The driver of the Mifa 9 is well cared for, at least in range-topping Premium trim, with many-way electric adjustment, heating and massage functions.
Behind, the two captain’s chairs – of leather and PVC, and with ‘Mifa 9’ headrest embroidery – are even more comfortable and yet more adjustable, by way of a small touchscreen mounted atop the outer armrest. They can move back and forth, side to side, totally recline and offer not just massage functions but also control of ‘interior scenarios’ – for instance, ‘rest moment’ shuts the blinds over the two fully opening sunroofs – and the rear air conditioning and colour-customisable interior LED lighting. It would take some time for you to get to learn what each ‘scenario’ entails, but it’s a nice idea.
Walk between the pair and you come to a three-man third row, also comfy leather seats, which impressively have enough head room for adults up to about 5ft 9in tall.
There’s a 466-litre boot behind them, which would probably be problematic on airport runs, but they can be folded down in a 60:40 split to create an enormous, van-like cargo space.
Someone unkindly described the Mifa as “an LM from Wish.com” when it arrived, and that’s probably too harsh. Lexus has played its best hands in terms of interior design and material choice and quality, but Maxus hasn’t resorted to cheap and nasty. The stitched leathery areas feel fine, none of the plastics are hard and scratchy, even on the dashboard, and the large carbonfibre-look trim pieces on the door have a nice gloss feel to them. It’s just the small things that let it down: how the seats loudly creak as they work out that knot in your back, how the armrests judder as they fold up, how you have to yank the desk up and out and how its ‘wood finish’ is clearly a sticker atop black plastic. Attention to detail is what distinguishes premium cars, and it’s lacking here.
I had expected to be overwhelmed by the technological complexity so hankered for by Chinese consumers when using the Mifa’s touchscreen infotainment system (for which reason I was glad to see touch icons on the dashboard for the air-con), but it’s actually impressively user-friendly. Clearly sharing its underpinnings with the system seen in the new MG 3, it has a mostly sensible menu structure (although why isn’t the regen slider with the other driving options?) and no translation issues. It’s cool that you can slide the passengers’ windows up and down on request from here, for instance, and that it has Apple CarPlay – although it’s wired only and on one day refused to work.