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I have to say, I am quite surprised with Lexus's ability to keep such a tight lid on such a hotly anticipated car. When you spring up the announcement (I believe that the GS was kind of a surprise announcement, or was it expected), you can keep it secret, but this car is probably, at least in my book ,the most highly anticipated car. Lets hope to see it in tokyo... and of course in Detroit in January (and maybe even on sale soon after?)
The article in the picture talks about LS600h. A Japanese newspaper has confirmed that the flagship model is expected to cost around $100K. The redesigned model will be out next summer, 2007. Until then current LS is sold as Toyota Celsior in Japan.
Also, about the 50k GBP... I thought at first that that must imply a high US price (50k GBP is around $90,000), but I actually found out that it is less than the price that the cars are currrently selling for in the UK.. perhaps they meant the US price (and then translated into GBP)?
My bad, I meant to state in Japanese Yen. Here I make a correction to my previous post that it will cost around 10,000,000 Yen ($87,527.39 where $1 = Y114.26 today) in Japan. 100K was a rough guess but, 88K sounds more reasonable.
The rear end looks like its from a 1997 Q45. (which I saw driving by this morning)
Look for the new LS to debut in Detroit, Chicago or New York.
To the contrary, this press release actually shows that the new LS sedan will be on display at the Oct 22nd Tokyo Motor Show in addition to the GS450h and LF-A. That is as stated clearly in the PR. This is very exciting.... Finally, a look at the 2007 LS.... only a week to its debut...
No, read it again....The Lexus press release says nothing at all about the new LS.......Not a thing. Until they say LS it's not an LS, sorry.
Here's the new LS spy shot if you want a look, and no, it's not a chop.
http://img433.imageshack.us/img433/5478/lexusls8ub7zf.jpg
bluesman3 - They may call it a concept car, but my guess is it will be the new LS. Lexus has done this in the past as the original RX and the 2nd generation GS were shown at auto shows as "concept cars" when in fact they were the actual things. So, I say it will be in Tokyo labeled a concept car but will then reappear in Detroit or Chicago as the new LS.
Well that's the problem, you're making a guess. Perhaps it's close to the new LS, perhaps it's way off, maybe it's something bigger than the LS. We simply don't know.
Remember the Cadillac Sixteen Concept? Did that ever make it to the showroom floor? No, it was a concept...
What about the LF cars? Nope, they're all concepts too.....
Lexus would be screaming from the rafters if this were the LS debut...but they're not.
You cannot assume it's something more than what they've stated.
Hey while you're speculating on the validity of that LS spy shot, here's a close up of the new glass roof on the ES..
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5761/lexusesroofopen3na.jpg
The Cadillac Sixteen was clearly a concept, and besides Cadillac has never shown a production car in advance as a concept that I can remember.
And the LF cars were also clearly concepts. Some had no outside rearview mirrors, outlandish dashboards, etc.
But just because Lexus is not screaming (and who knows, come next week they may) means nothing. As I said, Lexus quitely had the all-new RX at the auto shows (in 1996 or 1997?) labeled as a concept car but everyone knew it was the real thing because it looked like a real car. Same with the 2nd gen GS. A better example is when the SC 430 appeared at the Tokyo Motor Show labeled a concept car before its launch. All the magazines wrote this was a near-final car as evidenced by the details despite what Lexus said. And they were right.
Again, when we see this flagship concept car we'll pretty much know whether this is a near-production car like the new LS or not. The details like the interior, etc. will give away whether it is a concept or not. We'll just have to wait and see.
Remember the Cadillac Sixteen Concept? Did that ever make it to the showroom floor? No, it was a concept...
What about the LF cars? Nope, they're all concepts too.....
Lexus would be screaming from the rafters if this were the LS debut...but they're not.
You are absolutely WRONG here. The word *concept* is really Lexus' shpeak for new releases. All their concepts are actually pre-production test mules going around auto shows...The final production car is almost always the same as the so-called *concept*. A give-away: the GS450h was called a *concept*, when in fact it is slated for release next spring. Has been advertised in mags for the past 6 months as coming in April 2006. Does that tell you something about Lexus' *concept* cars ???
Len has correctly inferred, IMO, that the new LS remains the flagship car. Or are you going to deny that the LS is not the flagship ? So if Lexus unveils their flagship *concept* what else could it be ??? The LS will re-define Lexus' new direction, and it will remain its flagship. All others above it will be low-volume supercars, like the V10 code-named LF-A, which actually will be the GT model in production gab.
"the GS450h was called a *concept*, when in fact it is slated for release next spring."
Yes but they labeled it as a GS, not "luxury sport sedan hybrid concept".
Why would they call it that? There's nothing new about any of the sheet metal.
I think that if this "concept car" isnt the real thing, it will be very close. The '06 GS back in New York was a "concept" as well. I think the reason why they arent calling it LS460 concept, is they dont want to necessarily say what engine is in it yet. The 4.6 engine has not been announced yet.
