Lexus NX300h, motoring review: Built for Tokyo's streets, not rural British A-roads

Jamie Merrill was cursing the vague steering and bumpy ride on a drive from Cardiff to Aberystwyth

The Lexus NX300h is their latest hybrid SUV

Price: From £29,495
Powertrain: 2.5-litre, 3-cylinder petrol, plus two electric motors
Total power (bhp): 195
Top speed (mph): 112
Fuel economy (mpg): 53.4
CO2 emissions (g/kg): 121

On the map, it looked like a lovely drive from Cardiff to Aberystwyth, as I set off in the new NX300h, the latest hybrid SUV from Lexus. It's a clever beast with a petrol engine and not one but two electric motors, plus something called an "epicyclic" hybrid system and four-wheel drive.

In theory it was the perfect car for the job, thanks to what the Japanese firm described as a combination of "smooth and agile handling" and "incredible" frugality. They obviously didn't test it beyond the confines of urban Tokyo, though, because for a supposedly swift and sporty SUV, the NX is terrible on rural roads.

Admittedly, it was a dank afternoon with heavy rain and dawdling trucks clogging up the A-roads of mid-Wales, but it's not like I was trying to go literally over the top of the Brecon Beacons. I was on the sorts of rural roads you'll find across Britain and the NX should have handled with them with ease.

It didn't, though. Its transmission is an electronic version of an old-style cone-and-belt continuously variable gearbox, which, when paired with the hybrid system, is unbearably slow. And when you put your foot down to approach the national speed limit, it doesn't deliver a wave of power, rather a swell of screaming revs. Wait 10 seconds or so and some power will eventually filter through, but by this point you will already be cursing the vague steering and bumpy ride. This car, despite its impressive power figures, is dreadfully slow in the real world. The sort of slow that makes even cautious overtaking slightly tricky.

Admittedly, most small luxury SUVs are used for the school run, and car makers are increasingly turning out cars for urban life, but the NX should still have been the near-perfect car for this run. Instead, a cheap and cheerful hatchback would have been better for the job.

I'm aware I sound ungrateful, cruising around the country in what is a very pretty and hi-tech SUV, but if you bought one of these, you'd basically be restricted to living in Putney. If you want a fashionable SUV for cruising around a city, you already have the choice of the Range Rover Evoque or the BMW X3. Both are excellent and, facing a run back from Aberystwyth the next day, I'd have taken either of them over the Lexus.