Features

Last weekend, Lexus Canada held a concert series in Toronto that also provided the first public look at the latest CT 200h prototypes, one a Euro-spec Matador Red Mica and the the other an Obsidian CT built for the US market.

Living only a couple hours away from Toronto, I spent the weekend in the city with my little family, where I had ample time to get a good look at Lexus’ latest newest model.

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USA

Here’s the full model-by-model breakdown of Lexus USA’s August 2010 sales:

US automotive sales were flat this month, and Lexus was no different. The cause, of course, was last year’s Cash for Clunkers program — almost all Lexus models eligible for purchase under the program (IS, ES, RX) saw significant decreases.

With this taken into account, it’s a good sign that all the other models in the lineup showed positive gains — even the now-defunct SC had a sales increase.

Canada

Canadian Lexus sales were down 18.2% in August, for a total of 1,253 units sold. That said, Lexus 460 sales were up 75%, GX 460 sales up 30%, and the HS had its best month yet.

[Source: Lexus]

Lexus Europe has released further details on the 2011 Euro-spec IS F, which will be getting a number of exterior & interior design changes for the new year:

• 5.0 litre V8 is now Euro 5 compliant
• The HID headlights will get getting the arrowhead LED daytime running light strip
• New Starlight Black exterior color
• Dark silver fibre insets
• Contrast stitching changed from white to blue
• Revised seat design
• New steering wheel
• LFA-inspired instrument panel

Here’s the full photo gallery:

The biggest change has to be the new instrument panel, which is dominated by a massive tachometer:

With no way to swap the tachometer & speedometer dial position, I was somewhat lukewarm on the new IP — until I saw the digital speed display, a feature I absolutely love.

Great update — I’ve included all the European details after the jump.

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Yesterday was the public unveiling of the red & black Lexus CT 200hs, and I was on hand to take some photos — here’s a few of my early favorites:

The Matador Red Mica is an absolutely brilliant color on this car — perfectly suited and great to look at.

The black CT was also at the event, and I have more pictures of both cars — including a ton of interior shots — which I’ll be posting as soon as I get a chance.

We’ve already taken a look at the RX & IS Art Works special editions released by Lexus Japan today, but I’ve saved the best for last — just take a look at this GS in Sunset interior:

Here’s some close-ups:

This color combo is really something else (reminds me of the LS Sport interior), tasteful but energetic — I can’t stop looking at this pic:

(Hopefully this interior mimics the infamous Passionate Black GS and makes its way over to North America.)

[Source: Lexus Japan]

As part of their new Art Works initiative, Lexus Japan has teamed up with design studio Stone Designs to create some extremely unique interior options — the first of which is this Lexus IS in Sunrise:

The IS in Sunrise is the only design we’ve seen previously, and it features a decidedly oceanic color scheme:

Here’s all the special touches:

The entire package is a bit of mishmash of color, but I have to admit, the piano white interior trim is pretty nice. More impressive to me are the LFA-style wheels:

(Stone Designs also created a RX in Sunlight & GS in Sunset, which I’ll be posting shortly.)

[Source: Lexus Japan]