CAR designers call it NIH and it keeps them from adopting features that work well in rival products until the market researchers say they've simply got to go ahead and copy.

NIH? It stands for Not Invented Here and you see it applied all the time in the car industry, as an obvious and workable bit of kit is rejected in favour of something that doesn't work as well, but is not a copy of someone else's idea.

There is a glaring example of NIH in the car driven here, a mid-size crossover from Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota and this time aimed straight at the heart of BMW, with the X5 and even the new and wildly successful Macan from Porsche.

But we'll touch on the problem later. First, let's enjoy a positive reaction to NIH, in a car that was clearly designed to look unlike any rival and pulls of the trick with great success.

The NX (for Nimble Crossover, would you believe) is decidedly handsome, with a mix of slashes and curves that give it the dynamism of a highly toned athlete, muscles tensed in the starting blocks.

Inside, this stand out styling continues in a cabin that manages to look a bit technical - lots of switches - but dripping with craftsmanlike touches, showing in lines of double stitching on the soft leather trim and convincing, but fake, alloy trim.

The NIH thinking continues in the bits of the NX you can't see, with the pairing of a conventional petrol engine and electric motors front and rear to help out at low speed, improving economy and making shorter urban journeys pollution free.

Now, you may think the simple way to economy is still to pop a diesel under the bonnet, but lots of places where the NX is aiming for sales, like Japan and the United States, simply don't like diesels.

So this hybrid petrol/electric solution works for them, and even here manages to produce a car that showed 36mpg after several hundred miles of mixed use. A diesel would have done a bit better, I'm sure, but would have made more noise while doing so.

In fact quietness, especially on a decent road surface, is a strong feature of life with an NX. Passengers soon noticed how easily they could speak, front to rear, as the car whisked them along the M11 at a typical motorway cruise.

That sort of road gave them the best of the NX's ride, which is firm to the point of jiggly on poor surfaces. This car came with £750 worth of adaptive suspension that firmed things up at the twist of a knob and made the steering a bit more positive and which actually improved things on better roads.

So, the NIH syndrome has pretty well worked up to now. There has to be something more to say, you are wondering?

Yes there is, in the shape of a wildly irritating touch pad between the front seats that you must use to work the satellite navigation system (£1,995 extra) and for many adjustments to the sound system. Frankly, its hyperactive wish to outguess my finger's intention drove me mad. Rivals use knobs you can twist and push, to much better effect, but Lexus shunned that solution, presumably with NIH to the fore.

Ignore that irritant (and you might have nimbler fingers than me) and the rest of the car makes a good case for itself, especially if you want something a bit out of the mainstream.