2013 Lexus Es 350 Base on 2040-cars

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2022 Lexus LS pricing up by a little and a lot

In October of last year, Lexus announced its 2022 LS lineup with a sprinkling of finespun tweaks. There were retuned spring and damper rates for a more comfortable ride, larger anti-roll bars, an "enhanced" adjustable-ride-height function to improve passenger ingress and egress, reshaped piston tops for quieter engine operation and updated transmission calibration for more motoring in the meat of the power band. Plus, Lexus Safety System+ 2.5 came standard on every model in the range, a traditional Japanese foil treatment called Haku was available for the Luxury and Executive Packages, and the swish, 23-speaker Mark Levinson audio could be be optioned on the entry-level LS for the first time. At the time, prices weren't changed from 2021. Now they have. The entry-level LS 500 starts at $77,175 after the $1,075 destination charge, a $100 bump. The LS 500 F Sport also climbs just $100, to $80,775. Sending power to the front axle on either trim requires another $3,250. The LS 500h AWD hybrid now starts at $113,075, which reflects two price increases. Lexus removed the rear-wheel drive LS 500h from the lineup, so getting into the electrified LS stratum costs $21,500 more than it did for the 2021 model year. But Lexus also added more standard equipment to the AWD hybrid and boosted the price of the 2022 LS 500h AWD by $18,025 compared to the 2021 LS 500h AWD. The flagship sedan now gets Lexus Teammate Level 2 autonomy capability with Advanced Drive and Advanced Park standard. Advanced Drive invests the executive transport with the power to execute maneuvers like acceleration and braking to follow other vehicles, change lanes, pass slower vehicles and get through certain intersections. Advanced Park does just that. The Luxury Package is also standard, its features costing at least $17,000 to add on the entry-level LS.  The non-hybrid LS will offer a nine-strong exterior color palette, some of them a $500 or $595 upcharge: Atomic Silver, Caviar, Eminent White Pearl, Iridium, Manganese Luster, Matador Red Mica, Nightfall Mica, Obsidian and Ultra White. Ultra White isn't available on the LS hybrid. The 2022 LS is expected to reach dealers in late spring.   Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

PSA: Toyota wants to save your life, needs an hour of your time

Toyota wrote Autoblog to ask if we could spread the word about the Takata airbag inflator recall. Defective inflators remain installed in tens of millions of cars made by 19 carmakers, with manufacture dates that go back to the year 2000. Each inflator compounds the risk of serious injury or death in an airbag-activating crash. With a new ad campaign called "in about an hour," Toyota wants to make sure that unaware owners, or overly busy owners, know they can get their Toyota, Lexus, and Scion vehicles repaired free of charge in about the time it takes to do a load of laundry. The campaign focuses on cities in three so-called Zone A states where hot, humid climates worsen the threat of the ruptured inflators: Los Angeles, Dallas, and Miami. However, every owner everywhere who cares about his life, or his child's life, should at least check to see if his car is affected. All it takes is a quick VIN entry at the dedicated recall site at Toyota.com/Recall. The results will let you know if your car is affected and, if so, locate a local dealer for the free fix. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said the Takata affair has become "the largest and most complex safety recall in U.S. history." The numbers so far suggest the recall covers more than 42 million vehicles and more than 60 million airbags. Autoweek keeps an updated list of Takata information, including every make and model on the recall list. Consumer Reports published a list of frequently asked questions covering issues directly related and tangential to the recall. The 19 automakers maintain pages dedicated to the issue; Fiat Chrysler lists every relevant model and how it prioritizes repairs by Zone, Honda says it offers a free rental car while owner cars are repaired, Daimler vans says its fix only takes about an hour. And of course NHTSA serves all owners with its own VIN lookup site. We encourage you to check your vehicle — the life you save could be your own. Related Video:

Toyota wants improved crash scores with midcycle facelifts

The performances of some Toyotas in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) regimen of crash tests leave something to be desired. Consider the small overlap frontal crash test: only six Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles have undergone the new test, yet all but one of them received a poor rating. Osama Nagata, CEO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., says midcycle vehicle updates are in the works to address the safety issues brought to light by the IIHS test, Automotive News reports. He confirmed that the RAV4 is getting safety updates following its crash test performance last month, but he didn't name any other models.
All three Toyotas that were tested - 2013 RAV4, 2012-2013 Prius V, 2012-2013 Camry - received poor ratings. The 2007-2012 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-2013 IS 250/350 also received poor ratings. The only other Toyota Motor Corp. vehicle to score better than poor is the 2014 Scion TC. It received an acceptable rating in the small overlap frontal crash test and is the only recent vehicle in Toyota's line-up to get the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating.
The small overlap front crash test measures the safety of a car when its front left corner is strikes an object during an accident, bypassing traditional crumple zones, which deform in a way to protect passengers. In 2009, automakers were alerted to the forthcoming addition of the test, which was first implemented last year, IIHS spokesman Russ Rader says. They responded with differing intensity, he says, pointing out that Subaru and Honda started incorporating design changes early on so their cars would perform well in the tests.