Lexus LBX vs Porsche Cayenne (2024)

The LBX is a small car which offers a few big surprises. Yes! For the most part, the Lexus luxury promise remains intact even on its smallest car, but it’s also unique in this luxury space.

Not only is it smaller and more keenly priced than its key rivals, but the efficiency focus of its drivetrain almost seems at odds with its athletic abilities which make it quite fun to drive, giving it an interesting split personality.

So long as you’re okay with its limited back seat though, I think the LBX will delight existing Lexus owners and those new to the brand alike.

Our pick of the range is the base Luxury 2WD - it has everything you need at such a notable entry price, with the Sport Luxury features not adding enough for me to justify the extra spend.

Of all the super SUVs I've piloted, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT is the best all-rounder in terms of performance, comfort, cabin technology and style.

As a family car it's roomy, practical and easy to use and drive daily.

As a performance car the Turbo GT is stupidly quick, with the agility of a sports car. Sure, a 911 would leave it behind on a twisty race track, but this SUV is close to having that sportscar experience and keeping your family, as well.

Okay, so you know the Toyota Yaris Cross? Would you believe the LBX uses the same platform and much of the same drivetrain components? I wouldn’t blame you if you thought this luxury SUV wasn’t related at all, because Lexus has done a sensational job of making the LBX look every bit a part of its brand.

Gone are the endearing but dorky lines of the Yaris Cross, replaced by something curvier, wider, and certainly more sporty.

The Lexus signatures are all present, including the ‘spindle’ grille which fades away into the bumper, slender light fittings and purposefully shaped bonnet.

The real sell is the side profile, with wheels which really fill the arches, a strong contour over the rear axle, and a roof which descends to a compact tailgate to sell its athletic stance.

It looks good in the pictures, but better in the metal.

The same goes for the interior. Despite the LBX being the smallest and most affordable Lexus, it feels every bit the part in the cabin. The seats are typically plush, the wheel and switchgear is all the same as it appears in this car’s larger siblings, and the soft synthetic leather or suede trims continue completely throughout the doors and down the centre console. Attention to detail is present in the contrast stitching, textures and shapes on all the interior surfaces, and the ‘Tsuyasumi’ grained pattern around the console.

It also feels modern. Gone are the outdated tech items of previous-generation Lexus products, and the cabin is also largely free from the maximalist design ethos which have only served to hinder the brand in the past. The trendy ventilation design motif which runs across the top of the dash unifying the design is interrupted by only the instrument cluster, and is very nicely executed. Safe to say, I very much like the look and feel of this cabin.

This might be a personal thing but to me nearly all Porsches look better from the back than the front.

It's the wide stance and powerful haunches, the hunkered down suction-capped-to-the-road look that does it for me and the Cayenne Turbo GT, despite being an SUV, passes this important Porsche checklist item.

The GT aero kit only serves to make this SUV look more of a beast, and the gold-bronze looking satin Neodyne wheels are a Porsche theme that I've not always been a fan of, but I get the historic connection.

If only the Turbo GT could look a little less like other Cayennes from the front. This is the king of the SUV range and despite the apron and bumper already being exclusive to this model, there should be more.

Vents in the wheel arches, carbon bonnet with nostrils GT3-style perhaps? Or is that going too far? If you do want something more lairy then there's always the Urus.

The Cayenne Turbo GT's cabin is stunning in its plushness and modern surprises such as the passenger display, the hoodless instrument digital cluster, the lashings of Race-Tex upholstery everywhere. It's perfectly Porsche. High-performance meets high-end.

It's also highly practical. Let's talk about that.

There’s a bit of a catch though, because while this car’s Toyota relation is spacious for a small SUV, the LBX has sacrificed much of this in its pursuit of luxury and design.

The cabin, which is adorned with dark trims in both grades feels about as small as the car looks from the outside, and while it’s a comfortable place to sit, it is notable how my knee sits hard up against the centre console piece, which is mercifully clad in soft material.

Storage options are okay with some notable limitations. There are bottle holders and pockets in each door, although they only just fit our test bottle, and there’s only a single cup holder holder in front of the shifter, with a little tray next to it which might be good for wallets, keys or phones.

