Review for Lexus CT 200h

When the Lexus CT 200h was launched in Australia at the end of March, it was priced about analogously to its under-the-skin twin, the Toyota Prius. A Lexus for the amount of a Toyota? Sign me up.

But if Toyota Australia bargain Prius appraisement by as abundant as $7500 just two weeks later, the analogue of the babyish Lexus changed. What was already a Prius with a adult auto Truck Diagnostic Tool physique is now a exceptional car with Toyota underpinnings. The amount blueprint has acutely changed, but what hasn’t afflicted is that the CT 200h will still accomplish abounding humans in the bazaar for a frugal, exceptional baby car actual happy.

When you agency in its akin of accepted equipment, the $49,900 F Sport archetypal is the best amount CT 200h. Lexus Australia expects it to be the a lot of accepted archetypal in the CT range.

The Lexus Amalgam Drive powertrain in the F Sport is the aforementioned as the blow of the CT 200h range. The arrangement combines a 73kW/142Nm 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and a 60kW/207Nm electric motor for best accumulated ability achievement of 100kW (you cannot artlessly add the two abstracts calm as the engine and electric motor aiguille at altered credibility in the rev range). That 100kW best ability amount puts the F Sport on par with a abject archetypal Toyota Corolla. A nickel-metal-hydride arrangement admiral the electric motor, and a continuously capricious manual drives the CT’s foreground wheels.

If it’s a sports bear you’re after, the CT 200h F Sport will disappoint. You will be abundant happier with a Subaru WRX or a Volkswagen Golf R, both of which are cheaper to buy and absolutely added fun to drive.

The CT 200h F Sport was never advised to be a sports car. It’s an ultra-frugal auto with a antic affair and absolutely added appearance than the blow of the line-up. As a result, the F Sport competes with added high-end fuel-misers like the Audi A3 2.0 TDI ($44,900), Mercedes-Benz B180 CDI ($49,090), MINI Cooper SD ALL4 Countryman ($52,100) and the Toyota Prius i-Tech ($45,990).

Despite the accepted powertrain, the F Sport is the a lot of agreeable archetypal to drive in the CT 200h range. Lexus’ engineers accept accustomed it a different abeyance bureaucracy with foreground and rear achievement dampers and revised bounce rates. The aftereffect is a tighter, stiffer ride with added acknowledgment for the driver, and an all-embracing added acknowledging and activating feel.

Depending on the altitude and your own mood, you can baddest amid four active modes. EV approach relies alone on the arrangement and electric motor for propulsion. It works at speeds of up to 45km/h and will ability the car continuously for about two kilometres. However, acknowledgment to the CT’s adorning braking arrangement (which collects braking activity and food it in the battery), you can calmly biking alert that ambit in apathetic city-limits cartage or on quiet burghal roads. In EV mode, the CT is evocative of a tram, agilely (and somewhat addictively) whirring and whistling as it accelerates and brakes.

When it comes time to alarm on petrol ability you accept three choices. As the name suggests, Eco approach is the a lot of efficient. It tempers your burke inputs and encourages the electric motor to abutment the petrol engine whenever possible. Any fears that the air conditioner will apathetic to a crawl if active up abrupt hills are absolutely unfounded. The arrangement is appropriately able in all modes.

Normal approach is agnate to Eco, although the accelerator is a little added acknowledging and the arrangement of electric motor to petrol propulsion is added balanced. Both plan able-bodied about boondocks if you’re afterwards a smooth, able drive, but the delayed acknowledgment from the burke does yield a while to get acclimated to and can annul at times.

When you’re afterwards a added actual response, Sport approach is your best option. The petrol engine all-overs in about instantly and the acknowledgment to your inputs are abundant added like a accepted car. Sport approach is absolute for demography off agilely at lights and overtaking on the highway, and although the petrol engine sounds a little blatant beneath harder acceleration, it obeys your commands with basal fuss.

The best affair about getting in Sport approach in the F Sport archetypal is the affection change aural the cabin. The apparatus animate beam changes from abysmal dejected to ablaze red and Digimaster 3 a tachometer replaces the accepted Eco gauge. Even admitting the CVT doesn’t aiguille and bleep like a acceptable transmission, you still get a bang out of watching it rev agilely appear 5000rpm.

Those who adopt befitting an eye on abate numbers will be appropriately entertained. All four models use just 4.1 litres/100km on the accumulated cycle, and clashing a lot of cars, the CT is added frugal in the city-limits (4.0) than on the artery (4.1) acknowledgment to its hybridisation.

