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Base front bumper trim on an F Sport front bumper.......
My car goes to the body shop in about two weeks to have a new front bumper fully painted and installed (I'm one of those super picky car owners that can not stand a single scuff or chip on my front bumper and my GS has a few). While I'm there I'm also buying new OEM parts for the 2 sides of the chrome grille "fangs" as mine have a couple of tiny spots of road rash and also buying a new OEM "bottom radiate grille molding" as it two has a little road rash. Other than the F Sport black mesh grille itself, the entire front bumper/surrounding trim will be brand new before I have paint protection film applied to the new perfect paint (after curing). I heartily concede that the 2013-15 F Sport front bumpers look so much better than the 2016+ versions but there's nothing I can do about that really. I was looking at some non-F Sport cars and noticed that in addition to the different slatted grille, the area where most cars have foglight and the F Sports have that black plastic laid in, the base front bumper has an insert but body color on the bumper itself. While this is awkward to explain, please look at the differences in the pics I've attached of my F Sport and a non-F Sport front bumper. It also looks like that non-F Sport piece has a tiny bit of chrome in the middle of it, but I can't really tell.
I say all this because, personally (and I'm probably in the minority here), that dark grey/black piece on the F Sport on both sides (circled in the picture of my bumper) is the worst stylistic part of the car. It's so simple but I can't stand it as I'm not a fan of the "panda" look (lots of contrasting black trim on the white paint) other than a black grille. The part # for the F Sport and base model front bumpers are the same, so I'm thinking about having those non-F Sport pieces added to the side instead of the F Sport piece on it now. Obviously, I haven't seen one like that in person so I'm just trying to imagine it. I can't foresee any fitment issues since it's the same bumper cover they attach to. Any thoughts?
That is the luxury package front bumper, it's different than the standard and f sport front bumper as that's the same bumper I have on my luxury package. It also might have came in different years also as they only made the luxury package in 2016 & 2017.
As for the f sport front bumper, you can get JDM fog lights to go in that black area which will look better but you also have to consider the controls of the fog lights if you want a stock Lexus stalk from a non f sport that has the controls or a external switch.
Are you sure the Lux Package of 2016/17 has a different bumper? I know it along with the base have a different grille and the scoops I pointed out, but the bumper cover itself that is the body color is the same part as the F Sport I believe. Here is a pic of a new base car and the bumper itself is identical.
I think we are misunderstanding one another. Both bumpers - the white painted part - are the same. Whereas mine has the F Sport “scoop” in black - it’s a plastic trim piece, not part of the bumper itself - yours has a smaller scoop with what looks like a chrome strip in it. Essentially that part on yours is the part I want to put on mine. Does that make more sense?
lol. Small world! That’s the car I was looking at before I bought mine! It’s at a Ford-Lincoln dealership in Macon, GA about 90 min from me. The worst sales staff I’ve ever encountered.
Ah, you're just looking for the smaller scoop part but isn't the f sport scoop 1 piece, as the bottom of mine is part of the bumper while your f sport is the plastic isn't part of the bumper itself.
From that thread, we saw that the 2016+ car in question was really a non F-sport GS with the base bumper and F-Sport mesh grille.
In terms of that part of the bumper i'd say go for it if you like the look of the base bumper "fog" trim. I think most people like that mesh pattern on that trim that comes with the F-sport but its really just preference...
Ive always assumed the bumpers covers were identical - the F Sport just has that a larger trim piece that comes forward and probably over lays what would be the lower white area in the non- F Sport. My thought was that the inserts were just different, but, I've never looked too deep into how it all goes together. The one difference is whether you have the Cold Weather Package with the headlight washers or not - my memory is that you do not. (FYI - There's the note on those fogs AJLex19 suggests about them not being compatible with the headlamp washers).
On a white car car I think having the non-contrast look of the regular bumper would be awesome and look forward to seeing it (hopefully!). On my Atomic Silver I think the trim blends in more so that part of the bumper doesn't bother me like it probably would if I had UW or EWP. I think one of the reasons I really liked the front of the car in NGP was because the F sport Trim blended in and disappeared.
I'm not sure I agree with this photo being a Lux. The wheels are wrong. Yes, those are Lux wheels, but those are the Lux wheels from '13-'15 which were 18" and would be a direct easy swap for the '16+ base 18" '16+ Lux has 19" split Y spoke. The only exterior feature, other than the wheels, that I know of to differentiate the Lux and Base are is the Adaptive Headlights and I'm not sure if you could tell that from a photo like that one. I could be wrong but that's my opinion.
Here's the photo from the '16 brochure of the base and Lux next to each other - they look the same to me - Lux on the left, Base on the right:
Here's another shot of the Base front (going by the wheels) from the '16 Brochure:
When you wash the car (F Sport) you see that line in the lower left corner area (marked in red) of where the insert goes
I think the biggest drawback would be when you go to sell the car having someone see photos and say it's not a real F Sport because the bumper is wrong. You've said before the car is hopefully staying in the family for a while so probably not an issue but I'd keep the F Sport trim pieces so if and when the time comes they can go with the car and the next owner can swap them back out if they want to.
Last edited by LexusGSboy; 09-30-20 at 11:58 PM.
Reason: For Clarity
09-30-20, 05:09 PM
Base front bumper trim on an F Sport front bumper.......
