Martin Bailey

For the most part I'd agree, but just before Christmas I drove right through London, with a lot of stop/start traffic and the car excelled. 63MPG! In my old petrol car this type of journey would have killed the fuel economy, but the UX is ideal for town driving. On a motorway journey I generally get high 40's/low 50's. Highest I've got was 70-odd, but that was only a very short journey, and recently after a longer drive so the battery was charged.

I did get a full tank of fuel, but didn't get the three days of insurance. I was told in August (when I bought the car) that I would get the insurance, but was told a few days before I collected it (end November) that they had discontinued it. They also told me that they needed me to insure it for one day for Nov 30th so that they could tax the car, which would have meant that I was taxing the car for a month that I would not use. I refused, and they somehow resolved it themselves. I believe the reason was more so that they got the car off their sales books in November, not December. What was a little cheeky was that I'd logged into the Lexus Link+ app before I collected the car and saw that they had indeed filled the tank up, but whoever drove it to the petrol station had been driving it very hard. It got a score of 40 in the app! Hard acceleration and hard braking. We 'had words', and they did make efforts compensate me and were very apologetic, but it was not a great start to my first relationship with Lexus.

I've come from a Jaguar XE, which is closer in size to the ES. I appreciate that a Jag is not a Lexus, but there will be some parallels in my experience, I think, that might be of interest. Here is a summary of my thoughts: The UX is certainly shorter than the XE, and the XE I believe is slightly shorter than the ES. This did not affect space in the front or rear cabin. In fact, family have said the UX was more comfortable in the rear, as the Jag had the massive bulge for the rear axle, so the middle rear passenger always suffered. The UX rises literally only a couple of inches in the rear middle floor section. The UX is a little taller than the Jag was, so it's easier getting in/out Turning circle is better. Not sure if that will be the same moving from an ES, but if the wheelbase is bigger I'd expect so. Boot space is about 1/3rd less, but UX benefits from not being a saloon, so can get taller items in there. I've decided to purchase roof bars/roof box, so that resolves the issue on the rare occasion that I need more space for a holiday The ES rear seats don't go down - this was the main reason I didn't buy one!!! That to me was a show-stopper, as at least once a month I will need to transport something that needs a bit more than the boot alone would allow. There's no point in me offering driving comparisons between the two, as I've never driven an ES, so couldn't tell you if the UX is better or worse. Hope this helps in some way.

I guess in any type of car you'll get every type of driver, but I certainly agree about 50MPH on the motorway - especially when in the middle lane. I hope I sit comfortably between the 'driven like you stole it' and '50MPH' brigade! 🙂

You may also need to enable Sync Contacts on your phone. For iPhone, do the following: Go to Settings | Bluetooth | Lexus Scroll down and ensure that Sync contacts is checked. Underneath this on my phone I had Phone Favourites, Phone Recents and All Contacts also checked

I wanted to ask the Lexus hive mind for advice and experience of buying and using roof bars and roof boxes with the UX. What should I consider or avoid? What does it do to fuel efficiency?

Very interesting to see everyone's responses here. Also interesting to see that it's been hovering around a 50/50 split. This would suggest that as more people switch to hybrids, this may have a positive effect on polution and safety. I would guess that electric-only drivers would place a higher focus on driving more frugally in order to extend/maintain range, so would expect to see a higher percentage of yes responses for EVs, perhaps?

Yes, I've been using this a lot. I did a journey down from the Lake District to London, and was often in EV mode at 70MPH on the motorway. Interestingly, I only averaged around 48MPG on that trip, versus a 90-minute trip through London, much of which was stop/start at the Blackwall Tunnel, and got 63MPG! That's where hybrid really shine, as the sort of traffic that would normally kill your efficiency works more in your favour!

Sorry, mine is only a few weeks old, so is the latest. There isn't a specific ML setup area. The issue I was fixing related to centering the sound, and I would guess that this feature is standard across all sound systems, not just ML. I could be wrong, though. It is a little tucked away, so if you've not done so already, watch my video above. While the menus may not be the same, this might help to identify where it might be on your car. Hope that helps.

I cannot disagree with anything that you are saying. The drive is an elevation above anything I've driven before. But as this is my first hybrid and I have the MPG configured to be displayed on the dash, I do find myself driving more like a nun on Prozac to get a higher MPG and the satisfaction of that little green car logo on the dash 🙂

Having had my car just over a month, I had an observation - I find myself driving slower (perhaps sometimes too slow when pulling away, trying to keep it in EV mode for as long as possible) because there is more of a focus on fuel efficiency. Having the MPG front and centre on my dashboard and regularly looking at the overall score of a given journey in the Lexus Link+ app does make me consider how I drive more closely, and I was wondering if others were feeling the same. I managed 63MPG on one journey right through London, which was a lot of stop/start, which would have absolutely killed the fuel economy of my previous petrol car.

Yes, moving the centre to behind the front seats improved the quality significantly, as prior to that it sounded like most of the sound was coming out of the centre dashboard speaker. The difference was huge!