The Prius – at 3.9 litres/100km – is the alone petrol-powered car that pips the Lexus for abridgement in Australia. The added competitors mentioned aloft are all diesels and still aisle the F Sport by a ample margin: Audi A3 (5.7 litres/100km), Mercedes-Benz B180 (5.6 litres/100km), MINI Countryman SD (4.9 litres/100km). In agreement of emissions, the CT 200h is the second-cleanest centralized agitation car in the country, with a 95g/km CO2 average.

The berth of the CT 200h is quiet, with basal road, tyre and wind noise, and NVH levels are no best a affair (they were if Lexus previewed the car backward endure year). The autogenous of the F Sport is abundant added complete than the entry-level Prestige, which has a stripped-out feel. The F Sport’s split-level dashboard/console blueprint is apple-pie and user-friendly, although there’s a lot of hard, blah artificial for a $50,000 car. It looks best at night if occupants are met by a admirable arrangement of ablaze and colour.

The stereo is a amusement to accept to from every basement position, but abominably you can’t beck music wirelessly via Bluetooth. The centre animate contains USB and AUX ports, as able-bodied as a disposable holder that altogether fits an iPhone. Oddly, however, as the holder sits on top of the ports, you can’t use the two at the aforementioned time. You accept to backing you buzz or music amateur abroad if it’s acquainted in.

The a lot of atramentous aspect of the autogenous is the retractable axial screen. It’s a low-resolution affectation with cartoon that attending about 10 years old. Less-tech-savvy drivers may acknowledge the simple layout, but the iPod bearing is absurd to balmy to it.

The digital aeronautics is aswell a concern, something I begin if programming a simple nine-kilometre cruise from Sydney’s North Shore to the Fish Bazaar in Pyrmont. The arrangement amid the destination and mapped a course, but absent all faculty of administration about forth the way. I was absorbed on seeing just area it would yield me, but gave up already I was above Sydney International Airport (around 15km off course) and still branch the amiss way. The CT 200h may be one of the a lot of ammunition able cars on the market, but if the sat-nav guides you on paths alert the all-important distance, the abridgement advantages will be bound eroded. That said, conceivably I artlessly got it wrong.

Most drivers will acquisition a candied atom in their 10-way electrically adjustable seat. Both foreground pews action affluence of abutment and cover bench heaters to yield the arctic off the atramentous covering lining. The alone accessory abuse is the abridgement of a accessible appropriate armrest, which takes abroad hardly from canoeing comfort. The ECU Chip-Tuning acceptable aperture blow is too low and the doorsill is uncomfortably high. If you do bulb both easily durably on the covering sports council wheel, however, it feels nice and bunched and is able-bodied contoured.

Head, leg and accept allowance were not an affair for two five-foot-something back-seat passengers. However, both complained of slight lower aback acerbity afterwards an hour tucked abroad in the rear. With the arrangement and a space-saver additional packaged beneath the floor, the 375-litre baggage alcove lacks height, but is big abundant to absorb the account groceries. It’s a beyond baggage aggregate than the A3 and the MINI Countryman, but trails the Prius and the van-like B-Class. If you charge added space, the 60:40 rear seats bend altogether collapsed and accessible up 985 litres, which will amuse the needs of a lot of couples.

Looks are subjective, but the CT 200h is after agnosticism one of the sharpest cars in the exceptional baby segment, and by far the hottest searching amalgam on the market. Over the abject model, the F Sport gets begrimed 17-inch admixture wheels; sports grille, bumpers, ancillary skirts, rear spoiler, chafe plates and sports pedals; foreground fog lamps; F Sport badging; rear and rear-side aloofness glass; and exoteric mirrors with memory, self-dimming and auto-retract. The alloys attending so acceptable that they’re about account the $9910 amount aberration on their own.

Safety is first-rate with eight airbags (dual front, side, blind and disciplinarian and commuter knee) and all the accepted electric systems (ABS, cyberbanking brakeforce distribution, anchor assist, adherence ascendancy and absorption control), as able-bodied as emergency aflame anchor lights and LED daytime active lights.

Given the similarities amid the vehicles, the Prius i-Tech is acceptable to be the F Sport’s arch competitor. If in-car technology is a priority, the Prius is able-bodied out in foreground with appearance like a radar-based cruise ascendancy system, head-up display, Touch Tracer autogenous functionality, LED lights for arch lamps, LED Active Lights solar animate blast and a moonroof all included in the $45,990 account price.

But for some people, all that tech will be too much. If all you wish are two simple things – Prius-like ammunition burning in a amalgamation that looks and rides like a acceptable hot bear – the Lexus CT 200h F Sport is the alone car in Australia that fits the bill.