There is a second cupholder, which is revealed if you slide the centre armrest piece back. To be fair, it’s a better cup holder solution than I’ve seen in some compact cars lately, and the LBX nearly makes up for it with a rather large and EV-like storage pass-through underneath the console itself.

CarPlay is wireless, which is a nice touch, but there are also USB-C ports sticking out from the front of the console should you need them.

The LBX has a handful of shortcut buttons and a single dial for controlling volume. While some climate functions like fan speed and recirculation need to be controlled via a dedicated area at the bottom of the touchscreen, there are also physical toggles for temperature for each climate zone, a sync button, a front and rear defogger button, and an ‘auto’ button for quick fuss-free use.

The software suite, like all current Toyota and Lexus products is a bit ordinary. It’s quick and simple, but maybe a bit too simple. There’s no home screen, and the majority of menus are a bit scant of features. At least Apple CarPlay worked seamlessly and looked great in my time with the car.

The back seat offers very limited room. This is compounded by the fact the rear door doesn’t open very far, so it’s not only tight once you’re in, but it’s hardly easy to get into either.

I can’t imagine it’s easy to fit child seats or negotiate with loading pets into this space. It also doesn’t offer massive room for adults.

I’m 182cm tall and my knees are pretty much touching the seat in front when set to my own driving position. I also have just enough headroom, although the padded finishes in the door continue, and the seats themselves proved reasonably comfortable.

There’s also limited amenities available to rear seat passengers. A single large bottle holder in the door managed to fit our test item (albeit, on an angle), and there’s no drop-down armrest for additional cup holders in the centre position. There are also no adjustable air vents on the back of the centre console, with only dual USB-C ports and pockets on the backs of the seats offered to rear passengers.

To me it seems as though this car is intended predominantly for childless couples rather than those with families thanks to the limitations of the rear seats.

At least the boot is half-way decent, although there’s a significant caveat. The 2WD versions get an impressive 402 litres thanks to a deep floor and a relatively wide area, while the all-wheel-drive crops this space down to a decidedly less impressive 315 litres thanks to the presence of an additional electric motor on the rear axle. Unfortunately, both grades only get a repair kit under the floor in lieu of a spare wheel.

The Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT only makes one compromise on practicality and that's the removal of the middle seat in the back, which, with just two kids isn't used all the time but on average we might need it once a week for school mates and cousins.

Instead of a middle seat there is a shallow tray, which will fit a phone or in our case leaves and rocks found at the park.

So, yes, the Turbo GT is a four-seater only, but this is a spacious, large SUV with good head and legroom, wide-opening doors for easy entry and exit, and air suspension which can raise and lower the height for easy access.

Storage is excellent with enormous door pockets in the front and back and there are four cupholders.

There's a wireless phone charger in the front and two USB-C ports as well, plus two USB-C sockets in the back.

Four-zone climate control means the kids in the back can set their own temperatures. They also have heated seats.

I was disappointed to see there aren't sunshades for the rear windows - pretty vital in Australia where it feels like we're only about 50 metres away from the sun.

The Turbo GT's 576-litre boot just managed to fit our pram and a week's shopping, which is our minimum standard for living. Any more space is a bonus.

As though a harbinger for what is to come from Lexus in the near future, the LBX arrives in three hybrid-only variants across just two trim levels.

It also kicks off from a new and more accessible price-point for Lexus, of just $47,550 plus on-road costs for the Luxury 2WD grade. From there, it works its way up to $52,990 for the mid-spec Sports Luxury 2WD, and at the top of the range sits the Sports Luxury AWD at $56,990.

Pretty straightforward stuff to begin with, but we expect there’s more to come from the LBX nameplate in the future with the likes of the go-fast Morizo RR concept, which it seems is likely to be headed for production for those who were looking for something approximating a GLA45 rival.

For now though, the LBX, particularly at its keen starting price, already undercuts key rivals like the aforementioned Mercedes-Benz GLA and outgoing Audi Q2, although it manages to be notably smaller than these rival offerings from Germany. Other contemporaries, like Genesis and BMW simply don’t offer anything comparable, with their smallest SUV models being the GV60 and new, larger X1 respectively.

Lexus has always been a bit of a torchbearer for value in the luxury space, too, and despite its dimensions, the LBX packs a great set of standard equipment across its two trim levels, with a handful of notable exceptions.

