overall design, but it's certainly far from the worst. It looks, feels good, there are relatively nice materials, some cost-cutting evident in some places, but mostly it's pretty nice in here, and I think that people will be generally happy with this interior, its layout, and its quality. But anyway, next, we move on to the backseat of the new Lexus NX. When you climb back here as a tall adult, first thing you notice is it's not really all that roomy in back. I have space, the front seat moved up a little bit, but my knees are right up against it, my head is right up against the ceiling, it's a little tight back here, but that's kind of the point of vehicles in this segment. This is no better or worse than any of its rivals, and Lexus sells three larger SUVs in case you want more rear seat space. This is more for people who want to carry smaller children or adults, like occasionally, but not often. Now, the backseat doesn't really have any interesting quirks and features, although I do like all the charge ports back here. You can see one cigarette lighter style and two USB-Cs. Three total charge ports in the back is a really big deal and great for charging devices if you're sitting in the backseat. And also, the backseat has those same door handle poppers as you had in front. You press and the door electronically pops open to climb out. Again, kind of unorthodox and a little strange, but more and more automakers are doing weird stuff with their door handles, apparently Lexus included. And next up, we move on to the back of the cargo area of the new NX. One interesting thing you notice before you climb in, the Lexus emblem is gone back here. All prior Lexus models had the big Lexus L, but now they've switched to this Lexus Script, I guess, to make it even clearer exactly what it is you're behind. You will also notice two rear light bars back here, one going across the center, and then the taillights have their own sort of distinctive look and shape below that. Light bars have become so common, I guess automakers are now making different strange light bar designs in order to stand out from all of the light bar crowd. But anyway, we climb inside the cargo area of the new NX, we find it is reasonably roomy back here, pretty good for a vehicle in this size class. You have a good amount of space, decent cargo room, nothing too crazy to report there. And if you go under the floor in the cargo area, you will see even more space under here, rather large cargo storage space under the floor for smaller items if you don't want them rolling around or if you want to keep them separate from what you have in the regular cargo area. And next up, I want to talk powertrain in the new NX, which is actually quite interesting because the latest NX offers four different powertrain options. That is crazy. Most vehicles in this segment are at two, maybe three, but this has four different options you can choose from. Now, the base model is called the NX250. It starts right around $40,000, and it is very basic. It uses a four-cylinder with about 200 horsepower, gas-powered, no hybrid, and it's sort of the, hey, look, we have a $40,000 version car. You're probably not going to see too many of those. It's really the base-based model. Now, stepping up from there, you move on to the NX350, which is also not hybrid, gas-powered, and it uses a 275 horsepower four-cylinder. Now, beyond that, you have the NX350H. That would be this car. The H stands for hybrid, which this is. Still a four-cylinder, now only 240 horsepower, but obviously significantly better gas mileage because it's a hybrid. So you lose a little power to the gas NX350, but you gain fuel economy. Or you can step up to the fourth and final engine, the cream of the crop NX450H+. The plus means that it is a plug-in hybrid. So it can go about 35 miles on fully electric power alone before the gasoline engine kicks in for a boost. Now, that vehicle shares its powertrain with the Toyota RAV4 Prime. It's about 300 horsepower, which is a pretty big number in a vehicle this size, zero to 60 in the mid-sixes, if you get that, but it's pricey. Starts around $57,000 for that NX450H+, so you got to really want the plug-in hybrid or the extra power. And finally, with the new NX, I want to talk styling, which is like so many things about this vehicle, better than the old model. I personally thought the old NX was exceptionally ugly. I thought that the lines didn't work and it just looked weird. This new one is way better. It's been modernized, cleaned up, sort of streamlined. It just looks nicer than the outgoing model. You do still have the large Lexus grille up front, which looks too big and kind of out of place and awkward. But otherwise, this is a nice looking vehicle, modernized and improved compared to the old NX, at least in my opinion. All right, now it's time to drive the new Lexus NX. And I got to say, it drives like you'd expect, like a 240 horsepower hybrid four-cylinder Lexus crossover would. Which is to say, it's not particularly exciting or engaging or fun to drive, but I suspect that's what most of the shoppers in this segment are looking for. They just want a vehicle that is nice and that is luxurious enough and that just does what it needs to. And that's pretty much this. So let's talk kind of some pros and cons. Number one, the ride. The ride is actually a little bit rougher than I was expecting. Ultimately, this is a compact crossover and you kind of got to spend a little bit more to really smooth out the ride at the very highest degrees. So it's fine, but definitely BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLC, vehicles like that have a more compliant sort of plusher ride. In terms of interior room seating position, I feel great. So I'm six foot four and fitting in here is just totally fine. Knees are good, head is good. Now, one interesting thing is you do feel higher than I was thinking you might. More and more crossovers are getting kind of lower and they don't really give that upper seating position that a lot of drivers are looking for when they go to an SUV or a crossover. This vehicle does. It actually feels relatively high up and you do have that sort of SUV feel. Now, inside this interior, pretty quiet. Even driving along on the highway, it's reasonably quiet in here. Again, not at the top level of ultra luxury vehicles, but pretty good for one of these little compact luxury crossovers. In terms of this powertrain, I suspect that this is going to be the powertrain that most people get. This or the regular NX350, the non-hybrid version. The base model will not be very popular. It's the cheap advertising price car. Then the top version is cool, but it's expensive. I think most people get this and it works. It works great. I'm flooring it now. It's not especially quick, but it's fine. It'll get you up a highway on-ramp, no problem. You'll never run into any safety concerns because it's too slow. You'll never feel like that at all, but it doesn't also feel like a sports car, performance car, or anything like that. Now, the 450H Plus is pretty quick. Zero to 60 in the mid-sixes. That puts it sort of on par with some legit rivals like the GLC43 and the BMW X3 M40i. It's kind of in that territory. Not quite, but it's sort of getting there. Obviously, dynamically, in terms of steering, handling, that sort of thing, this car isn't going to be on the level with those. Truthfully, I like this car. I think this is great for the type of people who are going to buy it. I would not recommend this car to my car enthusiast friends. It's not particularly fun or thrilling in any way, really, but if you're just looking for a well-priced, reliable, small, mid-size, luxury SUV, this is that. It's got great technology, far, far better than the old one, with a few drawbacks here and there, especially the gauge cluster screen, but good heads-up display, good center screen, nice interior. Everything is just nice and fine in this car. Like I said, there's a wide price range to appeal to a wide variety of budgets. These start around 40 grand. They go into the 60s. If you're looking at any sort premium SUV, there's something for you. And so, that's the new 2022 Lexus NX. This isn't particularly fun or exciting, but it's great if you're not obsessed with cars and looking for cool performance. Instead, if you just want a small, luxury crossover with good tech, a good interior, and good efficiency, this is your vehicle. And now it's time to give the new NX a Doug's score. And the Doug's score is here, 52 out of 100, which places the NX here against its rivals near the bottom. But that's not to say the NX is bad. In fact, it isn't. The Doug's score is biased towards performance cars, and this decidedly isn't one, but it's excellent in other areas, and you'll notice it has the very best daily score of any car on this list. That's because it has great tech, great comfort, excellent Lexus reliability, and an efficient powertrain. It's perfect for a lot of people, just not car enthusiasts.