CarBrandLogos archive · Lexus · 1989

LexusLS

Six years and an entirely new brand, aimed squarely at Stuttgart and Munich.

Photo: Kevauto · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Lexus history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Lexus LS, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

In 1983 Toyota's chairman Eiji Toyoda asked his engineers whether the company could build a car better than the best in the world. The internal answer became project F1, and it consumed most of a decade. Toyota had no credibility in luxury cars, so it decided it would need a separate brand, a separate dealer network and a car that did not merely match the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series but visibly beat them at something.

04-06 Lexus LS430 · IFCAR · Public domain

Design and engineering

The something was refinement. The 4.0-litre V8 was built to tolerances that let it run with unusual smoothness, mounted so carefully that vibration barely reached the cabin, and the body was developed for very low drag and, critically, very low wind noise. Toyota engineers were sent to live in California to study how American luxury buyers actually used their cars. Almost every component was designed from scratch rather than adapted, which is why it took so long and cost so much.

1998-00 Lexus LS400 · IFCAR · Public domain

In production

The brand was the other half of the problem. Toyota concluded that no amount of engineering would persuade an American buyer to spend luxury money in a Toyota showroom next to a Corolla, so it created Lexus as a separate marque with its own dealer network, built to standards the company specified in detail, from the architecture down to how a customer was greeted. In Japan the same car was sold as the Toyota Celsior, because there the badge carried no such handicap.

1989 Toyota Celsior 01 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

The LS 400 was shown at the Detroit auto show in January 1989 and went on sale that autumn as the first Lexus. It was quieter than an S-Class, better built, and priced well below both German rivals. The advertising that made the point best was an engineer's demonstration rather than a claim: a stack of champagne glasses balanced on the bonnet while the engine ran up through its rev range.

Chapter 5

What cemented the brand's reputation was a mistake. A recall was issued shortly after launch for two relatively minor faults, and Lexus dealers collected the cars from owners' homes, fixed them, washed them and returned them, often with a full tank. In an industry where recalls were an inconvenience to be endured, it landed hard.

Chapter 6

The effect on the incumbents was immediate. Mercedes-Benz and BMW both cut prices in the United States and both went back to reconsidering how much a car of that class needed to cost to build. The LS itself carried on through the LS 430, the LS 460 with the first eight-speed automatic in a production car, and from 2017 an LS 500 with a twin-turbo V6 and a far more aggressive shape. It has been built at Tahara in Aichi throughout, on a line that Toyota still treats as its showcase.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1989–present

Body

4-door saloon

Technical specification

The LS, in detail.

Production: May 1989 – present
Class: Full-size luxury car (F)
Body style: 4-door saloon
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout; Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive ; Front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout; Front-engine, all-wheel-drive (since 2006)
Assembly: Japan: Tahara, Aichi (Tahara plant)
Manufacturer: Toyota