2019 Lexus UX vs 2020

What's the difference?

Small SUVs are undeniably all the rage at the moment.

The category – which basically didn’t exist 20 years ago – has become the focus of automakers worldwide, as they scrabble to capture the attention of a new generation of buyers.

Premium brands are not exempted. We’ve seen new youth-focussed entries rushed to market from Audi with the Q2, Mercedes with the GLA, BMW with the X2, Land Rover with the Evoque and now, finally, Lexus.

Only this new Lexus, the UX, seems at odds with the brand’s traditional demographic of… well… baby boomers. 

As such, it looks decidedly more conservative than the Toyota C-HR with which it shares a chassis. Which raises the question – who is this car for exactly?

Lexus hopes it will bring a younger group to the brand, people who it hopes will be buying “their first entry into the luxury segment.”

So, does the UX have what it takes to bring a younger audience to the Lexus brand as a whole? I spent a week in the base UX200 to find out.

You’re after a premium SUV with size for five, without exceeding the ideal metropolitan footprint. It should have adequate oomph for occasional forays into wider open spaces, but offer enough comfort and luxury to keep you cool and relaxed in the city.

And you’d rather look at something outside the predictable Euro brand path. The Lexus UX 200 F-Sport may just be your ideal urban companion.