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Lexus RC F Coupe puts on a brave face for Detroit

With less than a week to go until the 2015 Lexus RC F makes its debut at the Detroit Auto Show, Lexus has given us a sneak peek at its upcoming performance coupe. Earlier this week, Autoblog was granted were the opportunity for an intimate studio photo shoot with the RC F outside of the bright lights and big crowds sure to surround the coupe at Cobo Hall next week.
Compared to the hybrid version of the all-new RC we saw at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, the RC F has noticeably more aggressive styling. The cartoonishly oversized Lexus spindle grille gets a mesh insert pattern and is flanked by massive intakes in the lower fascia. To make room for what is expected to be a bigger V8 engine, the hood sits higher and is vented, but like many details about the RC F, Lexus is keeping the engine's size and output under wraps (although we have a sneaking suspicion it'll have 460 horsepower).
A trio of 19-inch wheel options will be available (including a set that is hand-polished), and the side sills and rear fascia have been modified for F duty. The biggest styling change on the RC F, however, is the LFA-inspired active rear wing that rises at speeds above 50 miles per hour for improved traction and stability. Carrying over cues from the current IS F, the RC F features air outlets behind the front wheel openings and angle-stacked exhaust outlets at the rear of the car.

Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla

Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only American brand to crack the upper echelon, Cadillac. Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan rounded out the first ten positions. The news for domestic automakers isn't good. Aside from Caddy, the only other star-spangled automaker to score above the industry average is Chrysler. The rest of FCA, most of GM, and all of Ford fell below the line. But Pied Piper's mystery shoppers handed Tesla the biggest walloping – the company is ten full points below the next lowest brand, Volvo, and its score of 86 is 17 below the average of 103. It's baffling, considering the company's touted direct-sales model. "Tesla leaves me scratching my head," Fred O'Hagan, Pied Piper's president and CEO, told Wards Auto. "They own all of their stores, so you would think each one would be doing the same thing. But they're not. Tesla is consistent in its inconsistencies." O'Hagan added that there's a "huge variation" in Tesla's store-to-store effectiveness, and that in some cases, shoppers found showroom workers that acted more like "museum curators," Wards Auto reports. It might be popular to call Tesla the Apple of the car world, but based on Pied Piper's work, the brand has a long way to go to emulate the uniform shopping experience of an Apple Store. The news might be bad for Tesla, but even for the brands that scored below average, there's cause for celebration. Only Tesla and Mini lost points in this year's rankings, and only Mercedes and Lincoln held steady. Every other brand, including Infiniti, which topped the index for the first time, gained at least one point. The biggest improvements belong to Porsche, Land Rover, and Mitsubishi, which all jumped five points. Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index uses mystery shoppers – over 6,100 this year – from across the country to assess dealers and generate rankings from over 50 individual factors. News Source: Pied Piper via WardsAuto Green Audi BMW Cadillac Chrysler Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers study

Drifting on a frozen lake with a studded Lexus looks like fun

Sometimes you come across a list of ingredients and you don't even need to know what's being made, you just know you need to be there when it's done. So if you saw a recipe for a Vimeo video that was one snow-covered frozen lake, one Lexus IS, four studded tires, two ice fisherman and one guy lounging on a couch, do you think you'd have any questions?
We didn't. The dish was cooked up by the Wide Open Drift Team and KSP Productions, and it's exactly what you'd think it is. Right down to the guy on the couch. We're glad we got to partake, and you can too in the video below.