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Lexus in no hurry to be a big player in China

For a while now, China's spiraling wealth, population and development has had the world's luxury automakers in an expansionist fervor, with many executives exhibiting the sort of gleefully maniacal behavior historically reserved for gold-rush prospectors. Yet Toyota, of all companies, is exercising a surprising amount of caution in the Asian nation.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, Toyota's premium brand, Lexus, sold all of 64,000 vehicles in China last year, while BMW cleared its books of 326,000. In fact, it didn't even bother entering the market until 2005, while rival Audi built its first car in the market a decade and a half earlier. Even now, Lexus doesn't build any vehicles in China, and with the country's notoriously high tariffs on imports, that's a major disadvantage. Yet the business daily quotes Lexus executive vice president Mark Templin as saying that the brand is nowhere near ready to start building cars in the market. "We're not having those discussions about when we're going to go to China... We have a lot of work to do before we get to that point."
Part of that work includes establishing a more expansive dealer network - Lexus only had 99 stores as of 2012, while rival Mercedes-Benz had over two-and-a-half times as many, and it's still expanding. Adding a lot of dealers without having a goodly number of competitively priced offerings for them to sell may seem like an odd strategy, but Templin tells the WSJ that the goal is to "cultivate our image for quality and customer service and let the customers that we have go tell that story for us."

2023 Lexus RX First Drive Review: Bold colors, three hybrids, irksome tech

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Every car has its color. ItÂ’s usually the one prominently photographed in press or marketing photos; the one its designers thought made the biggest impact. TheyÂ’re often bold hues, though rarely popular. The original Lexus RX will forever be remembered painted Desert Bronze. It was as bold and distinctive as the vehicle itself – remember, the RX was the first real luxury crossover, arriving before the BMW X5 and at the same time Acura was trying to pawn off Isuzu Troopers. The RX would go on to be achingly bland, but in the beginning, it was radically new and different. Desert Bronze drove home that point. As if to make a similar statement, the fifth-generation, 2023 Lexus RX arrives resplendent in Copper Crest. Despite the name, itÂ’s more of a rose gold in person, and nothing else on the road is painted anything quite like it from the factory. ItÂ’s very of-the-moment, and in 25 years, weÂ’ll all remember this RX in this color. Of course, the real question is whether the car itself will be worth remembering. It's at least a better-looking vehicle than the one it replaces, applying updated Lexus styling cues more cohesively to a body that looks like it was meant for them from the beginning. The silhouette is even less SUV-like now. Although the various modelsÂ’ ground clearances are all over 8 inches and the overall height only 0.4 lower than before, the new RX sure looks lower than the old one in person, and just low in general for an SUV. ThereÂ’s a bit of a giant hatchback thing going on, which isnÂ’t necessarily a bad thing. 2023 Lexus RX 350 Premium in Copper Crest View 10 Photos Key interior dimensions are virtually unchanged, if actually slightly below the previous generation. Clearly the sizable number of loyal RX customers didnÂ’t have a beef with available space. For what itÂ’s worth, a pair of rear passengers reported that the back seat was very comfortable with plenty of space despite a tall driver up front. Cargo capacity measures 29.6 cubic-feet with the back seat raised, which would be comparable to a Toyota Venza. Interior quality doesnÂ’t seem to be quite to the level of its predecessor, and the addition of a colossal screen rarely does aesthetic favors to a dashboard design. The RX is no exception, and while the new touchscreens available in 9.8- and 14-inch sizes provide improved functionality over the old Remote Touch touchpad-and-display system, that was a bar that could be cleared with a short hop.

Lexus IS sedan refreshed and restyled in Beijing

The current IS with its polarizing sheetmetal has been for sale since 2013, and Lexus has now updated the styling, turning it up a notch. The new IS has a mouth that is perhaps even more gaping than the outgoing model's front end. The intakes have been enlarged, making the front bumper more aggressive even on the IS200t base model. Along with a reshaped spindle grille, the headlights have been redesigned and now feature L-shaped daytime running lights. The checkmark-shaped "light guides" underneath them have also been made more pronounced. Lexus says they have reached for a design that would make the car look like it's in constant motion even when sitting still – perhaps a design cliche, but often attempted, and the character line on the sides has been enhanced for that reason. Did they succeed? You be the judge. Inside, the central information display has grown from 7 inches to 10.3, along with getting higher resolution. Otherwise, the interior remains much as it was. There are small touches here and there, including a redesigned gauge cluster, but mostly it's all about new color choices. On the engine front, the lineup continues to rely on three engine choices. The IS200t carries on as the downsized base four-cylinder option with a twin-scroll turbo charger and cycle-shifting Variable Valve Timing-intelligent Wide – still good for 241 horsepower. The IS300 gets a 255-horsepower V6 and the top-rung IS350 offers up 306 ponies from its 3.5-liter V6. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. New Lexus IS Debuts at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show BEIJING (April 25, 2016) -- A daring new styling direction, exciting performance and innovative technology defined the completely new Lexus IS that was introduced in 2013. Since then, sales of the luxury brand's entry-level sedan have surpassed expectations, outselling the previous-generation model, which was very popular in its own right. At the Beijing Auto Show today, Lexus has taken the covers off the new IS, armed with a fresh new look and a number of important changes. Because the original styling of the current IS has proved so popular, Lexus has kept the essence of car's exterior appearance intact; however, the entire front fascia of the new model has undergone a transformation, highlighted by new headlamps, large air intakes in the front bumper and an evolution of Lexus' spindle grille.