Lexus a no-brainer for fleet buyers

It’s little wonder that Slimming World, the UK’s leading weight loss organisation, has bought a fleet of Lexus hybrids – expect many more companies to follow suit.

The company recently signed a deal to provide 76 cars for its managers, the largest solus fleet agreement yet secured by Lexus.

You can expect many more companies to recognise the benefits of driving the IS 300h with low emissions, lower fuel bills, reduced road tax along with luxury performance.

There’s a growing movement among British businesses to embrace hybrid as the common sense choice for their vehicle fleets and this Lexus ticks all the boxes.

Today’s companies are recognising the benefit-in-kind company car tax rates as a priority when making a buying choice and Lexus is proving its hybrid models have the reliability and long-lasting quality to keep costs down.

And if we needed more convincing about the qualities of this Lexus it couldn’t have come from a better place with the canny Association of Scottish Motoring Writers naming the model as Executive Car Of The Year.

Launched in 2013, the latest IS displays the cutting edge styling that sets today’s Lexus models apart from the crowd. Now hybrid technology delivers higher efficiency, impressive reliability and lower tax and fuel bills.

So why exactly is everyone raving about this model?

It simply makes sense for the fleet buyer with a top speed of 125mph, 0-62mph in 8.3secs, 64.2mpg, CO2 emissions of only 103g/km, benefit in kind levels at 13%, insurance group levels at 32E and a price tag of only £30,995.

The IS300h is a stunning looking car too, standing on 17” alloys and I particularly like the LED daytime running lights and HID bi-xenon headlamps.

There’s a new and attractive cockpit where you quickly feel at home with comfortable seating up front and ample room for six footers in the back – though you wouldn’t want to travel as a middle seat passenger in the rear.

You also get 60-40 split-folding rear seats and the IS 300h has a massive boot space.

There’s all the technology you need as standard on this model. You get drive mode select, cruise control, smart entry and start, sound control, six-speaker audio system, 7” multimedia screen with remote dial control, rear view camera, Bluetooth, USB ports, dusk-sensing headlights, rain-sensing wipers and all-round parking sensors.

You also get all the safety measures you would expect from a luxury performer. There’s driver and passenger front, side and knee airbags; curtain airbags, ABS, Vehicle Stability Control, traction control, hill start assist and tyre pressure warning.

This Lexus is a joy to drive with firmed up suspension and is a great motorway cruiser, shutting out nearly every whisper of wind and road noise and running near-silently on electric only power in town traffic.

Audi and BMW provide most of the competition in the segment but Toyota aren’t targeting massive sales from their luxury Lexus brand and with a few more deals like Slimming World’s will soon be popping the champagne corks.