No Plans for Next-Generation Lexus IS F

[Will1991]

Toyota doesn't give a flying sh*t about consistency. All they see is P R O F I T.

In the long term sure, they have to, but... Being so profitable does allows them to give us special products from time to time, see:
-LC
-LFA
-IS-F (and almost all F products)
-GT86
-Supra
-etc...

Sure, some of them required a small investment but even this way, I doubt they saw a proper profit on any of them (when compared to the rest of the range).

A couple of months ago I do agree and think the same, why Lexus doesn’t do as the Germans? But now I think differently, Lexus did get me passionate regarding their cars because they do it differently to the Germans.

When German design seemed like a shrinking copy (as they all look the same) from their biggest models (and little more than a small evolution from their previous model), Lexus created the spindle grill with a different interpretation for each model.

When Germans invested heavily on diesel, they gone to hybrids.

When Germans got to touch screen, Lexus forgot about it (ok, maybe this one was bad decision ahahah)

I do go against some decisions from Lexus/Toyota, but the main reason I love Lexus is for doing things differently, just find it a bit sad as sometimes they could clearly go a lot further and they choose to wait... Or not to do it...

Even the LSS+ fuel cell flagship, I don’t agree with hydrogen, but for a company so well founded and with an amazing FCEV technology... Just build the dam thing!

 

[Carmaker1]

The minute I read this days ago my first instinct was to become extremely angry and disappointed in them.

Australia seems to be the greatest hub for automotive journalism nowadays it seems, because companies are not threatened by them competitively and are unusually informative, as which is also the case with GCC. Quite peculiar in the 21st century.

The problem with IS and GS is that they are priced lower than their direct competition and SELL way less! No wonder the lack of investment by board of management is so glaring. This applies to all Japanese luxury brands.

Zeusus ever so finely explained this. Lexus did very well, when their 1990 LS 400 was $35,000 against the $63,550 1990 420 SEL V8 sedan and $75,300 560 SEL.



Fully loaded at $41,000, it was a crazy deal against a maybe $65k 420 SEL. With inflation, the price differential between them is NEARLY $50K! $24,000 in 1989 is double the amount in 2019 dollars!

Today, the LS 500 is forced wedge itself in between the TTV6 S450 $94,250 (US only) and $102,000 TTV8 M176 S560 in positioning, yet barely undercuts it by $19k in modern dollars. This is why Lexus abandoned some philosophies they took with the XF40 4th generation LS that tries to reach the height of the pricing stratosphere.

The fact that Lexus cannot manage to sell more than their RWD expensive competition yet even do worse than they do is concerning to the bottom line.

Only the es line manages to do this successfully because there's little to no competition anyway.

I can understand why Akio toyoda is so angry.

 

[internalaudit]

Maybe the EV revolution will change the order of things. If engine is the department where Toyota lags in performance, that may change with BEVs.

I am 90% sure my next cars will be BEVs and the lame excuse BEVs are not going to be profitable have been dispelled by Tesla.

Heck, I wouldn't mind paying $10-15k more for a BEV over its ICEV counterpart. Give it three electric motors for rear axle torque vectoring and I will go for one, no questions asked.

If the Model 3 can beat the G20 330i, a Lexus IS or similar model with electric torque vectoring can easily win the crown.

 

[thtupid]

The minute I read this days ago my first instinct was to become extremely angry and disappointed in them.

Australia seems to be the greatest hub for automotive journalism nowadays it seems, because companies are not threatened by them competitively and are unusually informative, as which is also the case with GCC. Quite peculiar in the 21st century.

The problem with IS and GS is that they are priced lower than their direct competition and SELL way less! No wonder the lack of investment by board of management is so glaring. This applies to all Japanese luxury brands.

Zeusus ever so finely explained this. Lexus did very well, when their 1990 LS 400 was $35,000 against the $63,550 1990 420 SEL V8 sedan and $75,300 560 SEL.

View attachment 3559View attachment 3560

Fully loaded at $41,000, it was a crazy deal against a maybe $65k 420 SEL. With inflation, the price differential between them is NEARLY $50K! $24,000 in 1989 is double the amount in 2019 dollars!

Today, the LS 500 is forced wedge itself in between the TTV6 S450 $94,250 (US only) and $102,000 TTV8 M176 S560 in positioning, yet barely undercuts it by $19k in modern dollars. This is why Lexus abandoned some philosophies they took with the XF40 4th generation LS that tries to reach the height of the pricing stratosphere.

The fact that Lexus cannot manage to sell more than their RWD expensive competition yet even do worse than they do is concerning to the bottom line.

Only the es line manages to do this successfully because there's little to no competition anyway.

I can understand why Akio toyoda is so angry.

Don't quote me but Im pretty certain Australia is a country that loves their performance vehicles. It has, I think, one of the highest sales per capita for AMG/M/RS. Yet, F doesn't sell. I believe one of the problems is the brand cache. It seems Lexus has stopped brand building with the LF-A. Yes the LC is nice but that is out of reach for a lot of people. Their current "sport sedan" lineup is just horrendously old. The gruen transfer said that people get drawn into BMW by the 7 series, and leave with a 5 series. That is what flagships are for. But where is the followup for the LC/LS? The urrent IS is nice yes...I have one...but it's not THAT nice. It's missing a lot of tech that is available on even a corolla. Quality materials and build will only net one so far.

My point is, I reckon Lexus haven't quite made it yet in terms of making a name for itself in terms of prestige. Yes it's getting there. But not quite yet. But despite that, they seem to rest on their laurels. Solely relying on the UX and NX for sales may be great for the bottom line but in the long term, I do believe it only harms the image of Lexus.

But what do I know...