Classy, Solid, Elegant, Great Performance. on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lexus RX gets Top Safety Pick award from IIHS

Lexus’ newly refreshed 2020 RX crossover has received a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And as with many vehicles that pass IIHSÂ’s increasingly tough muster these days, thereÂ’s a caveat: It applies only to versions equipped with certain headlights. That metric was also what caused the RX to narrowly miss out on notching a Top Safety Pick+ designation, the highest possible. IIHS rated the base headlights and one of the premium headlight options — both static LED projectors — as acceptable, but it gave a poor rating to the available curve-adaptive LED headlamps, saying they created too much glare. Elsewhere, the RX aced crash testing, earning good ratings across the board. IIHS says this was the first time it put the luxury crossover through its passenger-side small overlap crash test, noting that Lexus made changes to the bumper and front-end structure to improve protection for front-seat passengers. It also gave a superior rating to the RXÂ’s vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, which avoided collisions in track tests at both 12 and 25 mph. Both the RX350 and 450h hybrid version received light refreshes for 2020, including the latest version of Lexus Safety System +. It includes new features such as daytime bicyclist detection and low-light pedestrian detection, adding to the existing pre-collision warning and adaptive cruise control. This is the fourth IIHS safety award for the brand in 2019, following Top Safety Pick+ awards for the ES, UX and NX.

Anything but boring | 2018 Lexus LC 500 First Drive

This is it, the headliner, the main event. After years of Lexus promising to make less-boring cars and instead giving us countless spindle-grille facelifts, the 2018 LC 500 is here as the brand's new North Star. It's the official halo to mark where Toyota's luxury brand is headed. This is the car that we hope can bring an end to the relentless mentions of boring cars - which are themselves needlessly boring. And besides, "not boring" is a terrible metric for evaluation. What Lexus is really trying to do is give its cars some spirit, to transcend the paint-by-numbers stereotype that made this brand the luxury juggernaut it is today. By that yardstick, the LC 500 is a success simply based on how it looks. It's beautiful in a way that we couldn't predict from the 2012 LF-LC concept that foreshadowed it. The kind of beauty where instead of reflexively grabbing your phone to take a picture, you just stand there and keep looking. And pictures don't do this car justice, anyway. They soften the edges and reduce the massive draw of the wide shoulders. In person, looking straight at the LC, the car looks like it's 80 percent hood. In the rest of the lineup, the trademark Lexus grille's execution ranges from caricature (RC) to botched nose job (LX). Here it pulls everything together. From every other angle, the LC has some feature that seems excessive – in the best way possible. The proportions of the LC give off a distinctively functional vibe, and it's genuine. That hood is so long because the 5.0-liter V8's center of mass sits three and a half inches behind the front axle. The extra space up front is mostly empty - Lexus uses high-strength steel cross-braces to shore up torsional rigidity instead of adding structure ahead of the front wheels, and the battery sits under the trunk floor. For all the visual excitement, the LC is still a conventional vehicle. Aside from some advancements in the LC 500h's hybrid powertain, the innovation here is of the iterative type. It's interesting, in that Lexus is betting on emotional appeal and driving character at a time when the future relevance of both is up for debate. If anything, the LC is a car for the current automotive world, not the one to come. And despite extensive use of aluminum and sheet-molded carbon, the LC 500 weighs in at a hefty 4,280 pounds. That's right in line with the BMW 6 Series and a good deal below the Batali-esque Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe's 4,700 pounds.

2019 Lexus ES350 F Sport Drivers' Notes | Some F, more luxury

The 2019 Lexus ES 350 is a big step in the right direction for the Camry-sized sedan. It looks eons better than the last ES, and it has the Lexus ride and luxury to back it up. Lexus redesigned the mid-size sedan for the 2019 model year, putting it on Toyota’s TNGA platform. ItÂ’s a good place to be, as every new Toyota that has come out on this architecture is more dynamic and comfortable than the last. Lexus even went so far as to add optional adaptive shocks to the equation, which stiffens up the ride in Sport mode. Our first tester was this gorgeous, blue F Sport model, which is comparable to the one West Coast Editor James Riswick drove last year. Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski tested an ES 350 with Lexus' top Ultra Luxury package. Our blue test car came with the aforementioned adaptive suspension, but the F Sport also gains 19-inch wheels and trim-exclusive sport seats. A Sport+ driving mode is added with the adaptive suspension, as well, joining the existing Sport, Normal and Eco modes. Without options, the ES 350 F Sport is a $45,160 car. All our tester's extras brought the final price to $54,450. The most expensive addition was the Mark Levinson audio system, combined with navigation for a hefty $2,900. Blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert costs $1,065; triple-beam LED headlights are $1,515, and the adaptive suspension is $750. A swath of unnecessary accessories balloon the price even higher, but itÂ’s still cheaper than many of the German sedans. A generously equipped car could come in right around $50,000 if youÂ’re willing to compromise on a few amenities. Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore: IÂ’m going to zero-in on the infotainment system's touchpad, which sits to the right of the driver. ItÂ’s tricky to use, especially while driving. To be fair, I didnÂ’t spend a ton of time in this otherwise enjoyable ES 350 F Sport, but tuning the radio and toggling through the different sources (FM, XM, etc.) shouldnÂ’t require all that much education. There are redundant controls for some of the functionality, but this still isn't great. You can do a lot of things with this touchpad -- flick, zoom, scroll -- itÂ’s good in theory. But in practice, I find it annoying, and in traffic it can be distracting. There are simpler solutions that are better. Toyota has plenty of good tech hardware. The next day I drove an Avalon hybrid and had no issues with the touchscreen-operated infotainment. There was almost no adjustment period.