The entry-level Luxury scores 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, tail-lights and foglights; auto-dimming wing mirrors with auto folding, and tinted windows, alongside such interior luxuries as synthetic leather interior trim, a 9.8-inch multimedia touchscreen with voice recognition, sat-nav and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a wireless phone charger, ambient interior lighting, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, a surround-view parking camera, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and push-start ignition, eight-way power adjustment for the driver’s seat, a power tailgate and heated front seats.

Meanwhile, the Sports Luxury gets a 18-inch alloys in an alternate design, additional contrast trims on the rear pillar, interior trims in a blend of synthetic leather and suede, genuine leather trims for the steering wheel and shifter, power adjustment for the steering column with paddle shifters and a heated steering wheel function; haptic feedback controls on the steering wheel, multi-colour ambient lighting, a head-up display, an ‘engine sound enhancement’ with active noise cancellation, a 13-speaker Mark Levinson audio system, and an ‘Advanced Park’ feature where the car can park itself.

Both grades also score two-tone paint schemes, and the safety suite on both is also formidable (more on that later).

It’s good value kit at this price-point and free of the usual option-pack rigmarole which comes on many luxury rivals. There are some bits and bobs missing, though. Lexus is usually famous for the inclusion of a sunroof, which doesn’t appear on either grade here. There’s also no ventilated seats or heated seats in the rear, and if you were hoping to option bigger wheels, you can’t do that either.

The Turbo GT is the king of Cayennes, so it shouldn't surprise anybody that it's also the most expensive with its list price of $364,700.

Lamborghini's Urus lists for $409,744and is the Cayenne Turbo GT's not-so-subtle Italian cousin, sharing the same platform and engine.

Both are in my mind the best performance SUVs on the planet. It just depends how conspicuous you want to be.

Then there's Bentley's V8 Bentayga which isn't blessed with the Porsche's good looks but would still be all over the Cayenne if the two happened to meet at a race track.

So, why is the GT Turbo the king of the Cayennes? What makes it better? For all the reasons you'd think - it's the fastest, most powerful, most luxurious and most equipped Cayenne in the range.

We'll get into mind-bending engine and performance specs soon, but first let me take you through the standard features on a car that's anything but standard.

Coming standard and exclusively to the Turbo GT are 22-inch 'GT Design' wheels in satin 'Neodyne' with full-colour Porsche centre caps, an active rear spoiler, Turbo GT front apron, dual titanium exhaust, rear apron with diffuser, 'SportDesign' side skirts, wheel arch extensions, a lightweight carbon roof and tinted LED HD-matrix headlights.

Inside, and also exclusive to this grade, is the 'GT Interior Package' with 'Race-Tex' upholstery throughout with 'Deep Sea Blue' stitching on the front seats and centre console and the armrests and dashboard.

There's also the 'Carbon Interior Package' which includes dashboard and door trim elements.

Race-Tex trim is applied to the 'GT Sports' steering wheel, roof lining and gearshift, too.

The adaptive active air suspension, which can lower the car by 15mm, is standard and only available on the Turbo GT, too.

The soft-close doors are standard (a cost option on lower grades), as are the stainless steel pedal covers.

The rest of the features are also found on lower grades and include the 12.65-inch digital instrument cluster, head-up display, proximity unlocking, 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen with sat nav, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio, a 10-speaker Bose sound system, heated front seats, rear privacy glass and an auto tailgate.

Four-zone climate control is standard on the GT Turbo, too, and so are heated rear seats.

Our car had several options fitted such as the front passenger display ($2860) and the Deep Sea Blue Accent Package.

The passenger display is a crowd pleaser, but as a family car my kids felt like they were missing screens in the back seats, too. Well, in my day...

The LBX has a very modern-sounding if not premium drivetrain, consisting of a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine boosted by one or two electric motors.

On tap is just 67kW/120Nm from the engine, which is assisted up to a combined 100kW with the aid of a 69kW/185Nm electric motor.

Opting for the top-spec all-wheel-drive version adds an additional 4.7kW/52Nm motor on the rear axle.

Interestingly, power for the electric motors is provided from not a lithium-ion battery, but a nickel-metal hydride one. Sounds old-school, but this is an innovative new NiMH design, which is more efficient and has a higher power output.

