Lexus

We fix a few small issues with the greatest luxury sedan ever built.

Toyota has confirmed that its new supercar will soon debut and introduced a ticking clock to get everyone excited. But it’s hard not to be when this promises to be the most extreme performance vehicle the brand has ever offered to the general public. This is also the first time we’ve seen the car teased without camouflage, even if Toyota is still trying to hide the finer details.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece suggesting that I don't want to see automakers revoke access to Apple CarPlay -- not unless they come up with a better smartphone-mirroring system.

I still stand by that -- but three separate instances of CarPlay going bye-bye when I needed it suggests that the universe is trying to tell me something. Or, at least, it's laughing in my face.

We have a recall for some 2022-2024 Toyota and Lexus vehicles with the V35A engine.

Will Toyota's plan to make the Century a flagship brand work?

Ever since your author was but a wee tot, the hierarchy for Toyota and Lexus was simple -- Toyota was the mainstream brand and Lexus was the luxury flagship.

Enter Century -- what was once a model of Japanese-market luxury cars and limos will now become a flagship brand for Toyota. Even more luxurious than Lexus.

Hey hey, it's podcast time!

Lexus is offering a special edition of the LS sedan, which will presumably serve as the model’s swan song in North America. The 2026 Lexus LS 500 AWD Heritage Edition looks to be the final full-size sedan the company sends to our market. It also appears to be the only trim available for the 2026 model year.

Toyota and Lexus have a relatively large recall happening.

Some Toyota, Lexus, and Subaru models are being recalled because of a problem in the HVAC system.

Toyota is consolidating production of its Lexus models in the United States, with reports suggesting the decision may be linked to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. But the claim is slightly confusing, as one would normally expect a foreign automaker to increase U.S. assembly to avoid those fees. The president also recently signed an executive order to lower tariff rates on Japanese cars from over 27 percent to 15 percent. But the real reason for the move becomes clear after a modicum of investigation.

The Lexus IS has been around for a long time, but the automaker was expected to pull the plug on the sporty sedan soon. The rumors turned out to be unfounded, as the automaker recently announced a new IS for the 2026 model year.

Lexus recently revealed the 2026 ES sedan at the Shanghai Auto Show, with the car clearly undergoing major design changes that are aimed squarely at making it a hit on the Chinese market. It’s now significantly larger than before and comes exclusively with hybridized or entirely electric powertrains.

Lexus and Toyota have a tendency to hang onto vehicles for much longer than other automakers. The Lexus RC is certainly one of them, still trudging along after having been on sale mostly unchanged for almost ten years. Its longevity is coming to an end, however, as Lexus recently introduced Final Edition variants of the car, making the end of the line for the brand’s long-running sport coupe.

It will surprise precisely zero percent of our readers to learn that car prices have remained stubbornly high and likely will so for the next umpteen zillion years. But a $141,350 Lexus – even the top dog SUV for that brand – seems unexplored territory.

The 2024 Lexus GX marked a significant step forward for the beefy luxury SUV, as it was the model’s first generational overhaul since 2010. Lexus is making further improvements for 2025, though they come with a slight price bump over the outgoing model.

Today we bring you a 2003 Lexus IS 300 with a five-speed manual.

My most recent test ride was a 2024 Lexus RX 450h+ Luxury AWD plug-in hybrid. Whew, I need to take a breath already.

Long name aside, how does the PHEV version of the crossover that started it all work as a daily driver?

Lexus has long offered comfortable, dependable luxury vehicles, but outside of a small handful of surprisingly engaging performance models, its catalog hasn’t generated the same driving satisfaction as European rivals’. The automaker spent years benchmarking Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche on handling, body rigidity, and more.

It is not inaccurate to describe the original Lexus RX as the inflection point for today’s assortment of luxury crossovers smothering our roads like wild kudzu. For 2025, the brand is adding to the range.

Toyota’s largest and newest SUVs have only been on sale for a little while now, but the automaker has issued a stop-sale and recall on the Grand Highlander and Lexus TX for an issue that could cause the driver’s side curtain airbag to deploy incorrectly.

The venerable Lexus ES could soon get a significant electric overhaul. AutoGuide found trademark filings that reveal the brand’s plans for “e”-branded ES models, though it appears Lexus remains to be committed to hybrids with the ES350h name.

Time flies, doesn’t it? Seems just a year or two ago your author took a troubled and stressful trip to Austin to pick up a lightly used GS 350. But that was a full five years ago now, prior to pandemic times! We last spoke about the GS in April of 2021 at the two-year mark. Three years on, this is the longest I’ve ever kept a single automobile.

