703

These three cars are on permanent display at the Toyota Museum. RX300, LFA Prototype, and LS400. They are considered by Toyota as their greatest achievements.

Motorola

It's obvious why the LS400 was built so well, it was made at the height of the Japanese bubble period where money was limitless, and even tiny companies like Mazda could build and mass-produce groundbreaking world-class vehicles that put Aston Martin at the time to shame.


Japan will never, ever be at this level again. Out of all the Japanese brands out there, only Lexus remains as a serious luxury brand, and it's because of the size and funds of Toyota compared to the rest.

703

I just think today all manufacturers are a bit too short sighted and margin driven. If they assemble a team together, and give them objectives like in the past (e.g. build the best luxury car - LS, build a car with half the fuel consumption - Prius), it will happen. All that investment will trickle down into a competitive edge for years to come. Tech companies still do it today, they are often not profitable for a long time, but it doesn't matter.

Motorola

Well, the LS and most other bubble cars were margin-driven too, it's just that the margins were in the stratosphere because that's just how wealthy Japan was back then. Not even the LFA's development costs could come close to those of the LS400 ($800 mil vs. $1 bn), and that's before adjusting for inflation between 1989 and 2010.

lexusnyca

Most of the buyers in this segment, are not buying a performance car. So the comparisons to the "juiced" German offerings in this segment, don't really mean much to most buyers. If I am looking at an X3, I really don't care that they offer an M package for it, its just not part of my purchase criteria. I had a string of three 5 series BMWs ending in 2021, the seats were hard as rocks, the Germans aren't making perfect cars in this segment either, everyone cost cuts on the "mass market" trim levels if the customer doesn't want to pay for a higher trim level. Mercedes has used fake MB-tex leather seats for decades.

1111GS

Wow I remember very well when a friend of mine bought that RX. I remember some called it a rolling egg. It didn't get us interested until 2nd gen. This model family has been nice to us. Not even one single issue to complain about. Anyone knows when this new one will be on sale?

SLegacy99

I believe that your assumption is incorrect. Long gone are the days of Audi's with the bi-turbo V6 that ate turbochargers. With all of the vehicles on the road today that are smaller displacement and boosted, you would hear a lot more if turbo failure was an issue. I can only speak to my personal experience with Subaru, but I have had two turbocharged 4 cylinders, both with 100k+ on the clock and zero turbo issues. I tout that my WRX is at 120k miles and the biggest issue that I have had is that the front, driver side tweeter grill sometimes pops up and you have to push it back down...the turbocharger has come a long way.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i agree with this... you just don't hear/read of significant turbo issues on any modern cars. materials, thermal management, software, multiple turbos, different sizes, etc., all have worked wonders. i've now had 2 turbo engines and have zero concerns about the turbos.

MPalmer

That's very fair to say, I could very well be assuming incorrectly. Happy to be proven wrong, especially as vehicles from the past decade get more and more miles on them.

However, when one looks at lists of long-lasting passenger vehicles, most of them are naturally aspirated V8s. How many turbo-4s are going to 300, 400, 500K+ miles without needing service?

I suppose that's what I meant when I said over the course of the vehicle's lifespan.

MPalmer

Updated the OP with my written 2023 RX first-drive review -- https://www.clublexus.com/articles/2...xus-rx-review/

Hopefully, some more content coming later this day as well!

Toys4RJill

Had a good read on your review, your article asked:

YES



one thing I picked up on your review, you said you can get adaptive variable suspension in the luxury trims but it was not sporty. Adaptive variable suspension isn’t just for sport.

MPalmer

Very true, but 1) the two settings are labeled Normal and Sport in the menu so therefore 2) my intention was to describe how the Luxury suspension felt in Sport mode versus the sportier F Sport AVS systems.

blueless

The lag in my IS Turbo was annoying, even after many months of ownership. How was the turbo lag in the RX?

Toys4RJill

That is interesting, thanks for replying. Lexus has changed the way AVS works. In the past there was a comfort setting ** middle setting ** and a sport setting. Our LX had it this way, the Sequoia as well. But in the 1980s, before Lexus, the Toyota Supra had just the normal ** sport for the adaptive variable suspension at that time, so it looks like they have gone to that type of style again.

MPalmer

the 2.4 Turbo isn't as bad as the 2.0-Turbo, but it's definitely a letdown for a few hundred RPM (vs the V6) until the turbo spools and the torque band arrives and remains for most of the rev-range.

Great to know this, thank you.