2005 Lexus Sc430 Base Convertible 2-door 4.3l "pebble Beach Editon" Fully Loaded on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2016 Civic, Sonata, Lexus RX, and Altima earn TSP+ from IIHS [w/videos]

The 2016 Honda Civic sedan, Hyundai Sonata, Lexus RX, and Nissan Altima started the year with a bang by earning Top Safety Pick+ honors from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. They join 48 other 2016 model year vehicles that IIHS already tested that received the agency's top safety marks. These four models met the IIHS' latest requirement, scoring the agency's best possible score in all five of its crash tests – front, side, rear, rollover, and the difficult small-overlap – to be eligible for the safety accolade. Hyundai improved the 2016 Sonata's structure after the sedan's production began, so this rating only applied to examples produced after October. To get the TSP+ honor, a vehicle's crash prevention tech needs to earn least two points on the IIHS' scale. The lower Top Safety Pick designation can go to model with a "basic" version of these systems like a front collision warning. The Civic, Sonata, and RX scored the maximum six points to get "superior" scores for their optional crash prevention tech because they avoided collisions at up to 25 miles per hour. The Altima was successful in a 12-mph test, but the system slowed the sedan by 10 mph in the 25-mph test rather than completely stopping it. Therefore, the agency awarded the Nissan five points, which was still a "superior" score. You can watch the small-overlap tests for the Civic, RX, Altima, and Sonata respectively below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Four more vehicles earn the 2016 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award ARLINGTON, Va. — The Honda Civic 4-door, Hyundai Sonata, Lexus RX and Nissan Altima are the latest vehicles to earn the top award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The four vehicles join the 2016 winner's circle just one month after the initial crop of 48 TOP SAFETY PICK+ winners was announced. The requirements for TOP SAFETY PICK+ were tightened for 2016. To qualify, winners must earn good ratings in each of the Institute's five crashworthiness tests and have an available front crash prevention system earning an advanced or superior rating.

Lexus RZ electric SUV will be shown (with a yoke) on 4/20

Lexus will reveal its production RZ electric SUV on April 20, the company announced Tuesday, steering well clear of April Fool's Day with a teaser package that would be right at home in Elon Musk's Twitter feed. And yes, there's a yoke. If it weren't for the fact that we already knew about the Lexus RZ, coupled with confirmation from Toyota that the bZ4X's yoke is the real deal, we'd be highly suspicious of this early-April announcement from a traditionally conservative manufacturer. Welcome to 2022, when none of that really seems to matter anymore.  We already suspected that the RZ was based on Toyota's bZ4X, so the indication of an available yoke is not that surprising, really.  In the Toyota, it's paired to a variable-ratio, steer-by-wire system. Toyota says it also improves steering feel and ensures road and tire vibrations don't make their way to the driver. The latter seems obvious since there's no physical connection between the wheel and road, but whether that makes for an "improvement" in steering feel is not something with which we're inclined to automatically agree.  Lexus offered no further info apart from the reveal date and time (6 a.m. EDT April 20) and these new teaser photos. The psychedelic lighting job on the car seems a bit on-the-nose for something debuting on 4/20, but again, this isn't a Tesla, so clearly somebody just thought it would look cool. Fortunately, we have the bZ4X's spec sheet to go on. The 4,232-pound Toyota is powered by a single electric motor with 201 horsepower or a dual-motor setup with 214 horses (107 per motor). Clearly, getting all-wheel drive into the equation mattered more than performance, as Toyota says it'll still take 7.7 seconds for the bZ4X to hit 60.  Regardless of motor count, the bZ4X gets a 71.4-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack said to deliver about 310 miles of maximum driving range in the front-wheel-drive model and 285 miles in the all-wheel-drive version based on the Japanese testing cycle. It's not outrageous to think the RZ might get a more potent powertrain, but we'll just have to wait and see what Lexus has in store.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.  

Lexus is legitimately releasing a 60,000-hour version of its 'Takumi' documentary

In an age when many people determine expertise and authority by a blue check next to a Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram account, the idea of a true expert at his or her craft has been somewhat washed out. It is no longer an expectation, it's a rarity, and Lexus is honoring those who show true dedication to the art and science of practice. On March 19, Lexus will release a documentary about reaching takumi status, the highest level an artisan in Japan can attain by putting in 60,000 hours of work. Lexus first debuted this documentary, "Takumi – A 60,000-Hour Story on the Survival of Human Craft," at the DOC NYC film festival in New York. The film, which Lexus calls a character-driven study, has two forms. The feature version will debut on Amazon Prime and other streaming services, but that's technically a cut from the full-length 60,000-hour version. Yes, 60,000 hours, that's not a typo. The elongated cut will feature loops and repetitions of various skills as a way to imitate and display what it takes to become a takumi craftsman. (In case you're wondering, 60,000 hours translates into 7,500 eight-hour workdays, or more than 20 years if the artisan never took a single day off. Twelve-hour days would achieve true takumi mastery in under 14 years. To watch the full-length documentary, running nonstop 24 hours a day without bathroom breaks, you'd need 2,500 days, or nearly seven years.) The timing of the Clay Jeter-directed (Chef's Table) documentary is no coincidence, as manufacturing and production has been hit hard by machinery and artificial intelligence. Paired with the idea that everybody now wants things instantly, there is legitimate worry that the art of human craftsmanship is dying. There are four subjects in the movie: Lexus craftsman Katsuaki Suganuma, carpenter Shigeo Kiuchi, paper artist Nahoko Kojima, and chef Hisato Nakahigashi. Each has an inspiring mentality and story regarding a principle we've all been hearing since we were children: "Practice makes perfect." But a real takumi knows there is no such thing as perfection, only the path toward it. Watch the trailer for the documentary above.