Forget the rather contrived name - the SportCross is purely and simply the estate version of the IS 300. It may be that Lexus does not want this car to be associated with the more common name (which is ironic since it used to mean the vehicle in which one drove round one's estate), as this might lead people to believe it is an IS 300 with a luggage compartment tacked on.As far as the styling is concerned, there is no cause for worry. The SportCross is one of the most elegant estates on the market. If anything it is even more aggressively poised than the saloon; there is something about the rear stance (though not, fortunately, the shape) which suggests the hindquarters of a cat about to pounce on some unfortunate rodent. The saloon looks tame by comparison.The interior is smart, with the familiar instrument panel arrangement of dials within dials. It does not feel particularly luxurious, but I managed a day of motorway driving without developing any of the usual aches and pains. All it needs is a more adjustable steering wheel - you can move it up and down, but not back and forward, and I always felt I could have done with it being about half an inch closer.Unless you're warned about them in advance, the two buttons on the wheel with the word "Down" marked on them can be confusing, since there is no corresponding button within sight marked "Up". They're part of the manual gear selection system (the up buttons are on the back of the wheel, as a moment's searching with your fingers will confirm.)Although Lexus makes the usual claim about "rapid clutchless shifting", all you're really doing when you use the buttons is manually over-riding the automatic transmission with slightly more precision than you're able to with the gearlever. The lever does not allow you to choose between fourth and fifth gears, though the buttons do. As with the saloon, there is no manual gearbox available for the SportCross.The three-litre, six-cylinder engine produces a relaxed 211bhp, giving the SportCross brisk though not overwhelming performance. Economy seems only moderate in the circumstances - on my motorway day I only just managed to reach 400 miles from a full tank before diving into a service station with the fuel gauge needle at the bottom of its travel.The chassis does a good enough job whether you're cruising along major roads or zipping over minor ones, though I felt that neither the ride nor the handling was quite as fine as I'd hoped. But perhaps the rear suspension has been compromised to account for the possibility of heavy loads.On the other hand, it's difficult to see what kind of heavy load the car could carry. The luggage compartment has a false floor which is nearly level with the top of the rear bumper - you wouldn't get much in there unless you folded down the rear seat. You can remove the floor to release extra space, but that would allow you only to pack small items in among the jack, the spare wheel well and so on. This car is clearly not intended to be a workhorse.Nor, come to that, a people-carrier. I can just about get into the back if the front seats are set up the way I want them, but I wouldn't want to travel far in those conditions. In fairness, I'm six foot three, but the fact remains that if four people are going to travel in the SportCross - a car which looks from the outside as if it should be able to accommodate them easily - then at least two of them will have to be fairly petite.The test car was fitted with the Lexus Navigator sat-nav system, which was just as well since during my week with it I had to go to a meeting in an area I'd never visited before. Type in the address, cross fingers, off we go. The system did a fine job, giving clear instructions and - very importantly when there are a lot of junctions close together - locating the car's position to an accuracy of what seemed like a couple of feet. Having got through that trip without any trouble, I'd be happy to rely on Navigator again in future.But it's expensive. Including VAT, it adds £2340 to the price of the car, taking the total cost to just over £30,000. And that's an important psychological point, because although I think the SportCross looks terrific, and is beautifully put together, and does most things very well, I can't persuade myself that I should be paying £30,000 for it. Engine 2997cc, 6 cylinders Power 211bhp Transmission 5-speed automatic Fuel/CO2 25.2mpg / 265g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 8.4 seconds Top speed 143mph Price £28,450 Details correct at publication date
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