Today I am testing a 2024 Lexus GX 550 Premium AWD that may have just come from the national launch event.

Welcome back to Drive Notes -- a recurring feature in which I give you a few brief notes on what I am driving or have driven recently.

Up today: The 2024 Lexus TX 350.

You know what’s great about gearheads being at the helm of a car company instead of dour bedwetting accountants? Entertaining product tends to crop up, that’s what. And while the machine shown here is not intended for the North American market, we think there could be a case for it on this side of the pond.

I am bringing back Drive Notes, a little mini-review of vehicles I had in my garage. We tried it last year and for reasons I don't recall moved away from it. Let's see how it goes this time around. Don't worry, a full review of most vehicles featured here will come later.

Up today: The 2024 Lexus NX 350h Luxury.

The delightfully angular new Lexus GX, planned for deliveries early next year, has been given a price tag by the company’s pencil-necked accountants. While a roughly $4,000 walk from the starting cost of last year’s rig, the extra cheddar buys a far better vehicle.

Beyond loading one of their nifty new 2024 GX 550 Overtrail models with a raft of burly accessories, the crew at Lexus has also dusted off a couple of older trucks for this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

The Lexus IS is going on a decade without a significant update, and 2024 won’t be any different. Lexus announced changes for the new model year, and they’re limited to new trim and appearance packages.

It can be a challenge for me to truly appreciate a high-end vehicle. Having been brought up with the typical Midwestern virtues of thrift and modesty, embracing conspicuous consumption with any sort of gusto doesn’t exactly come naturally. Outside a few wealthy suburban enclaves, much of this region traditionally has valued restraint, and the only acceptable response when questioned about buying a luxury good is to reply that you got it on sale.

Perhaps that’s why Oldsmobile was so successful around here. It gave drivers a taste of luxury without flaunting it.

Times have changed. New media has made the display of wealth - real or imagined - not just acceptable, but basically required. Fake it until you make it, and dodge the calls from the collection agency. So that old-school ethic of consumptive conservatism needs reevaluation for the modern era. I must consider six-figure motor vehicles as a legitimate part of our world. And thus, the 2023 Lexus LX 600 you see before you today. From the outside, it looks as if it should be like any other large SUV, with three rows of seating and plenty of hauling capacity. But step inside, and the story changes. 

While there is value in writing about a luxurious two-door coupe planned for very limited production, we’re really just taking this news as an opportunity to run a photo of the perpetually gob-smacking Lexus LC 500.

The RX is one of Lexus’ best-selling models but has never been offered in a plug-in hybrid configuration. That’s changing for 2024 with the Lexus RX 450h+, which brings an estimated 83 MPGe and a $70,080 price tag.

The sports sedan, as a concept, once stood for something very different than what we see today. It was a four-door conveyance with a bit more verve than the pedestrian trim of a similar vehicle but generally unadorned with flash and frippery. Subtle differences were a gentle head nod to those enthusiasts of a likewise mind, but an uninformed onlooker knew nothing of the differences between it and a bland family sedan.

No longer. As tastes change and more steer toward lumbering crossovers, the builders of most sports sedans feel compelled to shout both audibly and visually. Roaring, farting exhausts, garish colors, and outrageous fender flares barely covering massive wheels scream “I AM SPECIAL” on behalf of the dwindling dozens of buyers who must announce their arrival among those who can afford the monthly nut. 

Who am I to judge what one buys with the bank’s money? I’ll admit to swooning over some of Germany’s finest at times. But Lexus isn’t typically one to shout. The brand that famously balanced champagne glasses upon an engine in a commercial tends to hew firmly to the old-world belief in subtlety. Thus, this 2023 Lexus IS 500 is perhaps the most Lexus of all sports sedans.

Sometimes, the new model year of a stalwart model brings the slightest of changes. For 2024, the top-selling sedan in today’s Lexus lineup gets a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em tweaks.

Lexus is hitting the public with a one-two punch this week. After showcasing the next-generation GX, the brand introduced an all-new model designed to replace the three-row RX L. However, where the RX was stretched as an afterthought, the TX was always designed with extra seating in mind. 

Lexus has finally shown the brand-new GX midsize SUV for 2024 and it’s leaning hard into its status as an off-road vehicle. Whereas the previous generation offered something a little more brutish looking than your typical Lexus utility vehicle, the new model is about as butch as luxury vehicles come. The only way the manufacturer could have been more clear about what this vehicle was about would be if it put a giant decal on the side that read “BODY-ON FRAME 4X4 FOR DIRT PLEASE.”