It’s a cool bit of tech, but hardly provides the turbocharged thrills of most of its premium rivals, with 0-100km/h sprint times arriving in a smidge under 10 seconds (9.2 seconds for the 2WD or 9.6 seconds for the AWD). See more in the driving section of this review.

As a middle-aged parent with two children, a Porsche that I don't have to crawl into and out of like a cubby house is a great thing.

What's even better is that this ‘easy access' Porsche is every bit as brutally powerful and fast as the quintessentially ‘pure' Porsche, the 911. Actually, it's more powerful and faster.

The Turbo GT's twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine makes 485kW and 850Nm with drive going through an eight-speed transmission to all four wheels.

In comparison, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, arguably the most brutal and anti-social 911, has 386kW/485Nm.

I haven't made a mistake. Those are the real numbers. And it's only when you step on the accelerator in the Cayenne Turbo GT, and it feels like somebody's sat down on your chest, that you realise what a big deal this is.

That is such a colossal amount of oomph that this 2.2-tonne family SUV can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 3.3 seconds.

The 911 GT3 RS can do it in 3.2 and it has a roll cage and a fixed rear wing the size of a bedroom door.

And yes, we're now coming into a digital age where Teslas and other electric SUVs are quick, too, but can they go around corners like a Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT?

Do they have the same rumble and roar as a twin-turbo V8 that's terrifying and enticing at the same time.

The correct answer is, absolutely not.

Of course, this trim three-cylinder hybrid set-up is designed not only for the smooth hybrid drive experience, but also to keep your fuel bills low.

To that end, the LBX has an ambitiously low official/combined fuel consumption number of 3.8L/100km regardless of variant, so not only is it an affordable luxury car, but it will save you significant amounts of money on fuel over its lifetime. The LBX can even drink base 91RON fuel, which is rare in this segment.

In our brief test drive we saw more like 5.0L/100km, but the cars were being driven hard and at higher speeds than usual.

It is also set to help the brand be smiled upon by the incoming new vehicle efficiency standard, which in its initial form looks to cap CO2 emissions at 140g/km, with the LBX producing just 85g/km in 2WD form, or 87g/km in AWD form.

A 36-litre fuel tank suggests a maximum cruising range of around 947km.

Seriously? This is a 2.0-tonne twin-turbo petrol V8 with a 90-litre fuel tank. Even the Porsche specs sheet doesn't understand the question because in the column for fuel efficiency there are three letters - tbc.

My own testing saw me record 22.5 L/100km at the fuel pump, which means I enjoyed driving the car very much.

A little digging around reveals Porsche globally claims the Turbo GT will use 12.6L/100km, over a combination of open and urban roads.

You might not have as much fun as I did but easing back a little might get you closer to the 700km of range this more frugal consumption figure appears to offer.

While efficient it isn't, I'm not going to mark the Turbo GT too much here because compared to its petrol rivals the fuel consumption is what I'd expect from such a high-output heavy SUV.

It quickly became obvious the LBX is not to be underestimated from behind the wheel. One might assume sharing its TNGA-B underpinnings with the Yaris Cross would mean the LBX would have the same kind of compliant but tame drive experience, but as it turns out, this is not the case at all.

Instead, the littlest Lexus is sharp, agile, light and purposeful, and even, when you push it, a little cheeky.

The brand tells us right now, an LBX is Toyota boss Akio Toyoda’s daily driver (the man responsible for the Gazoo Racing sub-brand), and the thing certainly has his fingerprints on it. Not only is the steering accurate and responsive, but the chassis behaves in kind. When you expose it to a few curves at speed you can even get it dancing around like it’s some kind of genuine sports machine. It’s very impressive.

While it’s capable to steer though, it’s certainly not quick. The three-cylinder hybrid combo, in either grade doesn’t exactly propel the LBX with enthusiasm. You can absolutely bury your right foot in the firewall, and very little begins to happen at the wheels. The electric motors pull you along but run out of puff quickly, and the engine takes half a second too long to pick up the slack and get things moving. It doesn’t really hold a candle to the kind of turbocharged performance we’ve become accustomed to from this car’s Germanic contemporaries.

