If half of what Lexus’ project manager for the NX says in this video holds true, then the Japanese luxury car manufacturer has a winner in its hands. Kei-ichi Nishiyama says that when they started work on the NX, he instructed engineers to forget about the constraints of mass production and build the world’s best SUV.

The main focus was on dynamic performance, with Nishiyama asking its team to build an SUV “in which you can feel the grip of the tyres through your fingertips.”

That’s why engineers paid a lot of attention to structural rigidity, which is known to have an important effect on handling. Small reinforcements were applied progressively until the result was satisfactory.

Obviously, ride comfort wasn’t neglected either, as you can find out from the following video. But I would wait for the first reviews of the NX to form a less biased opinion about Lexus’ entry-level crossover.

By Dan Mihalascu

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