Lexus CT 200h 2010 Review - International

Lexus CT200h

What we liked
>> Smooth, efficient drivetrain
>> Impeccable fit, finish and quality
>> Interior design and ergonomics

Not so much
>> Tyre roar on coarse roads
>> Below average acceleration for the class
>> Design already appears dated

About our ratings

Toyota's premium division has come a long way in the 21 years since its first model – a limousine designed to compete with Germany's finest – arrived to critical acclaim. Ever since Lexus has slowly plugged the gaps in its model line-up, and the arrival of the unusually-named CT200h (doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?) brings the marque closer to completing its vehicle range.

The smallest ever Lexus and the company's first compact five-door hatchback also happens to be exclusively hybrid.

Lexus has clocked up almost half a million hybrid sales worldwide since 2005, as part of Toyota’s total of more than 2 million hybrids built over the past 10 years. The Japanese carmaker believes petrol-electric hybrid technology will overtake diesel technology by the end of 2020 because the cost to clean the tailpipe emissions of diesel cars will be similar to or more costly than hybrid technology.

The fundamental ingredients of the CT200h’s drivetrain are shared with the proven Prius and Corolla hybrids – themselves effectively twins under the skin. And the Lexus CT200h’s footprint – the distance and width between the front and rear wheels, a key indicator of a vehicle’s core architecture – is identical to the Corolla hybrid and within 1cm of the Prius’s vital measurements.

However, despite sharing so much in common, Lexus insists the CT200h is not a Corolla hybrid in new clothes, citing substantial changes to the body structure, suspension and the engine’s ancillaries. More about these later.

The CT200h has also been described as a bridge between Toyota and Lexus, and a way for Lexus to appeal to younger buyers. The current average age of Lexus buyers in Australia is 53. It wants to bring the average age closer to 45.

But in reality the arrival of the CT200h means Lexus now has a car to compete with the BMW 1 Series and Audi A3, top-end versions of the Volkswagen Golf and other premium European hatchbacks.

Should the Europeans be worried? And what can Lexus loyalists look forward to should they want to downsize?

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT

Here’s hoping it is some way below $50,000, perhaps closer to $40,000 given the strength of the European competition it will face.

There’s even some potential rivalry from fellow Japanese brands. For example, a top-end Mazda3 luxury pack would give CT200h buyers more features, more performance, a bigger cabin and boot – and more change in their wallet (or lower leasing repayments).

Navigation will not be standard in the most affordable CT200h – yet it is standard equipment in every Mazda3 from $25,000 and up. You’ll have to pay a premium to get a CT200h with a flip-up nav screen in the dash.

Curiously, the CT200h also misses out on the solar panel roof in the flagship Prius, which helps keep the cabin cool in summer by running the air-conditioning fan. And it doesn’t get the Prius’s cool heads-up display in the windscreen. And $50,000 buys leather in a Prius, but faux leather at this money in the CT200h.

Meanwhile, the Europeans have been doing compact luxury hatchbacks very well for a very long time.

If the first Lexus limousine attacked the Europeans’ high profit cars, the CT200h is trying to take a slice out of their bread and butter models. But they won’t surrender easily, especially to the new kid on the block.

Lexus has proven with other models that, over time, it can take some business away from the Euros – but it is going up against model line-ups that each have up to half a dozen engines from which to choose, with varying levels of performance. Indeed, Lexus has identified that the CT200h will primarily compete against six prestige brands and no fewer than 34 engine variants.

The CT200h has only one drivetrain choice – and only one (modest) level of performance.

For the CT200h, engineers made changes to the intake and exhaust manifolds and found some modest improvements in efficiency. The result of all that effort, expense and engineering expertise is a fuel saving of 0.1L/100km. The fuel consumption average for the CT200h is 3.8L/100km compared to 3.9L/100km for the Prius.

As with the Prius, the CT200h can move from rest on battery power alone for up to a claimed 2km in ideal conditions, as well as providing an occasional petrol-free boost at freeway speeds. The onboard battery pack is recharged when the brakes are applied or when the vehicle is coasting downhill.

In case you’re wondering, you still need to refuel the CT200h at a normal petrol bowser (premium unleaded in this case), although a plug-in version that can run for up to 20km petrol-free (before switching to its petrol engine) is under development.

