Lexus CT200h review
Lexus ushers in its entry-level CT200h hybrid with a fanfare - but you should ignore claims about its sporting nature.
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| New arrival: the CT 200h is Lexus's smallest hybrid |
Funny how Ferrari doesn't put "Sport" badges on its 661bhp 599GTO and Aston Martin brochures make few claims for sportiness.
"Sport" is perhaps the most overused word in the motoring lexicon, so when Lexus produces a new small hatchback hybrid and calls it sporting, you should regard it with the most profound suspicion.
The CT 200h is, of course, nothing of the sort and under the skin is a Toyota Prius hybrid driveline on a new chassis, with an independent rear suspension in place of the Prius's inferior twist beam.
Two ideas underpin the new Lexus, first that there should be a baby of the range acting like the witch's cottage in Hansel and Gretel to draw the young and highly impressionable into the weird, golf-obsessed world of Lexus.
The second is that Toyota is struggling to deliver enough high-end £23,000 Prius models to customers and it needs something to bridge the hybrid gap between the Prius and its £43,000 RX Lexus models. Pragmatism, rather than sport, has given birth to this new car.
What buyers get is a squat, wide-based bodywork with a low roof and cut down glass area. It's a rocket trip from beautiful, but certainly distinctive, especially in the sombre greys and blues of the launch cars.
Inside the cabin is upholstered in a finely wrought mix of leather upholstery, wood and aluminium inserts and comfortable and supportive seats with good side support. The low roof restricts views out of the windscreen, and restricts head room in the rear seats, which aren't exactly commodious for leg room, either.
The 375-litre boot, which sits above the battery, is also small and shallow, although with the rear seats folded luggage capacity increases to 985 litres.
With clever upper and lower split between displays and functions and a neat computer mouse style pointer system for the multimedia, the interior embraces the usual mix of Prius-style energy flow diagrams and battery drain/recharge instruments and takes them to a new luxurious vantage point.
What also differs is the selector dial that changes the car's settings from Eco, through Normal to Sport, at which point the recharge gauge becomes a conventional revcounter.
Sport mode also releases the system's full 650 volts, allows the engine to rev harder, with more dynamic software mapping for the throttle and electronic power steering, while reducing the abruptness of the stability and traction control electronics. Eco mode reduces power, softens the respective electronic mapping and slows the air-conditioning pump.
Toyota has sold more than 1.5 million versions of the Prius around the globe and its Lexus luxury division takes this proven driveline virtually unchanged. It comprises a four-cylinder engine running in the high-expansion Atkinson cycle, together with an 81bhp main-drive electric motor and a 1.3kWh nickel-metal-hydride battery.
At the heart of the system is an epicyclic transmission, which allows the engine to drive the front wheels and/or charge the battery at the same time.
It's a terrifically efficient method of recouping braking energy as electricity so the Lexus (like the Prius) has excellent fuel consumption in urban areas, together with the capability of running for very short distances in pure electric mode.
On longer journeys however, it's effectively a car with two engines and a modern turbodiesel is more economical.
The long-stroke engine isn't the most sporting mill ever heard, think tin-can clatter rather than a twin-cam yowl. With a combined output of 134bhp, however, the engine and electric motor get the 1.4-ton Lexus off the mark with alacrity, although its turbodiesel rivals are faster once on the move.
In Eco mode, the car feels slow and major controls torpid in response, Normal is an improvement and Sport provides a degree of vivacity to steering and throttle, though the former remains lifeless even when pressing on.
On the plus side the chassis feels super-stiff and quick to respond, but on 17-inch wheels and tyres the ride quality is not good, especially in the way it throws passengers' head from side to side.
And while the mechanical grip once in a corner is exemplary, actually getting the whole caboodle to change direction is something of a black art and the chassis has understeer stamped through it. One engineer confessed that he would have preferred a more agile chassis set-up.
The brakes are powerful if wooden-feeling, with a soft initial bite as the regenerative braking starts, then progressively harder stopping when the conventional friction linings are deployed.
So it's luxurious, slightly cramped in the back and reasonable value for money when you compare it spec-for-spec with its competitors. What it isn't, even in a month of blue-moon Sundays, is sporting, but you knew that already, didn't you?
THE FACTS
Lexus CT 200h
TESTED Five-door hybrid hatchback, with 1,798cc, four-cyl petrol engine and AC synchronous (brush-less) electric motor driving the front wheels with 1.3kWh nickel-metal-hydride battery
PRICE/ON SALE From £23,485 OTR (20pc VAT)/March 2011
POWER/TORQUE Engine: 97bhp/104lb ft - Electric motor: 81bhp/153lb ft
TOP SPEED 113mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 10.3sec
FUEL ECONOMY 68.9mpg (Combined)
CO2 EMISSIONS 96g/km
VED BAND A (£0)
ON THE STEREO A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing by Sparks
VERDICT Provides Lexus luxury in spades and conveniently fills the gap between Toyota's Prius and the Lexus RX, but it's badly packaged, dynamically poor and no sports car
TELEGRAPH RATING Four out of five
THE RIVALS
BMW 118d SE £21,725
Trails (just) the CT 200h in environmental performance but dynamically it's streets ahead. The 1-series is poorly packaged, however, especially in the rear seats, while indulging yourself in the options list can almost double the price.
