According to a Japanese blog, Lexus will offer a special "Nurburgring Edition" of its LF-A supercar. The track-oriented sportscar will get revised bodywork, a fixed rear spoiler and a slight bump in horsepower. It will be offered in four colors only, one of them being this lovely shade of orange.
LF-A via LexusEnthusiast
The Lexus IS 350C coupe/convertible is a perfectly serviceable luxury convertible (other than the loaded-diaper rear end that sometimes comes along with hardtop convertibles).
The problem, at least for enthusiastic drivers, is that the Lexus is a little sedate compared to, say, the 3-series convertible. We once described it as a rolling golf resort. Lexus has announced for 2011 that it will amp-up with sporting side of car with a limited edition (100 copies) F-Sport Special Edition. That little honey will cost $58,375 including destination charge when it arrives in dealerships later this month.
Many of the pieces that make up the F-Sport Special Edition were already available as accessories through F-Sport. We tested an IS 350C last year loaded with most of the same pieces and came away impressed with the thing, particularly the suspension modifications that tightened-up the car's responses.
The F-Sport Special Edition comes with the same Michelin Pilot Sport-shod 19-inch wheels as did our tester. It also has the sport springs that lower the ride height by about an inch, retuned dampers, fatter antiroll bars and upgraded brakes that our tester did. Predictably, the Special Edition also adds a bunch of F-Sport emblems. It also appears to come equipped with just about every option available on the IS line such as heated and ventilated front seats, back-up camera and adaptive front lights among many, many other items.
When the Lexus CT 200h was unveiled at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show on Tuesday, it wasn't a huge surprise to the European audience. Previewed in lightly disguised concept form last year, the smallish hybrid hatchback seemed like a natural fit for the European market.
What we didn't know was whether Lexus was planning to bring the new hatchback over to the U.S. Lexus delivered the answer when it announced that the CT 200h would go on sale "worldwide" next year.
This could be a risky move as Lexus already sells the HS 250h here. That sedan uses a larger 2.4-liter gas engine while the CT 200h uses the same 1.8-liter setup as the Toyota Prius. Could be confusing to customers who are expected a sportier version of the sedan. Then again, Lexus could be saving the more powerful drivetrain for the U.S. market only.
So, what do think? Does an HS 250h engine with CT 200h styling make for a more compelling package? We'll see around this time next year.
You can rest easy now: NHTSA says it has purchased the 2007 Lexus ES 350 once owned by Rhonda Smith and will evaluate it at its test center in East Liberty, Ohio. No word on how much the second owners were paid for their Lexus, but the ES reportedly has about 30,000 miles on its odometer.
Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Toyota North America President Yoshimi Inaba today, laying into the big automaker for its "systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation."
This didn't have a thing to do with alleged unintended acceleration incidents. Rather, Towns had just finished poring over internal Toyota documents related to rollover crash litigation.
"People injured in crashes involving Toyota vehicles may have been injured a second time when Toyota failed to produce relevant evidence in court," he wrote. "This also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from NHTSA."
Finally, from Pittsburgh, a Carnegie Mellon Professor, Paul Fischbeck, says that driving a Toyota or Lexus with a potentially sticking throttle increases your risk of death by only 2 percent. Walking a mile, Fischbeck says, is 19 times more dangerous than driving a mile in a recalled Toyota.
"There hasn't been a discussion about the actual risk of driving one of Toyota's recalled vehicles," he says in a Carnegie Mellon press release. "Even the messages from the Transportation Secretary have been confusing. First, it's a recommendation not to drive the cars in question at all. Then, that was retracted. I think it's important for people to realize that when you look at the actual risk of driving one of these cars, it's actually very low."
You can read the full press release here and, for further enlightenment and encouragement, visit Fischbeck's Death Risk Rankings Web site.
You can read Rep. Towns' letter to Inaba here.
Maybe you didn't want to believe that a Lexus could cost almost 400 grand, but Lexus has confirmed this week that the 2012 LFA will indeed retail for exactly $375,000, not including destination. The 150 cars slated for the U.S. (out of a 500-unit production run) will be available on a two-year lease with an option to buy.
Production begins in December 2010. Although each LFA will be hand-built to suit the customer, Lexus plans to sell them in three basic package configurations in the good old Toyota tradition.
Configuration 1: Leather or Alcantara-trimmed seats.
Configuration 2: Leather or Alcantara seats, Lexus Navigation System and Mark Levinson Premium Surround Sound system.
Configuration 3: Leather or Alcantara seats, nav system, Mark Levinson sound system and Lexus Enform with Safety Connect.
Interestingly, Lexus says all of these configurations are included in the MSRP. In other words, you don't have to pay extra for nav and Mark Levinson -- you just have to decide if you want them weighting down your supercar.
Other decisions to make: Choose one of 30 paint colors (some of which may carry additional cost), one of 6 brake caliper colors, one of 3 wheel finishes for the 20-inch forged BBS wheels, and one of 12 interior colors.
You didn't really think Lexus unveiled its little nugget of gold, the premium hatchback LF-Ch concept, at last fall's Frankfurt show for nothing, did you? Of course you didn't. And for good reason, it turns out, as the LF-Ch was merely a flashy concept-ized version of the CT 200h production hybrid hatchback that you see here and that is set for an unveiling at next week's Geneva auto show.
Call us tasteless, but we liked the urine-gold color of the concept more than the white of this production car. Naturally, the production version, which Lexus says will go on sale at the end of 2010 "throughout the world," carries side mirrors that are larger than those of the concept, which were roughly the size and shape of big-toe nail clippings. Add a little rear overhang, expand the size of the taillamps, reduce the size of the showy, shiny wheels and you've pretty much got yourself a CT 200h.
Make the jump for full details and a photo gallery.
Lexus fans want it to happen so bad and now they can practically feel it. Or at least hear it.
We're talking about an F-version of the GS sedan, one preferably with the new V10 that debuted in the LFA. It's an idea that has been thrown around for years, and now Pistonheads has run a story that suggests a GS-F is being considered very seriously within Lexus.
There are some major hurdles, of course. Cost is the big one as that new V10 is not cheap. They figure it would add $50-60K to the price of the GS, making it far more expensive than its European competitors. Sound DOA based on that alone, but count on the Lexus faithful to keep the rumors circulating for another couple of years.
Pistonheads vis Lexusenthusiast
That's about all we could think of when this press release came across our desk. In this case, the LX570 in question is raced in the Stock Full Size class of the SCORE Desert Challenge. According to its owners, it took a first corner hit from another competitor yet went on to win its class in the 200-mile race outside Laughlin, NV.
Lexus has been hinting for months that the LF-Ch concept shown in Frankfurt last year could make it to production. Now a loyal Autoblog reader has caught was appears to be a very production looking version of the LF-Ch. Sure, it has two different covers on it, but that rear-end treatment is pretty easy to spot through the sheets. Expect to see the rest of the car at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show in early March.
"And then there's the beautifully nerdy flappy paddle gearchange..."
Then, watch The Stig lap the Lexus LFA on the wet Top Gear test track after the jump.
2011 Lexus LFA: 10 Things You Don't Know About the Supercar
Toyota recalled nearly 4.9 million vehicles in 2009 -- the most of any automaker in the U.S., the Detroit Free Press reports. This is the first time Toyota has ever led in annual recalls, and of course this milestone is the result of the floor mat debacle during which 4.3 million vehicles were recalled.
Free Press writers crunched the numbers on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Web site. Ford came up second with 4.5 million recalled vehicles -- most of them covered by recalls for cruise control switches that can catch fire, a chronic defect in older Fords.
