Lexus CT200h - We drive this latest hybrid
Lexus launch the CT200h as a hybrid only model
You are surfing the net for your next car: you need something small and efficient, environmentally proficient, yet sporty and luxurious to boot. Lexus claim to have filled this spot with their CT200h. Launched as a hybrid only, this mid-sized 5 door hatch wants to be a sports car too. Warm-hatch would be a more accurate description, but with many positive qualities. Our top tester Timtim left the virtual world to taste the little Lexus for us.
I’m in Chantilly, near Paris; capital of the horse according to the local tourist flyer I’ve stumbled on in my hotel room. Outside the Mont Royal Hotel a cluster of new Lexus’s await testers from around the globe. Without a moment’s hesitation I pick a golden yellow sample. Hey, don’t want to disappoint the YW office, although to be honest it looks most exciting in white! All the engine options are identical so there’s no squabble with my scribbling brethren for the horniest lump in the beast. In fact by the sound of it none of them come with engines at all! As journo’s hit the engine start button and saunter off on an exploratory loop there’s a barrage of, err nothing, discreetly interrupted by tyre on tarmac and a few tweeting birds (the real kind). Rather than contemplating the deafening silence (what a stupid, though familiar expression) I’m watching the instruments. I’ve hit the start button and am only convinced that I’m up and running by the “Lexus Hybrid Drive” welcome screen as the instruments light up. I grab the chrome faced, switch sized gear lever. There’s only R, N, D and the more mysterious B to choose from. D will do, B is for user selected regenerative braking, and release the anachronistic foot brake. Shouldn’t the “P” switch below gear lever just double up as an electric foot/handbrake?
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Our yellow monster rides on mesmerising 19inch rims and loses the body colour grill fins of the lesser Focuses. You might wonder why it’s not a 3 door, until we explain that there’s no plan to produce 3 door Focuses for the US market; so to keep the parts bin global, this ST plays to the family friendly format of 5 doors.
. Just like our favourite, ultra-popular biking site 
Go to Autemo, read the intro, take the tour and decide what sort of look you are aiming for. Then simply upload a photo, select an artist, and commit a derisory AUD $30-$90 to get the car of your dreams. You get to watch progress as the artist uploads WIPs (Work In Progress) photos, and you can comment and request changes. It’s a virtual chop but with real interaction with the artist.
