2012 Lexus CT 200h - CNET
After a day spent flogging the 2012 Lexus CT 200h over mountain roads, I was ready to strip the car of the F Sport badges adorning its fenders, busting it down from a rank of which it was not really worthy. The CT 200h looks good enough, but the new. On the plus side, this power train gives the CT 200h excellent fuel economy, with an average over 40 mpg in real-world driving. As with the Prius, the CT 200h has buttons for different drive modes, in this case Eco, Sport, and EV. Sport equates to the Power button in the Prius, and has the very cool effect of turning the power gauge in the instrument cluster into a... Not that a tachometer does any good in the CT 200h, as the car 's transmission, a planetary gear set, gives the driver no shifting control. Similar to a band-driven continuously variable transmission, the CT 200h's transmission changes ratios constantly, depending on the driving conditions, and is programmed to optimize fuel economy. Given the behavior of the power train, my experience with the CT 200h's handling mostly had to do with the way it entered turns. The ride quality of the CT 200h remained true to Lexus' luxury image. Source: www.cnet.com
