2009 Lexus Ls460 L Sedan 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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Japanese dealer petitioning Lexus for luxury van [w/poll]

Used to be that if you wanted a luxury automobile - especially one to be chauffeured around in - your choices were basically limited to a sedan. It could be bigger or smaller, more or less expensive, depending on your needs and budget, but it was always going to have four doors and a trunk. But these days the rich and famous are looking elsewhere for their commodious forms of pampering transportation. There are, of course, the crossovers and SUVs, which only seem to be getting bigger and more expensive thanks to the likes of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, Range Rover L and upcoming Bentley sport-ute. But luxury vans are becoming the new big thing.
That's the point that one dealer in Japan is trying to make to Toyota. The dealership owner himself reasons that if he's going out on the town, he's likely to take his chauffeured Lexus LS. But if he's taking a few friends along, even the biggest sedan isn't going to cut it. So he takes a Toyota Alphard (pictured above, also known as the Vellfire), a JDM van that's even bigger than a Voxy/Noah or Sienna but hardly a high-end affair. That's why he's asking Lexus to make a luxury van.
The idea may seem a little far-fetched, but isn't without precedent. It didn't take much for Lexus to transform the Land Cruiser into the LX and thus create its first luxury SUV. And as Mercedes has shown with pimped-out versions of the Sprinter and now with the debut of the new V-Class in Geneva, there's clearly a market for it... in some countries, anyway. The only question in our minds is how long it's going to take other luxury automakers to catch on, because let's face it: the Chrysler Town & Country ain't gonna cut it for those used to be driven around in a Maybach.

J.D. Power: Vehicle dependability at all-time high, Lexus and Porsche lead

Each year, J.D. Power and Associates surveys original owners of three-year-old vehicles to find out what kinds of problems they have had experienced over the last 12 months, and then it uses this data to create its annual Vehicle Dependability Study. This means that the models in the 2013 study are 2010 model year vehicles, and J.D. Power rates each make as well as the top individual models based on how many problems were experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100).
Debunking the idea that carryover models are more dependable than new or updated models, the 2013 study found that the average carryover model experienced 133 PP100, while all-new or redesigned vehicles for the 2010 model year had 116 PP100; vehicles that received minor changes fared the best with just 111 PP100. The overall average for all makes was 126 PP100, which is the lowest figure since the findings were first issued in 1989.

The Lexus Sriracha IS is the hottest Lexus ever

For this year's Los Angeles auto show, Lexus created its hottest IS ever: the Sriracha IS. And the company did so by putting Sriracha sauce in everything! It's in the paint, the steering wheel, and even in the trunk! Check out the video if you don't believe us. Ok, so Lexus didn't really put Sriracha in everything. In reality, the company partnered with Huy Fong Foods to produce this one-off car, and turned to West Coast Customs to execute it. It features a custom paint job designed to emulate the look of Sriracha sauce, and green accents on the grille, mirrors, brake calipers, and exhaust tips are a call back to the food company's sauce bottles. View 13 Photos Inside, West Coast Customs created some clever and surprisingly subtle changes. The climate controls only show increasing heat levels, and the seat heater buttons are bright red with little flames above the seat icons. The drive selector trades sport mode for "Sriracha" mode. The seats get red and green inserts along with logos stitched into the seat backs. Other parts of the interior have green contrast stitching, too. The steering wheel is a particularly unique piece. West Coast Customs found a liquid that looks similar to sriracha, put it a resin container and shaped it to fit the steering wheel, so now it looks like there's sriracha in the steering wheel. It also has a warning sticker for "hot handling." And lest you think there isn't any real Sriracha anywhere in the car, you'll find 43 bottles of the stuff in the trunk, and the key fob dispenses some as well. As for how Lexus tops this, perhaps they could make a habanero or ghost pepper car. Or maybe they could show us a real IS F successor. We think another V8 Lexus would come across as pretty hot. Related Video: