Lexus ES: 5th Generation (2007-Present)

It looks like the rumor of a 2010 Lexus ES facelift is right on the mark, as blogger Vince Burlapp has posted a blurry photo of an ES with a revised front-end.

The headlight treatment does seem a little derivative, but I really like the new grille. It has a strong, unique look, especially when you consider the current design.

There is a possibility this image is fake, but I’m inclined to believe it real. In fact, I’ve been told the new grille would resemble the LF-Xh, and that certainly holds up here.

One last interesting thing — there seems to be a blue tint to the Lexus logo. An ES hybrid, perhaps?

Last week, I posted up a new Lexus ES commercial that featured the talents of Bryan Berg, a professional cardstacker. Well, now we have a backstage pass at the making of this video:

I can’t imagine the tension that must have existed on this set, considering that if the filming of the collapsing cards had somehow been mishandled, the entire structure would have to be recreated. The price of perfection, I suppose.

This new Lexus ES commercial continues the “behind every detail, there’s a detail” marketing campaign:

It might not be as successful as the first riff on this theme, but the nod to the original LS champagne glass commercial more than makes up for it.

This latest Lexus commercial for the ES is a riff on the automobile-as-art-piece, displaying a blown up cross section in what looks like an art gallery:

I loved this commercial tagline the first time around, and hearing it the second time makes me wonder why it isn’t played up in more commercials. Works really well.

I noticed earlier this week that Lexus was featuring the ES 350 heavily on their US site, and it seems to have extended to TV as well:

Two pieces of Lexus Pebble Beach news today, first off, the much searched-for Pebble Beach commercial has surfaced on Youtube:

Not much to the commercial, it’s strictly an announcement-style advertisement, but the Pebble Beach edition color really catches my attention. It’s nice to see it on more than just the SC 430.

The other news has to do with pricing. The PBE RX 350 has been on the Lexus site since the middle of February, and costs a premium of $3,880 over the regular RX. However, the pricing for the ES 350 PBE was announced today, which will be a $4,170 option. (Remember, there’s only to be 6,000 of each model made.)