To make matters worse, the three-cylinder engine, known for its overbearing gruff tone entering the cabin in the Yaris Cross when distressed, is still noisy here, although Lexus has put a notable dent in it thanks to additional sound deadening, and in the Sports Luxury grade, active noise cancellation (which wasn’t as effective as I hoped).

However, like any Lexus hybrid, it is a finely tuned instrument at commuter speeds. The hybrid system’s upgrades over the version in the Yaris Cross are notable, allowing better acceleration time using the electric motor, meaning more smooth electric driving and less time using the gruff engine.

The ride is also mostly compliant in both specs (there’s slightly different rear suspension in the all-wheel-drive version), with a slightly hard edge to the rear on only the most challenging road imperfections. It sells the quiet cabin promise at lower speeds for the most part too.

Interestingly, the all-wheel-drive adds a significant boost to the amount of electric drive available, but it also feels heavier and less playful than its 2WD equivalent.

The LBX, then, is a car with an odd split personality. It’s keen and capable when it comes to carving up corners, but its hybrid drivetrain feels much more suited to the daily commute. You can have a better performer, but it’s hard to get a car as ready for trimming fuel consumption in the daily grind.

Never have I met a car this powerful and superbly athletic that is as pleasurable to drive alone on great, fast roads as it is to pilot at 50km/h in the suburbs with a family on board.

It exceeds my understanding of engineering that something this large can move so quickly. That in an instant can turn and tip into a corner with such precision and effortlessness.

Yet it can switch seamlessly and happily to coping with speed bumps and potholes, delivering a ride so comfortable it'll send babies off to sleep. And it did.

The only issue, and this is such a tiny thing, is the dash-mounted gearshift, which means having to reach up and select Drive or Reverse or Park, which, when executing a three-point turn, is necessarily frustrating.

Still, I'm giving the Turbo GT a 10 out of 10 for driving under all conditions, and we didn't even go off-road, which of course you can do, as long as it's not too wild.

The LBX is equipped with both radar- and camera-based safety equipment, granting both trim levels the standard array of expected active items, including freeway-speed auto emergency braking (with cyclist detection), lane-keep assist with departure warning, blind-spot monitoring with both front and rear cross traffic alert, adaptive cruise control with stop-start functionality, traffic sign recognition, safe exit warning and driver attention alert.

Its connected services suite is also able to call for SOS in the event of airbag deployment and can track a stolen vehicle via GPS.

Despite its size, the LBX packs eight airbags (dual front, side, and curtain, with a driver’s knee airbag and a centre airbag), but at the time of writing it was yet to be rated by ANCAP.

The Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT hasn't been locally crash tested and so doesn't have an ANCAP rating.

That's quite normal for super high-end cars. But, when this third-generation model first arrived in 2017 it was tested by ANCAP's European equivalent, Euro NCAP, and was awarded the maximum five stars.

There's AEB which operates at city, urban and highway speeds, and lane keeping assistance, and lane change assistance which is a form of blind-spot warning, and adaptive cruise control. You can option rear cross-traffic alert, as well.

A space saver spare wheel is under the boot floor.

Even the LBX comes with Lexus’ signature ‘Encore’ array of ownership benefits which includes a complimentary loan car during service or a pick-up and drop-off valet service, a complimentary car wash at service time, 24-hour roadside assist, coverage for towing or mechanical assistance, fuel discounts at Ampol locations, as well as invitations to “lifestyle events”, including offers with hotel partners, drive experiences, concerts, drive days and golf events.

These program benefits last three years, at which point an owner can now subscribe to Encore at a cost of $1899 for 12 months.

The LBX is also the first Lexus vehicle to be offered in what the brand calls a ‘usership’ experience - a full-service program which combines the cost of the vehicle, registration, insurance, servicing, and even optionally, fuel in one tidy monthly repayment, going one step further than the regular lease arrangement. At the end of the agreed period the ‘user’ can then return the car, lease it again, or upgrade to a different model or new car.

For everyone else, the LBX has a five-year and unlimited-kilometre warranty and five years of capped price servicing, fixed at $595 every 12 months or 15,000km whichever comes first.

The Cayenne Turbo GT is covered by Porsche's three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, which is lagging behind in terms of duration even compared to other luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, which offers five years.

Servicing is recommended annually or every 15,000km, although there isn't a capped price maintenance plan with final costs determined at the dealer level (in line with variable labour rates by state or territory).