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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/09/2014 in all areas

  1. On a serious note, I personally wouldn't do it - originality with these cars is much more valuable in my opinion
    2 points
  2. It strikes me that our cars have been unfairly tagged with the extremely competent but soulless name for too long, almost damning with faint praise. I of actually think the ls400 is dripping with personality, the problem has been that is is personality from a culture we don't live in, so it's personality sneaked under the radar. Think about it's main attributes....space and quietness, serenity, inner peace....if you were a Japanese car designer designing the best car in the world, what two characteristics would you make sure your car had?....the two any executive in Tokyo or any bustling city screams out for...space, and serenity. Space is at a huge premium in Japanese cities, as is peacefulness. If the car is to be a true luxury car it must relax its inhabitants, protect them from their normal environment, allow them to breath out, relax....we never really got that over here because space is available to all...to the Japanese businessman leaving a crowded building, walking through the crowded streets with car horns and voices going, the lexus must have seemed like a welcome Sensory deprivation cocoon....the engine whispers even under load and the cars performance is as powerful as any heavyweight judoka....it just has manners, doesn't shout about it.... The Japanese have a fascination for mechanical integrity we just didn't have when the lexus came out. A luxury car for us was a beautiful looking jag with ford switchgear or an overly ostentatious rolls Royce that had been living off a hundred year reputation for an excellence it no longer really provided. Neither were overly concerned with ergonomics nor did either give a damn about the feel, the operation of their switches, buttons etc. Japanese culture puts things like this above traditional looks etc, which we will come to next. Japanese luxury cars through the ages have not been beautiful, they have been big, square rigged cars with big, sometimes ostentatious grilles....they took this idea to its zenith with the ls400... I bet out of all the countries it was sold in, it stuck out and commanded most respect from its looks in it's home country. Designed to be non fussy, designed not to stand out, but with that Japanese love of a look at me grille minimised so the lexus did not look like a caricature of a saloon car but a cohesive, obsessive design. We like our luxury cars to shout look at me. The Japanese like them to be excellent, aesthetics has always come second. I would argue they nailed both with the ls, it's not till you live with one you appreciate what a master class of design it is....vast yet perfectly proportioned....much lower than you think, very aerodynamic whilst keeping those traditional Japanese attributes, it's built in spoiler/boot lid lip being a case in point.... I bet the Japanese thought the ls400 was a huge car with a huge personality....THEIR personality....it drips Japanese culture, it's personality is steeped in a tactile integrity that can be sensed by all who drive or, are lucky enough to own one....just as a jag, or a Bristol can be said to represent English culture, and just as both until recently, had almost become a pastiche, a caricature of said culture, the lexus ls400 represents Japanese culture and personality to a tee...and lexus has continued to do that with their options without becoming a caricature... No personality?....my cars loaded with it...
    1 point
  3. Well don't do it green and cream it may look like an old bus :)
    1 point
  4. Welcome on board Sam, your GS looks nice.
    1 point
  5. Welcome to LOC Nice motor B) Sent from my iPhone using Lexus OC
    1 point
  6. Went to a wedding yesterday and met a chap who works for the Mercedes f1 team. He heard my car then realised it was an isf. Ended up speaking to him for a bit and took him for a poke around the car. He was genuinely very excited to see it. Took a sound clip of the car for his mate and invited me to where he works for a nose, as long as I let him and his mate have a ride along in the f :0) He, like a lot of us is of the view the cars will appreciate in value over time and was chuffed to have finally seen one. Always good to meet other folk who appreciate your car. Stu
    1 point
  7. It appears they listened to the US Lexus owners. Some of them suggested a more matt finish with more resistance to oils on fingertips and voila, matt plastic with more oil resistance
    1 point
  8. Does anyone have a 'survivors' to ls sold in uk ratio....it would be interesting to know? I have only seen two other ls400 in dundee and around the area...I always flash my lights and usually get a wave back...ls430 owners don't usually bother!! Reading is forum and speaking to people who have owned them, they remind me of my other two loves, saabs and volvos....people keep them a LONG time....
    1 point
  9. Not sure if this has been posted before?
    1 point
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