All generations and engines together · 13,409 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 67k
One of the best small SUVs per mile driven. A solid used buy, provided the MOT history is clean.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Cars built before the 2020 facelift use Lexus's original Remote Touch trackpad to control sat nav, media and apps, and it is widely disliked. Reviewers called it fiddly and slow to respond, and owners report having to look away from the road to hit the right menu item. There's no fix for the hardware itself; Lexus's answer was to drop the trackpad altogether and fit a normal touchscreen from the 2020 model year on. Not a reliability fault as such, but it is a real cost to check for at a test drive since retrofitting the newer system isn't practical.
A recurring owner complaint across the UX250h and UX300h: creaks and rattles from A-pillar trim, the centre console and dashboard, plus a squeak from the panoramic glass roof over bumps. It shows up from fairly low mileage and doesn't seem tied to one age or engine. Fixes are mostly DIY, retensioning clips or adding foam packing, since Lexus hasn't put out an official bulletin for it. Annoying rather than costly, but worth listening for on a test drive over rough surfaces.
On the UX300e, the small 12V battery that runs the car's electronics can drain flat if the car sits unused for a week or two, leaving it needing a jump start or dealer reset. Owners trace it to the standby power draw from the car's connected services module. Lexus has issued a software update through dealers that owners report largely cures it, so ask whether that update has been done on any 300e you're viewing. A replacement 12V battery is cheap, but repeated flat batteries point to the update not being applied.
Early UX300e cars (2020-2022) carry a modest 54kWh battery and owners consistently report real-world range well short of the claimed figure, especially at motorway speeds, plus CHAdeMO rapid charging that's slower than most rivals' CCS setups. Lexus fitted a larger 72kWh pack from 2023, which pushed usable range up noticeably. Not a fault that breaks down, but it changes what the car is actually usable for, so check the battery size and expected range against your own driving before buying an early one.
Some early (around 2019) UX250h owners describe a moment of hesitation or lag when accelerating hard from a stop or merging onto a motorway, before the hybrid system delivers full power. It's not universal: plenty of owners and forum regulars argue the eCVT is one of the more dependable hybrid transmissions around and dispute that this is a fault at all rather than just how the system behaves. No TSB or recall exists for it, so treat it as a drive-it-and-judge item rather than a confirmed defect.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 12,432 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Small SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.