Dirt magnet

The Lexus NX has a new trim called the Overtrail. We took the SUV to a few trails and drove through mud to put its name to the test

- Anagh Bhaskar

Lexus is a brand which prides itself on their delicately fabricated vehicles which look as good as they are at providing plush comfort all molded together by age-old Japanese concepts which work very well in attracting customers who want a luxury car, but not a German one. Which brings us to the NX, the stepping stone into the world of Lexus SUVs. What you see on these pages however is the NX 350h Overtrail, not a different variant but a trim which sits above the Exquisite, and from hereon I am going to tell you why this is perhaps the best NX to buy in India.

Overtrail can be termed as a subbrand of Lexus, which denotes a higher degree of adventure readiness. Let’s start with the exterior, which comes in a really cool sand-coloured shade called Moon Desert. This blends in with the blacked-out spindle grille, lower bumper, wing mirrors, roof rails and window frames. The 18-inch matte black alloys are smaller to the 20-inch ones offered on the other NX trims, and come with fatter profile tyres, which don’t fill up the wheel arches as well as the bigger wheels, but don’t look undersized at all. You can see for yourself how good the colour combination looks with mud and dirt on the bodywork.

While the cabin layout hasn’t been altered, the Overtrail gets its exclusive colours and materials that Lexus calls the Monolith palette. It’s a combination of dark grey with deep brown that’s inspired by nature while the door panel inserts feature a Geo layer design. The rest of the cabin is as it is in other variants of the NX, dominated by the massive 14-inch infotainment system which is angled towards the driver. In fact, everything in the NX is driver-centric, inspired by the Tazuna concept.