Lexus RX200T vs Lexus IS300H

What's the difference?

Remember when Lexus design was about as adventurous as a warm cup of tea and a good lie down?

The Japanese luxury brand (and Toyota’s more expensive little brother) wasn’t exactly famed for taking risks on boundary-pushing looks. And that's not even me being mean - its own executives say they favoured conservatism over all else when working on an a new model. And thus everything looked like it was designed by a 75-year-old Japanese man, largely because it had been.

But gazing upon the angry, jutting jawline of the Lexus RX, those play-it-safe days suddenly feel a long time ago. If this RX isn’t the most striking (for better or for worse) SUV in its premium field, it’s got to be pretty darn close.

The cheapest and most youth-oriented model in the RX family is the 200T, making use of a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine to propel the big SUV. And the one you see in these pictures is the F-Sport model, which scores a bespoke bodykit, unique alloys and other styling stuff to make it look even more aggressive on the road. 

Having received its last major update in 2015 (but with a mid-life tweak just around the corner) this RX is starting to get on a little bit. So we spent a week in the 200T to see if it's still able to mix it with the best in the segment. 

One question frequently discussed in the skunkworks of the CarsGuide office is: What exactly does Lexus stand for?

When the brand debuted its original export-market IS sedan in 1999 the messaging was more or less clear: Toyota’s premium sub-brand was here to be a Japanese BMW.

The brand even employed Nobuaki Katayama – chief engineer on the iconic Corolla AE86 program – to again take the reins of its small rear-wheel drive sedan program.

As the years went on though, Lexus changed. Fundamentally geared toward the US market, the second-generation (wild IS F aside) became a bit more sedate and softer around the edges, while the third generation strayed even further from the sedan’s performance-inspired roots, leaning into a plush interior, hybrid drive, and even CVT transmissions.

This brings us to today’s Lexus IS. Essentially a heavy facelift of the third generation (which arrived back in 2013), the brand has “reimagined” its core sedan with a tweaked design and updated technology for 2021.

Is it enough to keep it relevant against its ever-present European rivals and the newly arrived threat from Hyundai’s Genesis G70? I took a signature IS300h hybrid for a week to find out.