I stumbled upon this never used Lexus ad for the ES350:

How totally bizarre.

As for background info, it was created by Walter Robot, an animation studio in Orange County, California, and was to be a series of commercials featuring the full Lexus lineup.

The idea, according to Christopher Louie, one of the principals, “was based around the concept of these faux retro educational videos—the kind you watched in like middle school science class on a projector.”

He was unable to say exactly why the spot wasn’t used, but considering the rather somber tone of recent Lexus ads, a little humor might have been a welcome change.

Lexus has released their ultra-mega hybrid LS600h & LS600hL sedans in Japan, and The Winding Road was good enough to share some photos and a host of exceptional numbers:

• The Japanese cost of the base model LS600h is ¥9.7 million, or $80,000USD, with the extended wheelbase LS600hL retailing for up to ¥15.1 million, or $125,000USD.
• The LS600h rates at 28.7 MPG, compared to the 21.4 MPG of the non-hybrid LS460.
• The hybrid engine cranks out a combined 445 BHP(!)

Pretty amazing figures, but what else could be expected from the most expensive production car ever made in Japan?

[Source: The Winding Road]

Edmunds has published a head-to-head battle of the 2007 IS350 vs. the BMW 335i, and while the results are fairly predictable (Shock! The 3-series wins again), a point must be made that the test itself was skewed in favor of Bavaria.

With performance being the main point of the comparison, the 335i was equipped with an optional $1,700 sports package, while the only options given to the IS350 were luxury appointments like the $3,990 navigation package and safety features like the $2,900 pre-collision system/dynamic radar cruise control. Considering this, is it any shock that the 335i outperformed the IS350 or that the Lexus was more expensive?

How can you draw proper conclusions when the test subjects are uneven?

[Via: BMW Blog]

There’s always backlash when a musician sells his music to be featured in a commercial, but is that really necessary with Elvis Costello’s Lexus ad?:

It’s a rather innocuous celebrity endorsement, but that doesn’t stop some people from taking offense.

A fantastic concept, famous musicians talking up their favourite music — that it’s an commercial for a car stereo seems besides the point.

Another week, another Fifth Gear Lexus review posted on YouTube.

This time up, it’s the Lexus IS220d, from an episode aired in 2005:

There’s a few things that stand out in this review, when Tom Ford compares it to the BMW 320d:

“Do you want to be able to say, ‘My car’s faster than your car?’, or do you want to say ‘My Car’s torque-r and more refined than your car?’”

“If I’ve got to cover 30,000 miles a year, I don’t want a car that only satisfies me 10% of the time, I’d prefer something that really did isolate me and make me feel comfortable 90% of the time.”

The 220d is only available in Europe, and will seemingly remain that way indefinitely.

[Source: egmCarTech]

From Japan’s car magazine Car Top comes a digital rendition of a Lexus IS Coupe & Convertible:

Keep in mind this is only a photochop and has no real basis in reality, though this car has been hinted at since 2005.

Really, it’s more a question of when we’ll be seeing these cars, because the addition of two IS variants would significantly level the playing field as Lexus tries to cut in on BMW 3-series and Mercedes C-Class sales. At the very least, there’s an IS convertible sized hole in the model lineup.

[Source: Nihon Car]

The global economy in effect or the growing geographic ineptitude of America?

An Anderson Analytics survey asked 1,000 U.S. college students to name the county-of-origin of particular brands, one of which was Lexus. 33.7% of the respondents believed it to be an American company, with 37.3% correctly identifying the country-of-origin as Japan. Not a particularly poor result, especially in light of the other misidentified brands — only 16.8% of people correctly identified Volvo as Swedish, and 58.4% guessed Land Rover was American.

Some took this as an opportunity to attack American youth and their lack of knowledge, but it seems unfair considering the volume of brands that exist in the world today. Should students really make a point of learning where cars come from? Cell phones?

Unfair, that is, until you find out that half of American students can’t find New York on a map.

[Source: Carscoop]

Tom Ford of Fifth Gear, the British car show, takes a ride in the new LS460 and really talks up the technology (most of which is not available on North American models): the advanced obstacle detection system, the car’s ability to stay in lane with no user input, driver monitoring and one of the smoothest examples of the self-parking feature I’ve seen yet — the car really does drive itself:

Audi has gone catty and released a commercial that claws at the Lexus LS460’s ability to park itself:

Not content to be oh-so-subtle with the dig, the car even slides between a LS460 and an IS350.

(Is this about the LS460 winning World Car of the Year over the Audi TT?)

In a rather surprising move, Rupert Murdoch took time out from trying to buy the Wall Street Journal to announce his intention to bring News Corporation to a “carbon-neutral” state by 2010.

As part of the campaign, Murdoch “has bought a Toyota-made Lexus GS450H “green” car, and other practical measures include solar-powered golf carts to carry people round the Fox film lot in Hollywood, building environmentally friendly studios, replacing company fleets with hybrids, using renewable energy, and offsetting remaining emissions by financing windpower in India.”

Sadly, there were no photos of Rupert in his GS, so I whipped up something in Photoshop: