Lexus: banishing the boring
Are Lexus vehicles boring or sporty? There are some models that answer that question with a very menacing growl, as Rob Maetzig experiences.
The story goes that seven years ago in Detroit, a group of American motoring journalists told Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda that Lexus vehicles were boring.
Toyoda is a real motorsport nut – so much so that he’s regularly competed at Germany’s famous Nurburgring, sometimes under a pseudonym so fewer people know he’s the head of the world’s biggest car company.
So he wouldn’t have liked what he heard from the US writers. It happened during the media launch of a new Lexus GS sedan, and the opinion of the journalists was that Lexus product was very high quality, very reliable, and very luxurious – but boring. ‘‘At that point I determined that the word boring and the word Lexus would never be used in the same sentence again,’’ Toyoda is reported as saying.
Fast-forward to 2018 and – let’s face it – there are still some Lexus models that can be accused of being boring. The uber-luxurious LS sedan is one of them, so is the classy ES sedan, and the smallest model in the Lexus range, the CT.
Don’t get me wrong; in typical Lexus style they are all superior vehicles. But they’re luxurious and technologically advanced, not sporty. Does that translate to boring? Possibly.
However, since that discussion between Toyoda and the American journalists, there has been a dramatic change to the Lexus vehicle lineup: it now includes some sensationally sporting product.
Truth be known, before that now-famous discussion at Detroit, Lexus had already begun producing performance cars.
It had created Lexus Vehicle Performance Development Division, and invented its F Marque which uses an F emblem of a design that is supposed to have been inspired by the first
corner at the Fuji racetrack in Japan. It had also released its IS-F, a rear-driven small sedan powered by a 5.0-litre V8. And it had begun to build its first-ever supercar, the
V10-engined LFA. But now there’s so much more.
The F models now include the two-door RC-F, four-door GS F and the new LC, all of which are powered by that 5.0-litre V8 – and as a nod to the age of the electric car the LC is also available as a
3.5-litre V6-engined hybrid. In addition there’s what is known as F Sport, which is a range of performance-related accessories and upgrades that can be applied to the more standard Lexus models. Just about every Lexus model available in New Zealand now has an F Sport variant, providing sportier alternatives to the more luxuryoriented Limited models.
During the summer, Lexus New Zealand has been working to create more awareness of the marque’s new-age sporting bent by holding Lexus Summer of Performance days at racetracks around the country.
‘‘It’s all to do with promoting the F philosophy,’’ said sales and operations manager Craig Burton at a media day at Hampton Downs in north Waikato. ‘‘There’s the LFA which is all about circuit racing, cars such as the RC F and GS F which are premium sports models, and the F Sport models which are available across the Lexus range, including our SUVs.’’
‘‘It’s also about changing the perception of Lexus,’’ said general manager Paul Carroll.
‘‘We believe that in the niche luxury market, customers are moving away from what brand the cars are, and more towards what experience they offer.
That’s why the F models and F Sport variants are so important to our future.’’
The media day involved journalists participating in a series of exercises including socalled wide in-wide out cornering, an F-khana slalom competition, sliding around on a wet skid pad, and full-on hot laps round the Hampton Downs circuit.
It was fun, with those thumping 5.0-litre V8 engines making a racket to die for as the various Lexus models rocketed around the racetrack.
Vehicles such as the GS F and the RC F really are highperformance, and the antics you can get up while behind the wheel are anything but boring.
Akio Toyoda is obviously a very busy man and wouldn’t have known this Lexus Summer of Performance day was being held – but you can guarantee that if he had have known, he would have been pleased.
‘‘At that point I determined that the word boring and the word Lexus would never be used in the same sentence again.’’
Akio Toyoda
Toyota Motor Corporation president