U.S. Dealers Plead for a Smaller Lexus Crossover

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

If American dealers get their way, Lexus’ planned subcompact crossover — first shown in concept form last year — won’t be the strictly Europe-focused proposition the brand’s parent company intended.

The UX concept, introduced at the 2016 Paris Auto Show, shares its architecture with the Toyota C-HR and is already scheduled for production. We’ll see the model debut in Geneva next March. Lexus Europe is positioning the model as a new entry point for the brand’s utility lineup, designed to appeal to urbanites used to navigating tight spaces.

But European city-dwellers aren’t the only ones who took notice of the UX concept. Dealers in the U.S. are clamoring for a chance to bulk up their growing lineup with something small. It’s something Lexus is now considering.

“Our dealers are all over us to produce that concept vehicle,” said Jeff Bracken, general manager of Toyota Motor Sales USA’s Lexus division, in an interview with Wards Auto.

“We’re in the process of helping our company understand what we’re leaving on the table” by not having a premium subcompact offering in the United States, he added.

Subcompact crossovers, especially premium ones, do not generate the volume of, say, a Lexus NX or RX model. The 52.1-percent growth figure quoted by Wards for the premium subcompact crossover segment (through November) includes the Chevrolet Bolt, which isn’t everyone’s idea of a proper crossover, nor a premium one. Still, there is some volume to be had in the segment, and even some growth. Sales of BMW’s X1 are up over 11 percent this year.

Looking at last week’s L.A. Auto Show, it’s clear Lexus wants to squeeze as many sales as possible from its existing model line. A three-row RX350 variant and an LX with fewer seats speaks to this effort. It’s not hard to see the company giving in to dealer demands, as long as head office can be assured of competitive volume.

Compared to such visually bland offerings as the X1, Audi Q3, and Mercedes-Benz GLA, the UX could make its sales case on style alone. That said, we still don’t know what the actual production UX looks like. While it’ll surely share the TNGA platform used by various late-model Toyota products, Lexus could go a much different route than the vehicle seen last year in Paris. Telltale styling cues, including the world-swallowing grille, will surely remain.

Lexus sales shrunk by 6.7 percent in the U.S. last month, but the problem did not lie in small and midsize crossovers. RX sales remained more or less flat, coming in just 167 units lower than last November’s tally. Meanwhile, sales of the compact NX rose 5.5 percent for a new November record.

[Image: Lexus Europe]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Kyree Kyree on Dec 04, 2017

    Lexus also quietly released a version of the GX, either this year or last year, called the Sport package. You get captain's chairs in the middle row (making it a six-seater), unique bumpers with satin silver trim, an exposed exhaust tip and unique smoked-out headlamps and tail-lamps.

  • Pete Zaitcev Pete Zaitcev on Dec 06, 2017

    I'm looking very closely at Evoque and XC40 at this time, but I'm not onboard with a rebadged C-HR. Both of the previous contenders offer a plausible offroadability, in case of Evoque thanks to the (in)famous ZF 9-speed. But C-HR does not even have AWD. Does not meet requirements, pass. The NX is much too large, BTW. I had one as a rental and it was barely possible to navigate. I have to say that Evoque is not much narrower. What I really want is some kind of luxury Crosstrek with even lower gearing. But that does not exist.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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