INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH
Lexus’s sporty LC500 beauty banishes boring
Mark Smyth travelled to Spain to experience the start of a new era for Lexus with its gorgeous LC500
Lexus. Boring. These are two words the president of Toyota and Lexus, Akio Toyoda, has promised will never be used in the same sentence again. To achieve this, he approved production of the dramatic LF-LC concept car, which was first shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 2012. It was a brave decision. Four years ago, the company was making cars that competed not on style, but on value for money and specification. Lexus has always struggled to rival Germany’s Audi, BMW and Mercedes. Not so much in the US, though, where it all began. Lexus means "Luxury Export to the US", and in that country, they are everywhere. The same will be true for the new LC, where the company expects to sell more than 400 a month in the US. With a hefty price tag of $100,000, Lexus will be lucky to sell four a month in SA. It will be a rare sight on our roads, but what a sight it will be. There are clear styling cues from the LF-A supercar, but generally there is a whole new design language at play. We drove it i...
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