2019 LEXUS UX 250h: Luxury hybrid comes with all-wheel drive

Not inclined to trail behind the fast-moving herd of small luxury crossovers, Lexus introduces the 2019 UX, in a choice of conventional or hybrid powertrains.

This is not its first rodeo. Lexus marketed the CT 200h, a compact hybrid hatchback with the same powertrain as the popular Toyota Prius, from 2011 to 2017.

Now Lexus drives to market the UX, competing against luxury subcompact crossovers such as the Audi Q3, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Lincoln MKC, Volvo XC40, Infiniti QX30, and BMW X1. The entry-level UX slots below the compact NX and gives Lexus a full array of crossovers and SUVs. Unlike SUVs, constructed like trucks with bodies on frames, crossovers are built with unit bodies like automobiles.

Lexus crossovers now include the UX, NX and the midsize RX. At the top of the lineup are the GX and LX, both truck-based SUVs.

Lexus identifies the UX as an urban crossover, which suggests that it is not intended as a long-distance traveler. But that could be said about many small vehicles that owners customarily drive across country. The UX can certainly do the same.

But its personality is that of a “creative urban explorer,” as Lexus describes it. This runabout is aimed to tantalize younger buyers more attuned to cityscapes than suburban/rural areas. Like others of its ilk, the UX has four doors, comfortably carries four passengers (and a fifth uncomfortably center-rear), with 17 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat.

Two versions are available: a front-wheel-drive UX 200, powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine that makes 169 horsepower and 151 lb.-ft. of torque. The manufacturer estimates a 0-to-60-mph acceleration time of 8.9 seconds with a top speed of 118 mph. Its EPA city/highway/combined fuel...