Longo Lexus, the largest Lexus dealership in the western US, will be growing even larger with the help of some substantial grants from El Monte, California (the dealership’s home) and the federal government. Along with the adjoining Toyota dealership, this grant of $3,000,000 will be used to construct a 50,000-square-foot service facility, additional parking, a revamped show-room and a 2,500-car parking structure behind the dealership.

Clearly, this is a serious upgrade, and according to El Monte Redevelopment Director Eugene Moi, very beneficial to the city as well:

Moi said the sales tax increase resulting from the renovations has already more than covered the city’s investment. And that’s before El Monte begins to cash in on the added property tax revenues from the new facilities.”We have made a prudent investment to stimulate further investment in the city, and it has definitely worked,” Moi said.

The construction of this upgraded dealership brings with it 131 new jobs, and this is on top of the existing workforce of nearly 860 people.

[Source: SGV Tribune via Autoblog]

I have yet to play the Test Drive Unlimited video game, but my interest just went up ten-fold after discovering that the Lexus LS 460L is an available car. This video clip from the game is pretty funny, it even includes a fully-virtual Lexus dealership showroom:

I don’t understand the inclusion of a flagship full-size luxury sedan in a racing game, but the fact that it’s the long-wheelbase version makes it twice as bizarre.

Reaffirming my belief that the Lexus IS-F should never have been marketed in electric blue, take a look at these photos by Flickr user PieterA from the 2008 Brussels motor show:

The car really does have a fantastically muscular front 3/4 view, doesn’t it?

Update: PieterA uploaded another image, it’s a nice front view with that shows off the enormous hood:

It turns out the IS-F isn’t the first time Lexus has marketed a vehicle as the opposite of what you’d expect from the company, take a listen to the tagline of this 1996 LX 450 commercial:

“It’s everything a Lexus is, and everything a Lexus isn’t.” sounds pretty close to the IS-F’s “Everything you thought we weren’t” tagline.

(Perhaps Lexus should consider an off-shoot brand and just make the opposite of every car in their lineup.)

The No.1 Lexus Riley Prototype has won the Daytona 24 race for the third year in a row, marking the first time this has ever been accomplished in the race’s history. Piloted by Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Memo Rojas, the Chip Ganassi team powered through the 24 hour race with none of the problems that beset their competitors:

The stat sheet will show the No. 01 won by two laps, led 252 of 695 circuits and the last 100. But for the first 19 hours the race was anything but a walkover, more resembling a last-man-standing test of mechanical preparation, luck, will and ability to not only survive, but thrive in conditions that went from wet to dry and back again.

The team did it well enough that aside from an early tire problem, the 2,474.2-mile marathon was trouble-free on the track. The only hiccup came when Franchitti was awakened too late for a stint, forcing Pruett to do extra time, but that didn’t slow them down.

Easily one of the most demanding races out there, it’s an amazing achievement to win it just once, nevermind three years running. Congrats to the whole Chip Ganassi team!

(Thanks Dan!)

[Source: USA Today]

According to Winding Road, the new issue of Autocar is reporting that Lexus will be moving away from the L-Finesse design language used to style their cars over the last two years.

L-Finesse, which was created by Leonardo Fioravanti, first appeared in production form with the introduction of the 2006 GS model, and was meant to embody three essential qualities: Intriguing Elegance, Incisive Simplicity, and Seamless Anticipation. In practical terms, the vehicles using the L-Finesse language had some common features, including a fastback profile, a lower set grille and the use of both concave and convex surfaces.

There’s no mention of when L-Finesse will be discontinued, or what will come next, but I’m taking this news with some cautious optimism. I much preferred when the Lexus lineup didn’t all resemble one another, when it wasn’t just variations on the same theme. Still, there’s no saying that the future direction of the brand styling will be any different in that regard.

Building off his presentation at the Automotive News World Congress, Lexus general manager Mark Templin outlined the future direction of Lexus dealerships in the US in an interview with Ward’s.

There’s a lot of information hidden in the details, but the primary point made is that Lexus will start to take on some characteristics of Scion, particularly in the way it deals with younger customers:

We’re learning about what young people want,” says Templin…“And that gives us a glimpse into the future. We can see what our future looks like by looking back and seeing what those people want today.

“The reality is, we’re all going to become like those young people. They’re not going to become like us.”

What Scion buyers want – and future Lexus customers will desire, as well – is a quicker purchasing and no-fuss service experience.

“Time is very important for them,” Templeton says of the Scion customer. “So we have to figure out how to speed up the process for them, whether it’s buying the car or whether it’s the parts and services side of the business. Those are important things.”

What’s interesting is how Templin plans to introduce these elements into the Lexus experience, with the most notable being “around-the-clock service facilities”. I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be to pull this off, though it’s an easy statement to misinterpret. It could mean that servicing and repair could be put on a 24-hour schedule, and not that it would be possible to get an oil change at three in the morning. But who knows? It would certainly be a one-of-a-kind service, that’s for sure.

It’s an indepth interview, and very interesting to read.

[Via: TTAC]

After a while, auto show photos of a specific model tend to blend in to one another, but Flickr user Luc Bernard managed to bring something new to the table with his photo of the Lexus LF-A Roadster, all stark contrast and saturated color:

There’s been a lot of disappointment that a production model of the LF-A wasn’t shown at the Detroit Auto Show, but it shouldn’t take away from this roadster version. It manages to maintain Lexus’ gift for subtlety (at least by supercar standards), I just can’t get enough of it.

Putting aside the hoopla surrounding the Lexus IS-F Racing Concept for a minute, here’s some jumpy video footage of the car from the Toyko Auto Salon show:

I think I would have liked this vehicle a whole lot better if it had been done up like an actual race car, with the decals and flashy colors. As it stands, it’s hard to get a real feel for it — nevermind that it seems almost impossible for anyone to get a good photo of it.

Save for the short appearance by Charles Hubbard of Lexus College, this Bumper2Bumper TV video profile of the Lexus LX 570 doesn’t really have much to it, except for one thing — it shows that this vehicle looks absolutely spectacular in movement (around 45 seconds in, to be precise):

I think my devotion to the LX 470 made me lukewarm to the LX 570, but between this little glimpse and the videos released by Lexus, I’m definitely starting to come around.