Lexus LBX (2024 - ) review

There are tons of options if a car like the LBX is on your shopping list, ranging from affordable petrol-powered models through to an increasing number of pure electric choices. These may be tempting but tend to be more expensive upfront, hybrids like this splitting the difference and Lexus threading the needle on price so even the most expensive LBX (just) ducks the arbitrary threshold for more expensive ‘luxury’ car tax rates. The fact it doesn’t need plugging in also helps keep upfront costs down and will be more convenient for city-dwelling buyers less likely to have off-street parking for charging, though it does mean higher Benefit In Kind if you’re running it as a company car. Lexus also wants to hammer home the long-term fuel cost advantages of its hybrid system, but even if you achieve its claimed savings of £20-odd a month or £1,000 in petrol over a typical finance term compared to non-hybrid equivalents that’s a pretty marginal gain. Projected strong residual values will have a bigger part to play in monthly costs, and here the LBX benefits from Lexus’s premium standing.

Toyota and Lexus have a strong reputation for reliability and versions of the hybrid system used here have been sold in the millions, not least to hard-working Uber drivers in their Corollas and Priuses. And if they can keep going with that kind of use you have to hope the LBX will be similarly dependable. Anecdotally Lexus dealerships regularly score particularly highly on customer service as well, the idea you’ll be getting that level of premium care on a compact car an appealing combination. Commit to servicing at a dealership and the guarantee can even run for up to 10 years or 100,000 miles.

There’s lots of tech on the LBX under the Lexus Safety Sense+ branding, but figuring out which is included as standard and which is reserved for the more expensive models requires careful scrutiny of the pricelist. At a basic level all LBXs have the usual automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping systems, while on all but the base trim the ‘E-latch’ door handles will actually refuse to open if doing so risks hitting a cyclist or other passing traffic. Which is neat. We also appreciate the efforts to improve all-round visibility, which reduces your dependence on bongs and beeps, though the top spec version we drove had all those as well and was over-sensitive enough to scold us for taking our eyes off the road for doing even basic observations like over-the-shoulder checks when merging onto a motorway. Which feels counter-productive. You can turn these systems off, but it’s a faff going into the menus to do so and it all resets every time you turn the car off and back on again.

The raised seating position and view of your surroundings it gives is confidence inspiring, even for the hectic city streets we tested the LBX on. That’s not necessarily a given on small crossovers of this type, so was especially appreciated in the mayhem of downtown Valencia with scooters coming at us from every direction. An impressively low kerb weight helps ride comfort compared with many rivals as well, easy steering and fast responses making it feel usefully agile and fun to drive in and out of the city. Lexus has tried to improve refinement to put some ground between the LBX and the Yaris Cross it shares foundations with and has generally done a good job, though road noise did sometimes intrude on the otherwise calming sense of luxury. And while fine for average sized driver and front-seat passenger the cabin may be on the tight side for taller ones, especially in the back where legroom is tight and you have to duck your head under the roof rail to get in. The boot is a good size and usefully square in shape but for school runs and taxying kids to evening clubs there are more practical alternatives in this class. As such the LBX will probably suit style-conscious empty-nesters more than family buyers.

While the European market cars we tested featured Lexus’s bewildering range of ‘Atmosphere’ trims we (thankfully) get a more straightforward progression through familiar Premium, Premium Plus and Takumi grades, the latter two also available with ‘Design’ packs with two-tone paint, bigger wheels and different upholsteries. We especially liked the brown leather option, which shows off the premium vibe Lexus is known for. For a brand associated with a more conservative feel it’s good to see the option of these brighter colours inside and out, this hopefully attracting the younger audience the LBX is aimed at. At the other end of the scale there’s also an entry-level Urban trim, but Lexus expects most buyers to settle on the fancier models. Quality on all feels suitably classy, Premium Plus and above getting full digital instruments and a head-up display projecting info onto the windscreen to combine with the standard central screen. While better than Lexus models of the past the menus are still a bit fiddly compared with what you get in a Mercedes or BMW, so you’ll likely prefer to use your phone apps via CarPlay or Android Auto. Annoyingly the latter is only available on a cable, while Apple users get to enjoy wireless connectivity. Of all grades Premium Plus feels the best balance of price and gadgets, Takumi going all-in with increasingly sophisticated (which is to say intrusive) driver support systems we could probably live without, though the thumping Mark Levinson stereo is a nice-to-have.

A clear difference here between the numbers barbecue dads and car geeks obsess about when it comes to horsepower and 0-60 times and how the car actually feels to drive. True, against explosively accelerative electric crossovers like the Volvo EX30 you may also be considering the LBX is, tactfully, rather more chilled. But the electric boost to the petrol engine gives it a useful burst when you need to pull away smartly, accelerate into fast moving traffic or overtake. It will also cruise around at town speeds on electric power alone for an impressive amount of time, the fact the car just figures it all out for itself making it very easy to drive. Like all Toyota and Lexus hybrids things can get a bit noisy if you really put your foot down, but driven sensibly the LBX clips along just fine and actually handles rather better than a lot of its rivals, thanks mainly to that lack off weight. Some very Lexus tweaks to the engineering also make it more refined than the Yaris Cross it shares an engine and other parts with.