With the 2024 Lexus GX forthcoming, the manufacturer has been issuing teasers to whet the public appetite. Thus far, it seems like the company will be offering a boxy design hoping to balance a rugged aesthetic without sacrificing a sense of luxury. But the initial teasers looked extremely aggressive, undermining the premium nature of the brand. 

But Lexus issued another teaser image this week, offering a better sense of the vehicle that’s slated to debut next month. 

The Lexus LC rides on an aging platform, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it to drive it.

Well, the much-maligned older version of the Lexus/Toyota infotainment system might give it away. But otherwise, the LC 500 convertible feels as fresh as ever.

There once was a time with variety on our roads. Small cars, large cars, tall cars, and trucks once shared the highway in relative harmony. People weren’t ostracized for hauling their families around in a compact car - even a hatchback. But in part due to some creative interpretation and exploitation of federal fuel economy regulations, the SUV and crossover revolution began.

Lexus teased the updated GX this week, suggesting that the model is about to become a bit more brutish looking. While the SUV has always resembled a Toyota 4Runner in a tuxedo, the next version is posed to share a platform with the Tundra and Sequoia — both of which are quite boxy.

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

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.

There may come a time when this fine publication will need a name change lest we fall behind the times. News articles dutifully report that automakers continue to research autonomous driving technologies designed to keep people safer by entrusting the speed and direction of our personal mobility devices to fallible sensors and algorithms designed by the lowest bidding mathematician. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

On Tuesday, Toyota Motor Corp. announced a commitment of 8 trillion yen ($70 billion USD) toward the goal of achieving carbon neutrality someday. Though the concept of any multinational manufacturing entity totally nullifying their carbon footprint seems kind of laughable, so we’ll be referencing this as another electrification strategy — which is still a big deal considering how EV averse Toyota has been thus far.

Despite being an environmental trendsetter with the Prius Hybrid, Toyota has been hesitant to formally commit itself to transition its lineup toward being reliant on battery power. However, President Akio Toyoda has just proudly confirmed that the Japanese automaker would be earmarking the funds for exactly that purpose, noting that the brand (along with Lexus) would be spending the money through 2030 to make sure its global sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) reach 3.5 million vehicles annually. Though the most enjoyable aspect of the release was the direct manner it was presented, with Toyoda-san being impressively honest about modern automotive trends.

We are constantly making decisions as we all hurtle through this life toward a destination unknown.

Sometimes these decisions turn out to be the “correct” decision, however “correct” is defined within the relevant context. Sometimes it’s the opposite.

The problem is that while the outcome of our decisions is sometimes obvious – I know when I order that one more beer that I’m kicking a payment of minor pain down the road to tomorrow – sometimes, the outcome isn’t foreseeable. Especially when you’re making a decision that feels correct at the moment (and defensible in hindsight), and yet a nasty surprise is just seconds away from smacking you in the face.

In other words, sometimes you make a decision that seems correct, seems low risk, one that others would agree with – and it still all goes to hell.

When Toyota announced that the Land Cruiser wouldn’t be coming back to the United States, off-road people shrugged and got back into their clapped-out 4Runners. Despite being incredibly capable wherever pavement is in short supply and having a pedigree that rivals Jeep’s Wrangler, the Land Cruiser is a prohibitively expensive vehicle. Toyota’s penchant for overbuilding vehicles merged with the model’s luxurious bent, resulting in a product that retailed at $87,030 before adding a single option, and sales volumes reflected this.

It was just too rich for most Americans and sales suffered as a result. But Lexus has confirmed the Cruiser-based LX will be returning and recently teased the new model’s next-generation online. While the manufacturer hasn’t confirmed that the 2022 Lexus LX 600 will be a rebadged version of Toyota’s off-road emperor, literally every generation of the LX series has been.

Today’s Rare Ride was the only other car accompanying Lexus’ LS 400 at dealerships in 1990 and 1991. The fanciest Camry offered in the US, it was a badge conversion from a Camry sold in the Japanese market.

But consumers saw through the charade, so while the high-effort LS 400 flew off the showroom floor, the minimal effort ES just sat there.

I’m back with more boring used car content, a topic some of you apparently despise with a passion. Caution: More used-car discussion ahead, get out while you still can if this is the case! For the rest of you, let’s review the impractical car suggestions you’ve made that earned a spot on the Yes, I Like list.