Next up was GM was 2.2 million recalled vehicles, followed by Hyundai with just over 1 million and Nissan with 700,000+. Chrysler rounded out the top five with 590,000.
You can see the full list in the Free Press article.
It's in Japanese, but you'll enjoy it nonetheless.
Here's something to do during your latte break today: Visit the Lexus LFA sound gallery (top link below), where you'll see the above photo of the gauge pack. Click the buttons and you can treat your ears to the spectacular sounds of the supercar's 552-horsepower, 4.8-liter V10 at full bore.
Inside Line tests hundreds of vehicles a year, but not every vehicle gets a full write-up. The numbers still tell a story, though, so we present "IL Track Tested." It's a quick rundown of all the data we collected at the track, along with comments direct from the test drivers. Enjoy.
Lexus is offering a Sport package on the 2010 Lexus LS 460, and with a price tag of $6,185 on that option group, there needs to be some substance in it. At first glance, it looks good. You get a retuned suspension with air springs (instead of the coil springs ordinarily standard on the short-wheelbase, rear-drive model) and 19-inch Dunlop summer tires. Behind the Sport package's forged alloy wheels, Brembo six-piston fixed front calipers are visible. Engine tuning doesn't change; the LS 460 Sport has the same 380-horsepower, 4.6-liter V8 as other LS sedans.
Other obvious visual cues associated with the Sport package treatment include the blacked-out grille and extended front spoiler and rocker panels. Inside, you'll find paddle shifters, a heated steering wheels and seats with extra lateral bolstering. Our LS 460 Sport test car also had the Luxury Value Edition ($2,780) and Comfort packages ($2,035).
This all sounds nice, but the real test for any luxury sedan with "Sport" appended to its name is to face the king among kings, the BMW 7 Series. We just so happen to have tested a 2009 BMW 750i with the Sport package (the same car we have in our long-term fleet, actually), so we've published their results side by side. Does the Lexus have what it takes to hang with the Bimmer through the slalom? You'll find out after the jump.
A fatal crash involving a Lexus ES 350 dealer loaner car stirred up much of the heat surrounding Toyota's recent floor mat/accelerator pedal recall. This is the accident in which a California Highway Patrol officer, Mark Saylor, and three of his family members were killed when he was unable to regain control of the car when an ill-fitting all-weather floor mat became bunched under the gas pedal.
Now it seems another Lexus customer experienced a stuck throttle in the very same car loaned out by Bob Baker Lexus in El Cajon, California, only days before the ES was given to the Saylors.
In a report taken by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, Frank Bernard, 61, told investigators that he had the car on Aug. 24 and 25. Bernard reported that while merging onto Interstate 15, he took his foot off the gas and the car kept accelerating up to 85 mph.
He said he pressed long and hard on the brakes and was able to slow the car and pull over. He put the transmission into neutral, but the engine continued to race. After unsuccessful attempts at shutting off the engine, he realized the floor mat was jammed under the gas pedal, slid his foot under the accelerator, dislodged it and had no further problems, according to the report.
Understandably rattled, Bernard returned the ES 350 to the dealer and reported the incident to the receptionist. He said he became anxious when she didn't seem to grasp the severity of the problem. It's unclear at this point whether the car was checked out by service technicians before going back out on loan (it was driven by two other customers without incident before the Saylors got it), much less whether the brakes were inspected for wear.
Advertisement
Recent Posts
Is There An Even More Expensive Supercar Coming From McLaren?
March 18, 2010 2:21 PM
McLaren Says MP4-12C Will Have Lowest CO2 Per Horsepower
March 18, 2010 1:37 PM
Cadillac Will Neither Confirm Nor Deny Death of the Converj
March 17, 2010 2:25 PM
BMW Developing New Front-Wheel Drive Platform
March 17, 2010 8:58 AM
IL Track Tested: 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 vs. 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo
March 16, 2010 6:15 PM
Advertisement
Browse Archives
Manufacturers
Auto Shows
More Categories
Links