As with the Prius, the CT200h has an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission, which means the gearbox finds the optimum rev range for the driving conditions. At times the engine can sound like it’s either revving too high or a clutch is slipping, but that’s the nature of the technology.

As with the Prius, the CT200h has an EV mode which enables the car to be driven below 45km/h on the car’s battery alone until power is exhausted. It also has an eco mode, which limits accelerator response (and therefore how much petrol you’re using) on part throttle.

Normal mode gives a medium level of throttle response, while Sport mode increases throttle sensitivity, and changes the steering feel.

Sport mode can be chosen via a dial on the centre console. It changes the background colour of the instrument panel from a “calming” blue hue to a “dynamic” red tone. It also makes the eco-meter display disappear, and a tacho is illuminated in its place. Lexus claims the CT200h is the first hybrid car to come with a tachometer [Ed: Honda may argue that point with its manual transmission CR-Z].

Bottoim line is peak performance in all three main driving modes – eco, normal and sport – is identical at full throttle. Only the response at part throttle is changed. In other words, dialing up “sport” doesn’t suddenly turn it into a rocketship.

Indeed, the 0 to 100km/h time of 10.3 seconds is best described as leisurely. The most basic 1.2-litre Volkswagen Polo is quicker (9.7 seconds).

At least the CT200h is quicker than a Prius – by 0.1 of second.

PACKAGING

The parameters of the CT200h were set years ago, when Toyota engineers were drafting up the basic layout of the third generation Prius and the Corolla hybrid. To be cost effective, carmakers try to get as many uses out of their technology as possible. And so it is no co-incidence that the footprint and drivetrain of the CT200h are very similar to those of the Prius and Corolla hybrids.

To be frank, without this technology link, a car such as the CT200h would not exist as it would be too expensive to develop on its own.

Such sharing of components and architecture is common practice in the car industry today. For example, a VW Golf hatchback shares its core underbody architecture with the VW Tiguan, the Audi A3 (and TT), and several Seat and Skoda models.

So look at a CT200h with X-ray vision – or simply look at the stencil diagram supplied by Lexus – and you’ll see a very similar layout to the Prius and the Corolla hybrids. In the case of the CT200h, this means some of its boot space is consumed by a flat, wide battery pack just behind the rear seat.

But the CT200h is more than just a reskin. Lexus engineers strengthened the body and came up with a unique chassis stiffening brace that acts like a shock absorber between the front and rear suspension towers. The aim is to create more agile, accurate handling.

Lightweight aluminium is also widely used in the body panels such as the bonnet, bumper re-inforcements and the tailgate. The result is a 60:40 front-to-rear weight distribution which is above average for a front-drive car, although the balance is helped by the hybrid’s heavy battery pack over the rear.

That said, Lexus has done a commendable job in this department. Compared to a fully-equipped, non-hybrid Corolla, the Lexus CT200h is just 50kg heavier, at 1370kg. Hybrid drivetrains can typically add up to 250kg worth of equipment, so Lexus has done well.

Being a Lexus, the CT200h also comes with more sound deadening material than its Toyota peers.

The chief engineer of the CT200h, Osamu Sadakata, a veteran of Toyota and Lexus, specialised in suppressing vehicle noise, vibration and harshness before working as an engineer in body structure. In 2003 he was promoted to chief engineer of the RX400h, the world’s first luxury hybrid softroader. And since 2006 he has been in charge of all Lexus hybrid models.

Work on the CT200h began in 2007 but the concept car did not appear until last year’s Frankfurt motor show.

It’s fair to say that the production version of the CT200h has lost much of the flair that made the LF-Ch concept cara standout. Gone are the concept car’s shapely rear hips, bulging wheel arches, and sporty side window outline. Also missing is the concept car’s clean, clear-cut, sports-car-like nose.

It is little wonder some aspects got lost in translation from concept to reality. At the international media launch of the CT200h after the Paris motor show last week, the chief engineer revealed the front of the production car was finished off by Toyota’s styling studio in the south-east of France while the rear was completed by Toyota’s styling studio in California.

It can look flattering from certain angles in photographs. But in the metal, from the side and rear three-quarter views, the CT200h has more than a passing resemblance to the Mazda3 and Hyundai i30 hatchbacks.

