It is an okay offering, but seems to be pointless when 25th and 30th anniversary editions would say much more for the nameplate.
Who is managing Lexus marketing? The fact the 2015 LS didn't have 25th anniversary edition was criminal, so a 30th anniversary edition should make up for that.
Honestly me too, when I first saw the LS I told to myself why they didn't give us the LF-FC as the LS and this LS as the GS, and when I drove it in AWD F sport I became sure that this is the new generation GS hence I have GS-F and I got GS450h, GS350 second gen GS450h & GS430 and first gen GS300
That's my impression when I first drove the LS 1 year ago. Even knowing the development story behind the car I am frustrated to know that what was the design that they did and didn't even try and rework the car to fit it, as in belatedly seeing their mistake during development 4 years ago.
All it would have taken was an additional review of the 200B LS design in the first half of 2015 and begrudgingly correcting it to reflect the LF-FC (its design was approved 3 December 2014).
In the end it really wouldn't have made a difference to engineering time, considering when production actually started at the very end of 2017 and not mid-2017 target.
Surely Toyota wouldn't have minded managing a 4 month cubing period in early 2015 from corrective design approval to design freeze, then SOP in December 2017 for early 2018 global launch.
Everyone gushed about that LF-FC Concept, being a knockout that you loved or hated. That was based on an alternative 200B LS proposal in 2013-14, which conveniently used the same design language, but a different design (thus not giving it away too early).
The new LS is the perfect GS and has lovely presence in F-Sport form, but is more of a discount Japanese Panamera than S-Class. That was too much a risk to take, as the sales will reflect it.
But at the end of the day, it is good to offer special editions! Just be consistent.
