Lexus CT 200h 2011 Review

Lexus CT200h Luxury & Sports Luxury

About our ratings

Lexus (through parent company Toyota) has a very effective and frugal hybrid drive system in the new CT200h. It has the wherewithal to keep fuel consumption below 6.0L/100km in daily driving -- possibly lower still, depending on the driver and the driving environment.

But is it fun to drive? There are other companies that have developed hybrids that are more involving to drive. At one end of the spectrum you have the Honda CR-Z, for instance, and at the other end the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid. Both vehicles manage to be fun to drive in varying degrees -- and even Toyota itself can offer buyers the Camry Hybrid, a car with genuinely impressive overtaking performance and decent cornering.

The CT200h is an attempt by Lexus to couple the Toyota Hybrid-Synergy Drive system to underpinnings that deliver improved vehicle dynamics -- and, it's hoped, a chassis that will delight drivers.

To illustrate, at $39,990, the base-grade CT200h Prestige is just $90 more than the entry-level Prius. That alone is expected to force Toyota to revise its pricing and specification for its own hybrid small car.

The CT200h Prestige comes equipped with such standard features as electric windows/mirrors, cloth trim, single-disc CD audio system, keyless entry, dual-zone climate control, 16-inch alloy wheels, daytime running lights, 'two-mood/two-mode' functionality, cruise control, metallic paint (no-cost option) and USB connectivity. Buyers can also order the CT200h Prestige with optional leather trim for $3000 extra, or go the whole hog with leather and a moonroof as a pack for $5000 extra.

The next grade up is the CT200h Luxury, priced $9000 higher, at $48,990. For the added cost, the Luxury grade adds the following standard features: six-disc CD audio system, satellite navigation, reversing camera, 17-inch alloy wheels, leather, heated front seats, keyless start, rain-sensing wipers, 10-speaker audio and electrochromatic mirror.

Just $910 more than the price of the Luxury variant will get you into the CT200h F Sport, which comes with additional standard kit including: Body kit, dark-finished 17-inch alloys, sports bucket seats, F Sport steering wheel, black headlining, unique suspension calibration, performance dampers, fog lights, sports pedals, electrically-adjustable front seats, alarm and power-folding electrochromatic mirrors. As a $2500 option, the F Sport variant can be specified with a moonroof.

Topping the range is the CT200h Sports Luxury, at $55,900. Additional standard features at this level comprise: Active cruise control, LED low-beam headlights, credit card key for smart entry, headlight washers and reverse parking sensors. Lexus offers the flagship model with sports bumpers for $1500 extra.

The Atkinson-cycle 2ZR-FXE engine powering the CT200h is a DOHC four-cylinder unit shared with the Prius and equipped with variable valve timing for the intake valves. Peak power and torque figures are identical to those of the Prius: 73kW and 142Nm respectively. Lexus claims combined-cycle fuel consumption of 4.1L/100km and CO2 emissions of 95g/km for the CT. While the Lexus and the Prius are close in size and weight, the Prius has the advantage when it comes to aerodynamics, with its 0.25Cd coefficient of drag. In contrast, the CT's drag coefficient is 0.29Cd -- good, but not outstanding.

Torque from the engine is transmitted to the front wheels through Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive system, which effectively links engine and electric motor/generator units via a planetary gear set. In the process of varying the torque between the petrol engine and the electric motors, the system operates like a continuously variable transmission. An earlier report on the third-generation Prius provides a fuller explanation of the car's drivetrain system, with all technical details.

The underpinnings of the CT consist of electrically-assisted rack-and-pinion steering, MacPherson strut front suspension, double-wishbone IRS, ventilated front disc brakes and solid discs at the rear. Every variant of the CT200h is fitted with alloy wheels in a 10-spoke design, although the entry-level Prestige variant has wheels measuring 16 inches in diameter, but all other variants are fitted with 17-inch alloys. Original equipment Yokohama dB tyres range in size from 205/55 R16 for the CT200h Prestige, to 215/45 R17 for all other models.

Even in the front, the CT feels cosy rather than roomy, but specifying Ivory leather imbues the interior with a lighter, more open feel. And conversely, of course, it's the easy reach to controls in the centre fascia and the cockpit-like proximity to instruments that sets the CT's interior apart from other hybrids'.

On that point, the HVAC controls and readout -- simple and straightforward to use -- reminded the writer of similar design from Honda. One journalist felt the layout of lesser controls in the base of the centre fascia stack was scattered and not very orderly. There was a blank section of plastic above the seat-heating controls, for one example, but overall the switchgear in the CT was sensible enough. The CT comes with the 'Haptic' controller, which is Lexus's equivalent of BMW's iDrive. While our co-pilot didn't like it and prefers iDrive, the reviewer is used to using a mouse with the left hand and would rather operate the Lexus system.

The CT is unlike the Prius in that the Lexus boasts much nicer interior fittings and fixtures. One point that always lets the Prius down, in the view of this writer is the hard plastic used liberally throughout the Toyota's interior. The CT comes with leather and softer plastics, some contrasting metal or metal-look finishes (a chrome gearshifter, for example), allied with sparing use of faux woodgrain -- the whole ambience is a significant step up on what the Prius has to offer, frankly.