I'm using Spotify via Apple Car Play. I like the split screen display that shows the player controls on the left and whichever satnav app (Waze is my weapon of choice) in the main screen. That works seamlessly, although it'd be nice if all satnav apps integrated with the HUD - a conversation for another thread, me thinks! I posted this on another thread, but I noticed some distortion at higher volume - it turned out to be Spotify's equaliser conflicting with whatever the Mark levinson system in my car was doing. As soon as I disabled the equaliser in Spotify's settings screen the sound quality improved significantly.

Yes, mine is new. Picked it up 10 days ago…

Ahhhhh, didn't know that. Thanks

Interestingly (unless I haven't discovered it yet), my new Takumi does not appear to have Active Sound Control. I thought there was a button either to the left/right of the steering wheel with ASC on it, based on videos I've seen, but it's not there. There are two buttons to the right - one for the cameras and the other for the heads up display, but then there are two blanking plates.

Strange. Mine does show both mine and the car's location (see uploaded image). Having said that, last weekend (two days after I got the car) I got a message saying 'your vehicle has been successfully deleted', and I had to go through the pairing and trial activation again. It all worked OK, and has been working since, but I think it's definitely a 'work in progress'.

I actually picked up my UX yesterday and discovered the same thing (about the sound appearing to come from the dash speaker). It's not the case, but a quick adjustment will fix this! It's all about the positioning. Here's a short video that shows you how to adjust this. It's a little tucked away, but I like to explore! I also made another post earlier today about how music from Spotify was slightly distorted - turns out it was the graphic equaliser within the Spotify app on my phone. Once I disabled that the quality improved significantly. I hope this fixed your problem. mark-levinson-sound-adjustment.mp4

I picked up my UX Takumi yesterday, which is beautiful. I was expecting really good sound quality out of the Mark Levinson sound system, but noticed some static-like distortion coming mainly from the front centre-dash speaker. I tried playing around the the bass/mid/treble settings in the car, but it made no difference. This was using Spotify. I didn't notice it on the radio, but in fairness was mainly testing it with tracks that I knew well to see how they sounded. However, then I remembered that the Spotify app also has a graphic equaliser, which I had the treble end set quite high. I lowered those by a couple of notched and the problem went away! I also found that if I left the sound position as central in the vehicle, it sounded louder towards the front of the car, especially through the front dash speaker, so I moved that back to about where your knees would be if sitting in the rear seat. That seamed to 'average' the sound out much better, although I've not sat in the back to listen to before/after. Just thought I'd share that observation in case it helps anyone out.

One thing to keep in mind. If you (like me) use a password manager and use the randomly generated passwords, sometimes there will be characters in there that a website or app won't like. Generally, these tend to be 'programatic' characters, such as " & {} etc. So, if you have problems like this try an alphanumeric password. Usually, an exclamation mark is a safe bet - perhaps use that instead of an i. Hope that helps!

Trust me - coming from a Jaguar XE, I am confident that the UX's rear doors will appear cavernous by comparison 😁. My mother (5'0" in heels) bangs her head on the XE when getting in the rear, as it swoops so much. Also, as the XE is RWD, the middle seat passenger feels like they are riding a seesaw, with legs spread either side.

Yep, I had seen that video, and found the thicker level of paint and even the gap between the bonnet and the wing interesting. (Yes, I am a nerd, but certainly no car expert). Will report my thoughts in a new thread once 'the beast' arrives, most probably with a few vanity picks (of the car - not me). I am sure the space will be fine for the most part - it's only if there are four of us going away for any length of time. Worst case scenario - a case on the middle rear seat... But I think the XE's low height and the ability to remove the parcel shelf in the UX may work in its favour. We shall see! I'm not too concerned about the speed either - all the reviews say 'it's not quick, but it can move when it needs to' - as long as you can get out of trouble, that's all you really need. I'd also heard about the engine - I noticed it when I test drove a 2 year old NX (and didn't like it) but didn't notice it in the new UX I tried. I was literally sold from that point.

Am getting my UX Sunday-week, and am loving the positive comments about the interior and driving experience. Regarding boot space, I have watched (a more than is healthy) number of reviews on YouTube of the UX, and without exception they all say three things: Engine is OK, but not overly quick, leg room in the back is a bit poor, and boot space is also a bit limited. So, I know what I'm getting into. While the UX has a smaller boot than the XE, it's taller, so I am hoping that it can accommodate more in certain circumstances. With the seats down, certainly so. I'll also make use of all the little cubby holes under the floor and to the left/right, so hopefully I can make full use of the boot space, even with the floor lowered.

I was thinking of asking them to fit the rubber grommet thingie that I had to the left of the clutch pedal in my first Ford Fiesta that I pushed to control the winscreen washers. That was quite fun 🙂

I believe you can use the voice control to turn it on/off. If I remember rightly, this was covered in the Deep Dive video that others have posted in separate threads.