Lexus' 2022 NX is a small SUV with some big improvements
Cars
Speaker 1: As much as I love a long-winded metaphor and a bunch of intro stuff that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I really don't have time for that. Today. Here is the 2022 Lexus XX and there is a whole bunch of new stuff to talk about. Come let's do it
Speaker 1: Zooming even further out. The NX really change all that much compared to what's going on inside. Mostly just massages the overall silhouette's the same, but the front end's a little more cohesive thanks to new headlights and a new grill. [00:00:30] Yes. Yes. The NX is new inside and out and it looks pretty sharp, but I'm in here to bring you to the single most important part of the car right away. The infotainment screen, you see Lexus's north American arm finally told Japan to go suck an egg. And under the tutelage old uncle Sam, we have this Lexus interface standard 9.8 inches and ally available in 14 Lexus interface does a fine job of rid the world's house pads, track pads, imaginary day tens and zoom, a graphics. The layout is clean with a quick access doc on the left side [00:01:00] to hit all your important part.
Speaker 1: It's like music phone or car settings. Now of course the full screen navigation is pretty darn impressive. It might be my favorite part, but if you prefer to play it closer to home, you can fill the whole screen with apple CarPlay or Android auto. Instead the Lexus interfaces more than just a snazzy screen and some vastly improved processing power. There's a natural language voice assistant that will let you do pretty much anything inside the car user profiles connect to the cloud. So when you log in a different interface, equipped vehicle, you have all your settings and you can set your phone as a key, sharing [00:01:30] it with up to seven guests at once. All right, with that outta the way, let's kind of zoom out a bit here. I really like the new interior on the 2022 NX. It looks a lot better than it used to. Uh, everything is kind of driver-centric now it's a little more tilted toward the driver and even the visual lines on the center console kind of lead back toward Rome, so to speak. And speaking of the center console, anything I touch here from the door panels pretty much anywhere looks and feels more expensive than it used to.
Speaker 1: [00:02:00] There are now four trims of Xanax on offer the base NX two 50 uses a two and a half liter naturally aspirated four cylinder. While the NX three 50, picks up a new 2.4 liter turbo four, then we have the NX three 50 H H meaning hybrid. Obviously it's traditional gas, electric hybrid. And at the top of the range is the NX four 50 H plus which in to being a mouthful is a plug-in hybrid with a 18.1 kilowat hour lithium ion battery pack. Good for about 36 [00:02:30] miles a range. Since my time in the Arizona desert is limited. I have chosen to drive what Lexus believes will be its volume model, the NX three 50 turbo. Now the first thing I noticed in when I got in the car was how quiet it was. It's definitely quieter than the old one and only kind of gets road noisy when the road gets no crappy. But then again, this is something Lexus prides itself on no matter the model, whether it's expensive or not.
Speaker 1: [00:03:00] Another high point is the suspension tuning. It's a little on the soft side and luxury car after all, but it doesn't really feel ponderous. It's when I throw it into a corner, I don't get worried about how much body roll there is, what I call it dynamic. Maybe it's pretty fun to toss around this isn't enough sport, but I, that could be a little more interesting under the hood of the NX. Three 50 is a new 2.4 liter turbocharged in line four, making 275 horsepower and 317 pound feet of torque. Those [00:03:30] are some pretty good numbers, but for some reason it doesn't really feel as Zippy and light on its feet as the old four pot used to. But then again, that's not really a problem. There's plenty of torque down low in this thing, and it feels good all across the rev range. Can't
Speaker 2: Complain.
Speaker 1: Like I said, there's a lot going on here with this little Lexus. And I think this compact luxury SUV will do a pretty good job of swooping up some young urban professionals who are on the hunt for something [00:04:00] stylish. Yet technologically forward, the 2022 Lexus NX goes into production at the tail end of this year. And prices will range from about 38 grand for a base two 50 with front wheel drive all the way up to $55,000 for the plugin hybrid.
