#lexus

With longtime CEO Akio Toyoda stepping down from Toyota Motor Corp, the business is reportedly about to shift targets and place a greater emphasis on battery-electric vehicles. However, there are a few caveats to that claim and the entire issue is mired in controversy, with entities clearly trying to pressure the Japanese automaker against doing things its own way.

Automakers sometimes make a big fuss over announcing pricing for new models, but Lexus posted pricing for the new RZ EV without much fanfare.

It's that time of year. Time to look back, take stock of the year that's just passed, do some self-reflection, and think about the best and worst cars we drove in 2022.

The manual transmission was already far down a slippery slope before EVs came along, and the move to electrification has all but signed its death warrant, or so we thought. Lexus recently confirmed reports that it was testing a manual transmission for electric vehicles, and there’s even a video of it in action.

Toyota killed the Land Cruiser for the United States after the 2021 model year, but the legendary off-roader has remained on sale elsewhere. The J300 Land Cruiser uses a twin-turbo V6 in place of its predecessor’s thirst V8 but remains a superbly capable SUV. Lexus still sells the related LX here, and we’re now hearing that Toyota may bring back the Land Cruiser, despite its slow sales numbers.

My current test ride is a Lexus LC convertible. Or was, as it went back to its home on press-fleet island about an hour ago.

I want to be perfectly honest with you guys — this is The Truth About Cars, after all — I didn’t like driving the 2022 Lexus RX450h AWD F Sport. It’s not that the Lexus is a bad car, it’s that it’s not the right fit for me … and I mean that both figuratively and literally.

It’s of no surprise to anyone that new vehicles can be hard to find these days. Some production has been throttled thanks to supply chain challenges, more than a few dealer lots are bereft of product, and everyone seems to be at the end of their rope.

But spare a thought for customers in Japan who wish to buy a new Lexus LX. According to reports, the wait time for one in that part of the world has grown. To four years.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Lexus’ NX compact crossover. I’ve found it to be fairly sporty – in general, and not just by staid Lexus standards – and overall more engaging to drive than the larger (and highly popular) RX, but also a bit cramped inside. Not to mention that the NX, like most Toyota and Lexus products, just seemed a step behind when it came to infotainment.

Lexus addressed two of those criticisms with the current model and did so quite nicely.

Those of you with checkered shirts in yer closet and a few pogs still kicking around may recall it was the original Lexus RX from the late ‘90s which arguably kicked off the “tall wagon” car-based luxury crossover craze. Sure, the first Ford Explorer put us all on a path to what we see in suburban driveways today, but it was the RX which placed them in the hands of moneyed types.

Lexus introduced a new RX yesterday near its home base in Texas, expanding the number of powertrains and (finally) dumping the ill-advised three-row model. And, oh yeah – we need to have a conversation about that grille.

While Honda was the first Japanese car company to have a North American showroom hit with a new luxury brand, the Legend lacked the imposing bulk to really threaten the flagship sedans of competitors based in Michigan and Europe (and, on top of that, it had Accord running gear and Rover DNA). Nissan and Toyota got into the luxury-sedan game here in the 1990 model year, when the Infiniti and Lexus brands had their debuts here with the Q45 and LS 400, respectively.

Today’s Rare Ride was randomly mentioned among some other Lexus discussion on Twitter, and your author knew it immediately needed coverage here. This very special RX was conceived at a time when McCartney and Lexus were particularly chummy and financially interested in one another. Lexus worked up a bespoke special edition car as an homage to the legendary star. And though the resulting homage was even more cringe-inducing than its title might suggest, it was at least created for a good cause. You might say this particular Lexus RoX.

Lexus’ first EV, the RZ 450e, will reportedly be debuting with a yoke-style steering wheel that will be coming to the United States as an optional feature. While we’ve seen yokes on dedicated racing vehicles, their adoption by companies producing mass-market automobiles is fairly novel, and global firms have been generally hesitant to use them inside North America.

Lexus won’t be following suit and has already confirmed that its yoke will be available to RZ shoppers living in the U.S.

Following last week’s announcement where Toyota explained its need to scale back Japanese production by 20 percent this April, the automaker has outlined planned slowdowns for the foreseeable future. It’s citing all the usual problems. Countries are still employing various COVID-19 restrictions that are upending supply chains, semiconductor production for automobiles remains insufficient, and there’s a war in Eastern Europe that’s creating all-new troubles while exacerbating some of the more familiar ones. But scaling back output might not be the death sentence it sounds like.

With last year resulting in 10 million deliveries worldwide, Toyota actually managed to improve its sales against 2020’s year-over-year global production decline of 12 percent. And the last two years have also yielded enhanced profitability for the automaker, despite it having expressed repeated concerns about procuring enough components to keep popular models (like the RAV4) in stock. In 2021, Toyota saw $249.4 billion in revenue and even became the best-selling automaker in the United States, dethroning former top-dawg General Motors.

Autoblog is reporting that Lexus has not one, but two cars in the works to replace the supercar LFA.

And one is, of course, an EV.