I hope that the LS does not become a crossover. Whenever I hear or see "luxury crossover", I cannot help but picture those, "must-jump-on-the-bandwagon" luxury crossover SUVs, the blocky, ungainly (badly-proportioned) Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
Call me old-fashioned, but in my opinion, a luxury flagship is a large 4-door sedan. There may be more expensive models in the luxury automaker's lineup (maybe even a more expensive, larger SUV) but the flagship is a sedan that has presence, a car that is both majestic and graceful. The flagship sedan does not have to sell well -- a high-selling flagship is perhaps a contradiction in terms -- but it has to be a large sedan that represents the brand.
I have admired many generations of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class because they have -- to me -- embodied cars that were both majestic yet graceful, and true luxury flagship sedans. The S-Class sedan is the flagship and when you think of "Mercedes-Benz" you think of the S-Class.
The earlier generations of the Lexus LS, I believe, were majestic and graceful, because they mimicked S-Class styling cues. The current generation of the LS, in becoming more Japanese, has lost those derivative S-Class cues, and while graceful, has lost some majesty, in my opinion.
When people think of "Lexus", they think of the large, majestic yet graceful, large LS, the Lexus flagship.
