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Calgary Airport converts handicap parking to Lexus-only stalls

At the YYC Calgary International Airport, travelers found that the usual accessible parking spots (referred to handicap or disability parking here in the U.S.) near the doors had been painted over, no longer saved for the people who need them. Instead, they were reserved for Lexus drivers as part of a marketing campaign. Understandably, the airport received a complaint after a family with access needs entered the short-parking area to find the Lexus logos painted where the accessible parking had been, as CBC News reports. The airport had sold the spaces to Lexus as a way to generate revenue as part of a marketing campaign. Even worse, YYC hadn't replaced the accessible spaces yet, though Calgary Airport Authority spokesperson Jody Moseley told CBC News the airport was in the process of moving them when it started to draw attention. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The story ends well, however: The Calgary Airport Authority is converting the Lexus spaces back to accessible parking, and said in a statement of apology that the new accessible stalls meant to replace the original ones will also remain in place, so it's a net gain for disabled travelers. YYC also apologized to Lexus Canada, which it says "did not play a role in selecting, and was not aware of, the locations for the campaign." Lexus issued its own apology, saying it would "more carefully scrutinize the details of these types of marketing campaigns" in the future. Related Video: News Source: CBC News via JalopnikImage Credit: Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Government/Legal Lexus Luxury parking disabilities airport handicapped accessibility airport parking

Next-gen Toyota Tacoma to debut at Detroit Auto Show

Toyota's confirmation comes on the heels of General Motors' successful launch of its own midsize pickups. The next generation of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck will be revealed in January at the Detroit Auto Show, a top executive confirmed Thursday. Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota, offered no other details, but the new version of the pickup is expected to have significant upgrades compared with the aging model on sale now. Our spy shooters caught a prototype testing this summer, and rumors of the new generation have been swirling for months. We've also previously reported that Toyota is planning to ramp up production next April at a factory in Mexico that builds the Tacoma. Toyota's confirmation comes on the heels of General Motors' successful launch of its own midsize pickups, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, which have garnered awards, positive reviews and solid sales since they arrived in showrooms this fall. It's unclear how large the new Tacoma will be, especially considering that the Canyon and Colorado flirt with fullsize territory. The Tacoma was last updated in 2012, and the segment has changed dramatically since then with the addition of the GM trucks. Another Tacoma competitor, Honda's aging Ridgeline, is also expected to re-launch in 2015, which would leave the Nissan Frontier as the oldest truck in the field. Tacoma sales have slipped 4.1 percent to 140,757 units this year, though they posted a 3.3-percent gain in November. Meanwhile, Carter also said Lexus will reveal two performance vehicles, though he didn't elaborate. "I'll leave it at that, but I promise you'll enjoy it," he said coyly. Lexus just showed the LF-C2 convertible concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Lexus LC 500 stands apart from the go-fast sport luxury crowd

We at Autoblog, by and large, love the LC 500. For its concept-car looks, derived almost verbatim from the 2012 LF-LC concept. And for the charming V8, which growls and burbles appropriately but doesn't subscribe to the faux-backfire trend. Our Editor-in-Chief, Greg Migliore, perfectly summarized the LC 500's appeal when he drove it recently: "Evening walkers cast curious glances. A guy in an old pickup almost sideswiped me as he gawked while taking the corner fast. It's a celebrity car. It also sounds good; the 5.0-liter V8 growls and rumbles. Style and muscle. An excellent execution." I just spent a week in it, my first encounter with the car, and it made me think most about how it's positioned in the Lexus lineup. Notably, it's not positioned as the performance extreme. This is refreshing, because not every car needs to attempt a Nurburgring time. If you want to hunt road-course records in this day and age, it takes massive power and massive traction. We're getting to the point, perhaps well beyond it, where that is doing the stopwatch more favors than the driver. Part of this is decades of marketing putting the sportiest variant of a particular vehicle above the most luxurious in the pecking order of regular vehicles, which doesn't make a ton of sense if you think about it. In the 1960s, the ultimate Mercedes-Benz was the 600 Grosser limousine, which was built like a Rolex bank vault. It had a huge engine, but the point was to move the massive thing around, not for the sheer pleasure of it. Ironically, the Grosser's engine made its way later into the 300 SEL 6.3, turning a large and luxurious sedan into a surprisingly capable bruiser, and then into the Rote Sau race car. Arguably, this was an impetus for the sort of sporty arms race I'm decrying. (Now, when you talk about supercars, or ultimate luxury cars like a Bentley or Maybach, this distinction makes less sense. But let's limit our discussion to vehicles the well-heeled average consumer could actually purchase — things at the upper end of the ranges of normal car manufacturers.) This takes us to the Lexus LC 500. Unlike Mercedes, whose Mercedes-AMG cars are on top of the regular car pecking order, Audi's RS line, BMW's M Division, and Porsche's various Turbos, the LC 500 is simply a large, powerful car. It's comfortable, it looks interesting, and it has more than enough grunt to get out of its own way. There are Sport and Performance options packages, but there's no LC F or F-Line trim available.