Lexus claims the CT's luggage capacity measures 375 litres, which comes within five litres of the volume credited to the Ford Focus -- and measures over 25 litres better than the Volkswagen Golf's. It's a surprising amount of boot space for a hybrid hatchback, but the underfloor storage contributes to the total.

Before moving on from packaging, a word on the car's styling. To this reviewer, although it shares practically nothing with the Toyota Corolla, it still exudes a lot of Corolla visual DNA. Some were disappointed with the CT's looks when it was first revealed as a production model, but up close it works better and in darker colours it seems to present better.

Models other than the entry-level CT200h Prestige are equipped with a reversing camera and electrochromatic rear-view mirror, both of which can be optioned for the basic variant in 'enhancement packs'. The F Sport and Sports Luxury models raise the bar with electrochromatic exterior mirrors and front fog lights, with the latter variant also scoring LED and projector-type headlight clusters.

There are no NCAP ratings for the CT yet, but the Toyota Prius has gathered a five-star score -- and the Lexus seems to have the pre-requisites to emulate that result.

On the strength of vehicle dynamics alone, at least a couple of the German cars would outshine the Lexus, but the Japanese hybrid remains a fair amount of car for the money, nonetheless. Still, the vehicle most likely to feel threatened by the Lexus is the Toyota Prius, which shares its mechanicals with the CT200h.

Looked at another way, as mentioned at the beginning, Toyota has one ace up its sleeve in the curious battle with its own brand offering: the Camry Hybrid. While the CT200h is arguably a better packaged proposition than the Camry, the Toyota is larger overall and a nicer car to drive, frankly. Why? It rides a little better; it offers strong performance without making major concessions to fuel economy and is still dynamically capable in corners.

NVH was a conspicuous concern in the CT during the car's international launch in Paris last year. Over country roads in France, the Lexus was apparently noisy and didn't ingratiate itself with reviewers for this reason more than any other. Lexus says that changes have been made prior to the car's launch here. Japanese engineers visited Australia to assess local roads and make the necessary tweaks before unleashing the compact prestige hybrid hatch here.

Based on a mix of different road surfaces and hearsay from those who drove the car in Paris, the CT's tyre noise does appear to be improved, but as with the Prius, tyre noise is still prevalent on coarse-chip surfaces. At times the road noise at 80km/h is akin to what you'd expect from similarly-priced conventional cars at 100km/h -- but then the opposite holds true also. The CT can be very quiet indeed on smoother roads and it's not always affected the same way on different road surfaces. It's our view that while the tyre noise continues to be a problem, perhaps CT buyers will take into account the car's roadholding as a compensating factor.

Peak power and torque for the petrol engine under the bonnet of the CT measures exactly the same as for the Prius: 73kW and 142Nm. Lexus also claims the same kerb weight for the CT (1370kg) as Toyota does for the Prius. So you'd expect the two cars would feel very similar in performance -- and frankly, they do. As with the Prius, the CT is relatively slow to launch if you're watching the fuel consumption and remaining in EV mode or attempting to avoid firing the petrol engine in Eco mode.

However the CT will keep ahead of traffic when prompted. The petrol engine is quiet even at around 5000rpm -- which is the effective upper limit for revs, due to the way the continuously variable transmission works. At the commencement of the drive program, the average fuel consumption was 7.0L/100km. During the course of the drive, the average consumption fell to around 6.4L100km. On the return leg, in a different vehicle, the consumption figure finished up at 6.1L/100km. If we had reset the trip computer before setting off it's reasonable to think that the average consumption figure would have been lower still -- considerably.

For all its good work though, the engine is not especially sporty in character. Nor is it helped by the long-throw accelerator pedal travel or the CVT, which doesn't provide any facility to change down manually, although it will automatically apply more engine braking when the Sport mode is selected, by pushing and twiddling a rotary knob in the centre fascia. This works better from higher speeds.

On the drive route, the CT struggled to feel as lively through some tighter, occasionally uphill sections, principally due to a combination of outright performance shortfall and the CVT syndrome of fixed revs/slowly increasing road speed.

There were other reasons why the CT didn't feel sporty, as such. While grip seemed quite strong, in admittedly benign conditions, turn-in felt slower than expected and feedback from the electrically-assisted steering was not always as ample as enthusiastic drivers would like.

And nor did the CT offset its character with a gentle ride. Over typical Victorian country roads the car wriggled and jiggled firmly. In this respect it placed second to Toyota's Prius, which rode well without giving away much dynamically. The CT's brakes were an improvement on the Prius's though. There was less travel in the pedal and the feeling underfoot was not as spongy as we recall for the Toyota's pedal.

But the overall impression is that the CT is not as sporty as Honda's CR-Z, for instance -- yet to reach us here in Australia -- and the Lexus faces stiff competition from diesel competitors, notwithstanding the company's own argument that diesel has no future ahead of it. Selling below the purchase price of the Lexus CT is Audi's A3 1.6 TDi, which is beginning to show its age as a design, but comes within striking distance of the CT's combined-cycle fuel consumption figures (4.5 for the Audi, 4.1 for the Lexus).

A lot of would-be buyers for the Audi will be deterred by the manual transmission, however, which is where the CT might snag a few customers. And the CT is ultimately about providing an alternative to diesel, as mentioned already.

To sum up, prospective buyers for the CT will appreciate that it's well finished and equipped, provides high levels of safety for low levels of CO2 emissions -- and it doesn't wear a volume-selling badge.

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site