First off Mike (MP) great thread and I appreciate you really thinking things out in your posts. Great reads. Some good commentary in here. My 2 cents

1. The majority of people buy off the lot. Even if BMW/Benz offer customization, it is the far minority of purchases. It is great it is offered no doubt.
2. As Henry stated it is about cost and Lexus figures if 90% will take the aluminum trim and 10% want a F-sport but won't buy b/c of the trim, they will take the 90%.
3. Lexus does offer customization in Japan as we found out a couple of years ago. Americans still get mostly option package choices.

My preference is also BLACKWOOD, I've started threads on it. I love it or Piano Black, I think that adds sport to an interior without being the usual aluminum. I am not a huge aluminum fan, its nice but not a first choice. It seems to be something that automakers have defaulted to.

On the other hand we still have to give Lexus credit for listening. Twenty years ago the GS had only beige and grey leather and one wood choice. Over the years Lexus has expanded choices and now here we are talking about a factory F-sport model! Its great to see it offered! Hell Lexus didn't offer aluminum in the GS until now.

At least the F sport has a black headliner and not gray

 

That's an issue with the adhesive keeping the wood on the overall trim piece though. Swapping trim pieces would mean taking off the entire thing including the chrome bit

 

To me, wood is what separates Lexus lesser brands :-).

But at the same time, I have read many other forums, and talked to other people here in Europe, and most other brand followers preffer aluminium.

To me buying Lexus without wood would be sacrilege. Do note that this is supposedly very nice real aluminium trip, unless that crap that went into A6's before.

 

dumb down luxury package? who said anything about that? how about improving the "sport" part further on fsport instead? logically it just doesn't make sense. if the "luxury" is performing as is, then fsport should perform even better and not just on the bigger wheels and brakes. ls460 sport has different tranny setup for starters.

your second paragraph again pretty much indicate that the fsport model is "redundant" because the luxury package gets what you need already. and if you think fsport is the best already and no further improvement possible, then that'd be silly.

this post although lexus isn't doing what some of us DREAM for, i really praise lexus for listening and making good steps forward. try 10 years ago and look at the trim and interior and by comparison what we see today is huge already imho

 

Yup, Lexus just need 10 more years to get to AMG and M level, at least I hope they will.

 

Agreed, great comments!

 

I am looking back now too, even MB took at least 10 years to build up AMG to where they are today, the W210 E55 is pretty much their first official factory AMG built by MB, that came out about 10 years ago. Before that they had that W124 E500 that was built by Porsche, that was another 5~8 years back. So MB took a long time to establish AMG also, didn't happen overnight.

Now Lexus is starting it, ISF, LFA, now all these F-Sport stuff. So 10 years from now, there will be a F version or F-Sport in every model of Lexus

 

i was projecting about 8 years myself as well. a few things i see that look positive

- fsport (good marketing)
- isf (good start)
- lfa (for technology)
- lf-lc (performance coupe)
- recently rx fsport (commitment to all models)

the only disconnect i see so far is on the 4gs. they have fsport but no v8. so question mark is all around gsf

 

Does anyone know if the trim on the F-Sport is real Aluminum or is it some sort of pastic?

 

It is Real... But finished with a more Matte / Satin coating...








~ Joe Z

 

great pics Joe!

 

Piano black would be much nicer to have in the sport model, not a deal breaker though. I would also like to see wood steering wheel in the F-sport as well.

 

I just stumbled across this thread. I have to agree. Never really liked the IS-F trim but lived with it. Have you seen what you can do with a Maserati? I'm not saying you need to take it that far but a bit more flexibility on options you already offer would be nice.

I've heard Lincoln talking about "bespoke" this and "bespoke" that to help differentiate themselves from Lexus and other brands. I wonder how far they will take it and if that is the direction of more luxury brands?

 

Personally, I too would like more customization if possible. Make it as 'bespoke' as possible..........because when it comes to premium automobile brands, I would (as much as possible) AVOID buying off the lot.