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Lexus First Drives

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota that was launched in the US back in 1989. The brand initially began with one model, the LS large sedan, but has expanded to include coupes, convertibles, SUVs and CUVs. Lexus was the first Japanese luxury brand to seriously compete with German marques thanks to its sterling reputation for quality.

Lexus Vehicles:

Indicates a Reviewed Model

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First Drive: 2014 Lexus IS350 F-Sport [UPDATE] 1364227020

Is A New Kind Of Lexus Hiding Under That Radical Skin? When the now-outgoing Lexus IS generation was launched back in 2006, the company would not have been wise to bring the compact luxury sedan to be driven by journalists to a track like Driveway Austin Motorsports. Taking along a BMW 335i for comparison loops would have proved an ill choice as ...
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First Drive: 2014 Lexus IS prototype 1354813020

No one was comparing the IS to the BMW 3 Series, and for Lexus that was a problem. At the beginning of 2011, we rocked up to the parking lot at Southern California's Santa Anita Raceway to test the 2012 Lexus GS. This was the first sedan in the luxury brand's lineup to reset its intentions on the balance of sport and luxury. The previous GS had ...
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First Drive: 2013 Lexus LS [w/video] 1344614220

Japan's Premier Luxury Cruiser Now Comes With An Enthusiast Option In 1990, Nissan and Toyota both entered the luxury market with two new brands, each boasting a flagship premium full-size sedan. The Infiniti Q45 was aimed at the enthusiast with a powerful V8, limited-slip differential and a multi-link suspension. The Lexus LS 400, on the other hand, was ...
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First Drive: 2013 Lexus ES 350 1340035020

Same As It Ever Was Toyota really caught us off guard at the 2012 New York Auto Show. While scanning the press materials for the 2013 Avalon, we noticed the word "sporty" was used on quite a few occasions, and the release even talked about foreign-to-the-Avalon concepts like "throttle response," "steering feel" and "paddle shifters." At the time, it ...
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First Drive: 2013 Lexus GS 450h [w/video] 1325264220

Lexus' Best Compromise Yet Ever since the Prius unexpectedly became the Xerox of hybrids and a greenie icon, Toyota has been trying to figure out how to apply the technology to its other models. Its results have been decidedly mixed, nowhere more so than with its luxury lineup. But with the 2013 Lexus GS 450h, Toyota thinks it has finally figured out ...

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First Drive: 2013 Lexus GS 350 1322067420

If This Is The New Lexus, We Can Stop With The Pejoratives So Lexus wants to be taken seriously now. Certainly the brand is a heavyweight – and has been since the moment it launched 22 years ago, changing the luxury market almost overnight. It's just had trouble garnering the respect of the cognoscenti, the car enthusiast types, the sorts of people ...
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First Drive: 2011 Lexus CT 200h 1286985480

Lexus Tries To Build A Better European Luxury Hatchback "Stealing" seems a touch harsh, so let's go with "uninformed borrowing" instead. After all, Lexus did hand me the keys to a U.S.-spec CT 200h hybrid, along with a vetted and approved route book through Northern France, but I had different plans. I was on a mini-mission. You see, the wife doesn't ...
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First Drive: 2010 Lexus LS460 Sport Package is F-ing with perfection 1260982620

When Lexus introduced the IS F, enthusiasts were suitably skeptical about the automaker's attempt to go head-to-head with the Germans. After all, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have specialized in creating autobahn-burning, Nordschleife-honed handlers for decades. And then we drove it. To everyone's surprise, Lexus pulled it off, but we figured it might ...
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First Drive: 2011 Lexus LFA is wicked and this way comes 1256572620

It's taken nearly four days to wrap my head around the 2011 Lexus LFA, and if I'm honest, I'm still not halfway there. The combination of a decade-long gestation, a half dozen prototypes comprised of two different materials, a high displacement V10 that cuts fuel at 9,500 RPM and a $375,000 price tag has left me incapacitated and trembling in a caffeine ...
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First Drive: 2010 Lexus HS 250h is pretty on the inside 1243353540

Just because The Cold War is over doesn't mean that all cold wars have come to an end. Two protagonists in the auto industry – once again, East vs. West – are currently embroiled in an in-car safety and technology arms race that is beginning to look more like NASA vs. Roskosmos than a battle between luxury sedans. The latest master weapon ...