THE LADY and the lexus
Jen Jimenez Yalung comfortably lives in the world of beauty daily, both in the office as a General Manager, and on the road with her stunning Lexus IS350.
I’m your typical lady driver—always carefree and always in high-heels,” exclaimed Jen Jimenez Yalung, General Manager of Shiseido Philippines Corp., when I asked her about who she is as a driver. Nowadays, it seems rare to find someone with such a carefree attitude towards driving. Road rage and weary groans from unruly drivers and traffic jams have been the norm in city drives, with these being the first images when you think of the “driving experience” in the Philippines. As Yalung puts it, “My feeling towards driving is greatly affected by the external variables like how traffic situations are and or how congested the roads are.” But if road conditions don’t play favors to her mood, maybe the car she’s driving can.
THE DREAM DRIVE
As a hard-working GM of some of the industry’s most prestigious beauty brands, and a loving mother of two, Yalung has had her fair share of city drives for work and family duties—an on-site meeting one day, then a grocery run the next. Driving can be seen as a seemingly mundane skill for such an out and about leader like Yalung, but she believes that sitting behind the wheel can also be enjoyable.
“I want [driving to be] simple. I just go inside the car, start the engine, and expect the car to run smoothly. When you are not thinking of anything apart from where you want to go, for me, that’s perfect.” Her trusty companion to help realize this dream to become a daily reality: the Lexus IS350.
THE FEEL BEHIND THE WHEEL
Having owned an IS350 for two years now, that’s more than enough time for Yalung to fall in love with its trademark Lexus Driving Experience the brand proudly touts. “When I experienced driving a Lexus, it completely changed my overall perception about cars and how pleasurable driving can be in general. I never knew that driving can be that luxurious in a sense that every single detail in the car is simply-perfected beyond expectations,” she shared.
Yalung makes another great point about what she loves about her every drive—there is comfort in both the senses and security. “When we speak of Lexus, we don’t just speak about beauty and elegance, or luxury and comfort. Safety is also an ultimate plus. It is a very intuitive and intelligent car with the safety of the driver and the people around it, such as pedestrians, at its core.” The Lexus Safety System and its Pre-collision feature is actually the strongest selling point for Yalung, and she feels like it should be standard across all cars of today. “The road scene will entirely change if all cars adopt this at bare minimum,” she added.
Yalung even recalls the last moment her car’s technology helped save lives. “It was late at night that time and I was driving steadily in a not so well-lit avenue in Manila and all of a sudden the car automatically-stopped. When I checked, I saw that there was a dog in the middle of the street which I almost bumped into. Fortunately, this feature was activated, the car was safe, the dog was safe, and most importantly, I was safe.”
DRIVING IS SEXY
As a beauty maven, Yalung obsesses over aesthetics. Even as she walked into the halls of the Lexus Showroom in BGC for the shoot, her deep green ensemble looked untouched, and of course, the make-up was on-point. Best of all, her IS350 looked like it came fresh from the dealer. It’s pristine Sonic Quartz color stands out, with its ferocious face and streamline build acting as a great visual contrast to the gracious woman beside it.
Yalung affirms that driving a Lexus is not just comfort and performance, but it is also undoubtedly sexy. “You’ll become an object of envy when you’re driving a Lexus. My first victim: my husband. He used to think that German cars are the best until he saw me bring this beauty home. So, any wild guess as to what he is driving now?”
Unlike our perception of age and beauty, Yalung believes that this Lexus “gets better with time, like wine.” She adds, “The more I get to know Lexus, the more that I’m falling in love with this car. Since I owned this car, there was no single thing that I had to worry about— maybe with the exception of putting gas in.”
This is what the definition of luxury should be in the automotive world. “Lexus has redefined what a luxury car should be,” Yalung professed. “As luxury cars are a very competitive segment in the auto industry, most brands tend to [focus on shock and impressions], but Lexus knows how to give a premium in understanding what the customer wants and exceeds them on all points.”
The bond between a car and its driver is the most important value that Lexus has captured, developed, and stood by. Yalung even playfully mentioned, which actually reveals the lasting effect of a good drive and a reliable vehicle: “This car is beautiful and elegant on the outside but the lady-driver is more beautiful and more elegant when she is inside.”