It is a surprisingly conservative design (Lexus calls it “refined charm”) from the company that is also capable of turning out the awesome LF-A supercar.

But it was also styled this way (with its odd sharp creases in the bumper and bodywork) for a reason: the CT200h slips through the air with a cd of just 0.29, which Lexus claims is class best. By comparison, a VW Golf has an aero rating of 0.32 for example. The higher the cd number, the more air that gets ‘dragged’ behind the car.

Furthermore, the back of the car may look boxy, but it means there’s sufficient headroom in the rear of the CT200h.

For its part, Lexus says 78 per cent of potential customers it polled in Australia liked the design. But it showed them a photo, they didn’t see the car in the metal.

Rest assured, should the worst happen, it will look like a jumping castle in there. Eight airbags are standard on all CT200h models.

A count of eight airbags often means that outer rear seat passengers also gain rib-protecting side airbags (two front, two full length ‘curtains’, plus a rib-protector airbag in the four outboard seats). However, the CT200’s airbag count includes two front airbags, two full length ‘curtains’, two rib protecting airbags in the front seats – and knee airbags for the driver and front passenger.

Radar cruise control (which maintains a safe gap to – and matches the speed of – the car in front) is optional, as is pre-crash, which can detect if an impact is imminent and prime the seatbelt pretensioners and alert the driver to emergency brake.

A rear camera will also be optional on selected CT200h models in Australia.

COMPETITORS

The popular Lexus IS250 sedan will likely not be too great a financial stretch from a CT200h – especially when you consider the sharp deals Lexus has been doing over the past 12 months, and as the IS250 nears replacement over the next 18 months or so.

But, to me, the biggest threat comes from the Toyota Prius. If $50,000 buys a basic CT200h, the same money will buy a Prius with much more equipment – including leather, navigation, premium sound, a heads-up display, LED headlights, and a solar panel roof, to name a few. Plus the Prius has a much bigger boot and roomier cabin than the CT200h – and it will fit into almost the same tight parking space.

I think the bridge between Toyota and Lexus just got a lot shorter, and it’s open to two-way traffic.

ON THE ROAD

Long stretches of coarse bitumen that went for kilometres made a mockery of the chief engineer’s claim that the CT200h had best in class suppression of noise, vibration and harshness.

It prompted me to get out of the car and check the tyres. They were called Yokohama dB, and yes, that’s lower case ‘d’ and upper case ‘B’, shorthand for decibel. Perhaps they are supposed to be quiet, but on these roads dB seemed to stand for more noise, not less.

The chief engineer was apologetic. When asked for a comment, he effectively said he was going to find out who chose the test route. But he also insisted his car is top of the class for quietness. We won’t know for sure until we drive it locally against its peers early next year.

What’s also unclear is what tyres and on what surface the internal tests were done – and which European rivals (on which tyres) were compared? The CT200h is available with 16- and 17-inch wheel and tyre combinations (no 18s, yet).

It may seem harsh to some to spend so much time writing about one small aspect of this car. However, frankly, I’ve not heard a car this loud in years – let alone a premium car. And, furthermore, the road surfaces that caused all the noise appeared to be similar to typical Australian roads.

I retraced the route for a second time to double check it wasn’t all in my imagination. The noise was certainly prevalent on long sections, but there were times when it was acceptably quiet. As one colleague put it, however, any tyre can sound quiet on perfect, hot mix bitumen. Touche.

So, other observations? The CT200h steers well and feels secure in corners.

The suspension can be a bit busy at low speeds, but it’s not harsh and it deals with bumps better once it’s truly on the move. Plus, we were driving on 17-inch wheels and tyres, the base model will come with 16s, which should be even more compliant.

I wasn’t a fan of the initial brake pedal feel; the brakes themselves are quite small, presumably because at suburban speeds the CT200h can use some of the resistance from the electric motor to slow down. But at European driving speeds, the brakes felt underdone. We reckon BMW and other prestige brand customers will pick the difference, too.

Overall, however, the CT200h is a good first effort.

But it’s hard to hide our disappointment about the conservative design, especially when the early concept car promised so much – and when you consider how accessible and affordable well designed cars are these days.

Maybe with time the CT200h will grow on us. But for now, I’m not convinced this is the vehicle, pun intended, to appeal to 40-something buyers.

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