2006 Lexus Lx 470 Suv 4wd Mark Levinson on 2040-cars

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Finally, Lexus has a sick-looking crossover concept

So, Lexus isn't playing it safe. The Japanese luxury brand revealed a concept called the UX that will be revealed at the Paris Motor Show, and to say it's eye-catching is an understatement. It looks like one of those new-fangled, coupe-styled SUVs, along the lines of the BMW X6, though Lexus isn't explaining exactly what the UX is. It nebulously says the concept is meant to appeal to a "progressive, urban audience living in a connected environment." Sounds like an X6-, or perhaps an X4-fighter, to us. Oh, and probably with Wi-Fi. As you can see, the UX has massively flared fenders (which add an off-road vibe), a raked roofline and huge wheels. Pretty concepty, in other words. Like the NX SUV, which debuted as a concept then went into production largely unchanged, the UX has a lot of angles and curves. Like the NX, it will probably be divisive at first but a strong entry in the crossover segment if it makes it to production (we think it will). Lexus only released this rear three-quarters shot, so we'll have to wait to see what the front looks like. We'd expect Lexus' spindle grille and some snazzy LED lights. Inside, the UX "showcases imaginative technologies for an immersive driver experience, while the interior marries traditional craftsmanship with high-tech manufacturing techniques," Lexus says. Translation: It will be really digital inside with some wood, carbon-fiber, or fancy plastic trim. It debuts Sept. 29 in Paris. Related Video: Design/Style Paris Motor Show Lexus Crossover SUV 2016 paris motor show lexus ux

Least favorite vehicles of 2017

The Autoblog staff has driven a lot of vehicles in 2017. This video showcases our least favorite vehicles from this year, along with some thoughts on why they made the list. Wanna read more head over to https://www.autoblog.com/photos/least-favorite-cars-2017/ BMW Fiat Lexus Nissan RAM Toyota Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video nismo nissan sentra fiat 500x Arts and Entertainment 500x bmw m240i rogue

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."