Its wedge-shaped form has a conspicuously low prow, while a bulge down the center of the hood suggests power, especially from the driver's seat. Creased lines on the hood flow down steeply from raked A-pillars to a familial trapezoidal grille, ringed with chrome and bordered by jewel-like HID headlamp clusters. Round halogen foglights are shielded within the air dam behind trapezoidal composite lenses.

In the rear, round red taillights peer out of contoured bezels behind aerodynamic clear covers. The bezels are smoked gray on dark-colored cars, and chromed with light colors.

The three rear windows on each side of the SportCross look a bit odd, the back two crowded, as if they're an unsolved design problem. Behind the rear door window there's a non-opening triangular pane that looks like an old-style vent window, and behind that there's another one shaped like a triangle/trapezoid, which neither looks in nor out on anything, and is outlined by a thick black band inside the glass where it fits against the car's interior.

Lexus calls the SportCross "more than a sedan but less than a full wagon'' (that's the cross), and adds that "the new silhouette admittedly places unique design ahead of maximum utility." This priority leaves room for a gaping hole in the concept: There is no standard roof rack, nor even an available one, nor even any rain gutters to attach an aftermarket rack; and the radio antenna, rising from the center rear of the roof, would get in the way anyhow. Lexus says the SportCross will appeal to mountain bikers, and the press kit includes a photo of a SportCross with a bike squeezed in the back to prove it, but we don't think so. The bike has whitewall tires, which suggests how much Lexus knows about mountain bikers. They go everywhere in pairs; their bikes are perpetually caked in mud. They need roof racks.