Audi A3 2.0 TDI SE from £20,835
The ageing A3 continues to enjoy support in the UK partly for its strong residual values. Runs the Lexus a close second in economy and CO2 emissions and beats it soundly in performance. Rear-seat accommodation is compromised but not as much as the BMWs.
Two ideas underpin the new Lexus, first that there should be a baby of the range acting like the witch's cottage in Hansel and Gretel to draw the young and highly impressionable into the weird, golf-obsessed world of Lexus.
The second is that Toyota is struggling to deliver enough high-end £23,000 Prius models to customers and it needs something to bridge the hybrid gap between the Prius and its £43,000 RX Lexus models. Pragmatism, rather than sport, has given birth to this new car.
What buyers get is a squat, wide-based bodywork with a low roof and cut down glass area. It's a rocket trip from beautiful, but certainly distinctive, especially in the sombre greys and blues of the launch cars.
Inside the cabin is upholstered in a finely wrought mix of leather upholstery, wood and aluminium inserts and comfortable and supportive seats with good side support. The low roof restricts views out of the windscreen, and restricts head room in the rear seats, which aren't exactly commodious for leg room, either.
The 375-litre boot, which sits above the battery, is also small and shallow, although with the rear seats folded luggage capacity increases to 985 litres.
With clever upper and lower split between displays and functions and a neat computer mouse style pointer system for the multimedia, the interior embraces the usual mix of Prius-style energy flow diagrams and battery drain/recharge instruments and takes them to a new luxurious vantage point.
What also differs is the selector dial that changes the car's settings from Eco, through Normal to Sport, at which point the recharge gauge becomes a conventional revcounter.
Sport mode also releases the system's full 650 volts, allows the engine to rev harder, with more dynamic software mapping for the throttle and electronic power steering, while reducing the abruptness of the stability and traction control electronics. Eco mode reduces power, softens the respective electronic mapping and slows the air-conditioning pump.
Toyota has sold more than 1.5 million versions of the Prius around the globe and its Lexus luxury division takes this proven driveline virtually unchanged. It comprises a four-cylinder engine running in the high-expansion Atkinson cycle, together with an 81bhp main-drive electric motor and a 1.3kWh nickel-metal-hydride battery.
At the heart of the system is an epicyclic transmission, which allows the engine to drive the front wheels and/or charge the battery at the same time.
It's a terrifically efficient method of recouping braking energy as electricity so the Lexus (like the Prius) has excellent fuel consumption in urban areas, together with the capability of running for very short distances in pure electric mode.
On longer journeys however, it's effectively a car with two engines and a modern turbodiesel is more economical.
The long-stroke engine isn't the most sporting mill ever heard, think tin-can clatter rather than a twin-cam yowl. With a combined output of 134bhp, however, the engine and electric motor get the 1.4-ton Lexus off the mark with alacrity, although its turbodiesel rivals are faster once on the move.
In Eco mode, the car feels slow and major controls torpid in response, Normal is an improvement and Sport provides a degree of vivacity to steering and throttle, though the former remains lifeless even when pressing on.
On the plus side the chassis feels super-stiff and quick to respond, but on 17-inch wheels and tyres the ride quality is not good, especially in the way it throws passengers' head from side to side.
And while the mechanical grip once in a corner is exemplary, actually getting the whole caboodle to change direction is something of a black art and the chassis has understeer stamped through it. One engineer confessed that he would have preferred a more agile chassis set-up.
The brakes are powerful if wooden-feeling, with a soft initial bite as the regenerative braking starts, then progressively harder stopping when the conventional friction linings are deployed.
So it's luxurious, slightly cramped in the back and reasonable value for money when you compare it spec-for-spec with its competitors. What it isn't, even in a month of blue-moon Sundays, is sporting, but you knew that already, didn't you?
THE FACTS
Lexus CT 200h
TESTED Five-door hybrid hatchback, with 1,798cc, four-cyl petrol engine and AC synchronous (brush-less) electric motor driving the front wheels with 1.3kWh nickel-metal-hydride battery
PRICE/ON SALE From £23,485 OTR (20pc VAT)/March 2011
POWER/TORQUE Engine: 97bhp/104lb ft - Electric motor: 81bhp/153lb ft
TOP SPEED 113mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 10.3sec
FUEL ECONOMY 68.9mpg (Combined)
CO2 EMISSIONS 96g/km
VED BAND A (£0)
ON THE STEREO A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing by Sparks
VERDICT Provides Lexus luxury in spades and conveniently fills the gap between Toyota's Prius and the Lexus RX, but it's badly packaged, dynamically poor and no sports car
TELEGRAPH RATING Four out of five
THE RIVALS
BMW 118d SE £21,725
Trails (just) the CT 200h in environmental performance but dynamically it's streets ahead. The 1-series is poorly packaged, however, especially in the rear seats, while indulging yourself in the options list can almost double the price.
Audi A3 2.0 TDI SE from £20,835
The ageing A3 continues to enjoy support in the UK partly for its strong residual values. Runs the Lexus a close second in economy and CO2 emissions and beats it soundly in performance. Rear-seat accommodation is compromised but not as much as the BMWs.
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