Japan is great at consumer electronics, so how did this slip through the sign-off meeting? Bizarre. Time and time again, we hope that itвЂ™ll click in our brains and become second-nature, but everyone at TG agrees itвЂ™s a dead-end. This 1980s arcade game masquerading as a premium nfotainment system was terrible when Lexus first brought it out, and itвЂ™s still a pulsating, puss-filled boil on the face of any Lexus fascia. And worst of all, the 8-bit infotainment screen and its hateful touchpad mouse control. Supercar trickle-down features might sound great in the marketing pitch, but none of it actually makes the UX easy to operate.

Or the multi-decked dashboard layout, with its fiddly climate controls and fingertrap wireless charging pad. The stumpy horns for changing driving modes either side of the instrument binnacle, which youвЂ™ll never use because theyвЂ™re cumbersome to reach. The motorised instrument display вЂ“ a gimmick, but a fun one. ThereвЂ™s oodles of incongruous LFA supercar inspiration too. Stellar build quality marred by cheapвЂ™nвЂ™nasty switchgear. YouвЂ™ll be depending on the piercing, shrieking parking sensors, and army of cameras. The meaningless, woolly steering doesnвЂ™t help matters. This is not a big car, but inside it feels small and dark and difficult to place. ItвЂ™s a touch claustrophobic inside, especially compared to a Volvo XC40. The visibility is really poor and hemmed-in. The edgy styling will make the neighbours envious, but desire will quickly turn to fury when you plough all over their lawn and flowerbeds trying to manoeuvre your UX. We can only assume this is to show how much progress it's made. ItвЂ™s a portly car for its size, at around 1,600kg, but at last thereвЂ™s some sense of torquey e-boost getting things moving on demand.ДЇor no reason we can conjure, Lexus is keeping the utterly rubbish old CT200h hatchback on sale for a while, in parallel with the new, finned UX. Two: when you do need to stop mooching about and really ask for some urgency, the UX actually delivers. Brake pedal feel is still mushy, but easier to modulate than older Lexus efforts. You squeeze the throttle and let the hybridвЂ™s computers politely sort out the power balance, rather than tiptoeing around desperately trying to stay in the parameters of battery power. Even when you rouse the engine, thereвЂ™s no longer the buzzing, resonant hive of bees vibrating through the bulkhead.

No can do вЂ“ this is the best execution of the theory yet, for two reasons.

Lexus hybrid vehicles