Bluesman -What about the LF cars? Nope, they're all concepts too.....
The LF concepts are never intended to be in production. Everybody knows that. They are simply just a representation of what their design approach would be. They wouldn't call it Flagship if they have no intention in building the concept. As what everybody else is saying, the concept will be the representation of the real thing. But then again, only time will tell.
BTW, hollywoodextra post legitimate spy pictures. The only thing i see similarities of the spy pics of ES and LS are the colours of the claddings. But the overall body and design are distinct. There is no way those pics are photochopped.
I'd argue the exact opposite!! That Lexus would be screaming from the rafters if this was a new car entering above the LS. That would be a real news story and a marketing coup and not something to be subtle about. The LS story is not really big news. Everyone knows that 2007 is a new model year and everyone expects the car in a near-term auto show. Tokyo makes the best business sense for it to be introduced because Lexus is finally debuting in Japan. Toyota would be incredibly foolish to pass that show up and that is all the more emphasized by the fact that next years Tokyo show is a commercial show. My guess is they will show a super LS that may be a 12cyl with sportclad extras but the hardcore body design is the next LS. Moreover, waiting for another show gives added chances that someone will uncover the real car and show it before Lexus does and that's a NO-NO in Lexus land..
Lexusguy - good point re the engines. They may be making a late decision on the cars name. Without question an LS500 name will carry a lot more weight than an LS460. I think we will find out this next gen car is indeed an LS500. Maybe they would have said that already but are hesitating because of the oil spike. But another possibility is that this is the hybrid version that will be at the show as opposed to the gas version. Remember that car will have all the bells and whistles. As well this new design may have that interactive Bosch suspension and Lexus may have made a deal here for joint announcements D'oesn't matter to us as it's the sheetmetal design we're looking for.
To embellish this point, notice that many sketches about the next LS have focused more on the LS600h than any other engine variant. That may be the version Lexus unveils in Tokyo, afterall it will be in keeping with the current climate of fuel efficiency automobiles. The GS450h, LS600h and a V10 fuel-efficient supercar, would make for a nice story at the auto show. That would be my guess.
Nothing much to see though, to much disguise.
Looks pretty good to me.
Since this was my first posting at Edmunds, please correct me if I ever violate any of the rules enforce by the webmaster. This would be greatly appreciated!
To begin with, one of the reasons why I select this particular topic to post my first message was simply the number of interesting issues raised, by different members, on the future LS model. For example, some of you might wonder on whether the information provided by two of our countryman months ago can be trusted?? Believe me, I was also quite surprised that a Japanese individual can exhibit such behavioral characteristics since we typically like to distance ourselves against foreigners. Nevertheless I am not going to comment on the validity of their sources provided in the forum, since I am not sure if the webmaster would ever likely to approve it. However, if you wish to know whether these sources were valid, I am more than honor to send the necessary information to a couple of automotive insiders in Japan and they would take a look to see whether the information they provided were trustworthy sources.
On the other hand, I have observe a number of photographs in the forum, which proclaim to be the exterior of the future LS model and I saw there already some arguments as to which of these photos were genuine. However, l do suggest that we should settle down for this issue for now and wait until the actual sedan unveils in the auto show. I just simply can’t imagine that my former employer have ever open any doors and allow people to take photographs on the LS exterior and posted on the magazines, internet and so forth. Remember the LS was develop under high secrecy and I assure their employees are doing their best of their abilities to prevent any details related on the LS would ever release to the public until an appropriate time comes. I can tell you that I was once have solemnly swear an oath to my superiors back in the late 80’s to prevent any information on the entire Lexus project (the LS, ES, GS and SC) from reaching to the public hands at all cost and I would have to resign immediately shall I fail to met such promise. So you can imagine that if a Toyota employee have given a photo on the LS to a magazine or posted on the internet, they should expect to be remove from the company once they find out the source of the leak and I even heard that in some cases where they even pursuit court action in Japan and lay charges on these people whom have violated the oath.
So you can see just how serious Toyota would react if they find out any of their employees in headquarters have violated the oath and I can imagine they would stand extremely tough in dealing with this issue since there are instances in the past where people are leaking information on vehicles that is under secretive research. However I do understand that there are some instances the pre-production vehicle was being shot at during road tests, but many of them are pretty much production-ready vehicles that you can expect to see them about half a year or so.
So I do believe Toyota have done an really excellent job in terms of hiding their secrets pretty well and they would continue maintain such tradition no matter what it cost to accomplish..
Finally to conclude my message, I would be expect to be head out to the Tokyo Auto Show very soon since the organizer of the event have invited the board members in our company and a number of major corporations in Japan to attend a private screening session a couple days before the show would open to the public audience. I wasn’t sure if the media would also have their own pre-screening session earlier than we do, but I would do my best to share my findings in the auto show to all of you, regardless if the media have report their findings earlier than I do.
See you all soon
T. Kiyonaga
His information was 100% accurate though.