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Lexus eschews production in China over quality concerns

One of the more popular trends in the auto industry is setting up production operations in China. Mainstream manufacturers like Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen have done it, and even luxury marques like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have or will soon have manufacturing ops in the People's Republic.
One company that isn't building cars in China, though, is Lexus. The Toyota-owned luxury brand still manufactures all of its vehicles in Japan (aside from a few RXs, which are built at a Toyota factory in Canada). According to Tokuo Fukuichi, Lexus just isn't ready to build cars there yet.
"The German Three have a brand image that they have cultivated over the past century in their long history, but Lexus is not in people's minds like that yet," Fukuichi-san told Reuters UK.

Xcar gets Lexus LFA serviced at TMG

Toyota has made all manner of vehicles, from sedans and hatchbacks to crossovers and pickup trucks. It's even done a handful of sports cars over the years. But it's only ever done one real supercar, and that was the Lexus LFA. The ten-cylinder supercar was built at the dedicated, purpose-built LFA Works, a facility within Toyota City in Japan that's since moved on to making everything from bicycles to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. But if you were lucky enough to be among the 500 customers to get your hands on an LFA, you may not be inclined to send it back to the factory every time it needs servicing. Especially not if you live in, say, Europe. That's why Toyota Motorsport GmbH was tasked with handling service for the LFA for Europe. The facility in Cologne, Germany, was once home to the automaker's F1 team, now runs its championship-winning endurance racing team and will soon again serve as the home base for its renewed assault on the World Rally Championship. So it's just the type of facility that could handle whatever comes up with Lexus' high-strung exotic, from servicing the V10 engine to repairing the carbon-fiber chassis if need be. After checking out the underground collection in its last episode, the guys at Xcar popped their heads in at the LFA service center. There they spoke with TMG VP Rob Leupen, who seems convinced that Toyota should make a new hybrid supercar. We hope he turns out to be right.

2019 Lexus ES 350 F Sport Quick Spin Review | Yet another Lexus surprise

The 2019 Lexus ES 350 F Sport truly cements that "driving like a Lexus" now means something far different than it ever did before. It's not dull, it's not anonymous and old ladies probably won't like it. It should not be painted pearlescent white. Instead, the new ES is genuinely engaging to drive, feeling every bit like it was spawned from the same gene pool as the lustworthy LC coupe and surprisingly sharp LS flagship sedan. I actually enjoyed driving it more than the BMW M550i, and I liked driving that car quite a bit. Seriously. No one is as surprised by that statement as the guy who typed it. It really comes down to what you feel through that F Sport steering wheel, through your heels planted in the floor below, and the seat of your pants that's now placed lower in a sportier driving position. The 2019 ES 350 is one of those cars that manages to shrink around you as you hustle it along, feeling much smaller than its full-size sedan dimensions would indicate. It may be based on the Avalon, but that car never felt as lithe and responsive as its Lexus cousin. The extra structural rigidity of the ES is part of the equation. Now, to be fair, the ES in question is the F Sport model fitted with the optional Adaptive Variable Suspension derived from the divine LC, which no doubt helps the dynamics compared to lesser ES trims. But judging by the impressions of others, plus the rest of Lexus' redone lineup, lower-trim ESs seem to drive well. Even the base cars come with novel swing-valve shock absorbers designed to ably soak up bumps while keeping things level around corners. The electric power steering motor has also migrated from the column to the rack – a sure fire way to improve steering feel. And that it does, plus Lexus has a knack of tuning the various steering settings (Normal, Sport and Sport+) to be subtle in their increase of effort. There's no overly stiff weighting to satisfy the notion that "sporty" steering equals "stiff" steering, as is often the case in cars with variable drive settings. Appropriately, I drove in Normal around town and in Sport+ on my mountain road evaluation route. The differences aren't night and day -- it still feels like you're driving the same car -- it's just been tweaked slightly for ideal performance. These drive settings also adjust the adaptive suspension, if so equipped.