By John Goreham
Reprinted with Permission from torquenews.com
How will Lexus top its flagships of th epast?
28 Years ago Lexus shocked the world with a luxury sedan that surpassed the best in the world, but at a lower price, and with substantially higher quality. This January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Michigan, Lexus will show the world what a flagship sedan can be.
The LS is Lexus lowest-volume production car. With less than 500 units sold each month it remains an exclusive vehicle. Even the Lexus LX luxury sport utility vehicle outsells the large LS sedan. This begs the question of whether Lexus really even needs a large sedan.
Lexus thinks so, and will undoubtedly make this one even better than past models, though a gauge of that will be tricky. Aside from going all-electric, what can Lexus do to improve upon a sedan refined by three decades?
One thing that Lexus can do is make the styling more dynamic. Indeed, in its preview Lexus says that the new sedan will have a coupe-like silhouette. Lexus also reminded us that the LS is still a rear-drive sedan platform, something that Acura, Audi, Lincoln and others no longer produce. For many years this earned bragging rights. However, with LS sales approaching 100 per week and customers of all ages, all demographics, and in all parts of the world flocking to crossovers, one has to wonder if the sedan flagship is becoming old-fashioned.
