newr

a car review is "crap" in two ways. 1. Perfect 100%. 2. like the article above when everyting is negative. Even the positive were turned into negative... now.. that is crap because we all know that all cars have the good and the bad...

MikeFD3S

I read the article today during lunch. I wasn't too pleased with the headline in regards to the actual content of the article. The first part lambasted the car for being gimmicky, whereas the latter portions praised many of the same features.

I usually look forward to and greatly enjoy Dan Neil's Rumble Seat articles every week, but I feel that this article was seriously not up to par with his previous work. The title was awful, and not representative of the article's content. The first half had me feeling that the car was boring and had an excess of useless features, and then towards the middle of the article when he mentioned the drag coeffecient, it really started piquing my interest as a marvel of engineering that had quite a bit of work done to it.

I am sure some of his readers who are not Lexus owners also felt that he made quite a few contradictory statements in the article. The title really killed it for me.

marshmallo

Just because he's paid to have an opinion does not make it
an intelligent one. We're entitled to let him know that in no
uncertain terms and "crap" would be a fair assessment of the
quality of the article...

IS350inCA

Every Wednesday morning I look forward to reading Dan Neil's Rumble Seat, and every Wednesday morning its a good read. His writing is usually wonderful, and he can describe cars in some of the most outlandish ways. He's an auto critic! In order for the article to be worthwile for the average reader he has to include positive things and negative things. If he simply praises the car the article would be downright boring. Sure he included more negative things about this fine vehicle than positive, but like he said he only spent about 2 hours with the thing! Also critics only spend a short amt. of time with the car they're reviewing, and therefore a majority of their assessment is about appeal and performance factors. And don't think that he's a Lexus hater, because if he was he wouldn't have given the IS350 such a good review. Also dont feel outraged by only one article! I mean how many of you personally designed the LS460?

bruce van

To hell with credentials. What cars has Neil owned and what does he drive now?

MikeFD3S

I'm not outraged with the article or Dan at all, but I really feel this was not some of his best work. I personally think the LS has a lot of appeal and everything about the excesses he negatively spoke about is exactly opulence that defines what luxury is.

spwolf

engima, studies dont matter, because according to author, it mattes how much you are mentioned in hip hop songs....

lol.

MikeFD3S

thread merge!

better thread on the article:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=235586

bluestar

The article is ridiculously biased, and you can see it dripping from the title of the article on down.... Who frigging cares what HipHop gangstars are driving ? Are these people the harbingers of what true luxury means in cars ? Their cars are those they'd mod to death, with stupid 32" on a teenie wenie Chevy Corsica, or a crappola like that. Sure they love MBs and those bling cars cos it made them feel important. But it takes more than driving a nice luxury car to actually have the brains to decipher what true luxury is... I wonder how many of these bling blings have the basic understanding of many of the techno gadgets in these cars...

I will send a memo to Dan on this article. Calling him out and telling him how silly his comments were, as it only downplays all the nice things about this car, but hypes all the subjective parts.

The new S with the "hump" is not the most aestethically pleasing, neither is the toothy A8. Don't get me started on the the 7-series cos BMW has lost touch with what the style of that car should be with two redos in 5 years. Jag is nice looking, and Porsches are, well... Porsches... great cars. The new 460 is a looker amongst these class, and has the features to match. So why the hate ?

Mr. Jones

The man is entitled to his own opinion. Lexus can't please every single person on the planet.

MikeFD3S

Rap superstars do have some say with luxury, as their influence can really influence sales....the first model Escalade was a real POS, but sold like crazy in part due to its name being dropped every 10 minutes on mainstream radio.

It started out as a "ballers delight" but not long afterwards, you started seeing many young professionals (men and women, of all ages and colors) driving them and slapping some dubs on them! I wouldn't be so quick do discount the "hip hop effect" so quickly.

The use in the article was ill conceived though, since the bits of information he ommitted are apparent to anyone looking up those same figures.

D2-AUTOSPORT

It seemed as if he sort of had a "axe to grind" against the LS from the onset. Its not typical at all to read a article wherein the first 50% is un-adulterated BASHING. Although he did come around to laud the car on its merits it came a little too late for my tastes.

As for his gripes against the car for being technology laden, where has he been for the last decade? It is no secret that new fangled toys is the way that manufacturers generate intrest and give their products a point of difference in the marketplace. Some may not remember this, but when the r129 SL Mercedes was introduced in 1989, it had a power operated INSIDE REARVIEW MIRROR!!! Yes I mean the one that hangs less than 2ft from your head inside the car! lol

I can understand the point he was trying to make in that Lexus does not rank up there with MB and BMW on the snob-o-meter, but there is no need to bash the car like that.

I am however very interested to see if this new LS can carry Lexus upmarket. I also think the gadgets in it are AWESOME! lol

D2-AUTOSPORT

That is a excellent point and it also correlates to the fashion industry, in many cases the brands that the entertainers are wearing cross over into other genres too (Bathing Ape, True Religion, Evisu, etc).

I think its due to the fact that the "rapper effect" has a direct impact on younger people and alot of people want to be young or emulate youth

KKelly

Ummh, yeah, it is an opinion. What exactly do you guys mean by biased? That he discriminates against Lexus? That he will hate Lexus no matter what? I find biased usually means you don't agree with him.

I do think he could have been more general about the anti-technology arguments, i.e. all luxury cars are over the top on this stuff. The article is based on the premise that Lexus wants more panache and status. There has to be some truth to that but at the same time he should have discussed that they know who their market is. At the same time, if the loaded one is near $100k they have put their foot in a far different market and I think that is his point.

I had a ride in a new A8 this past weekend. Very nice car with a nice taut suspension, you could feel it was German. Really quiet as well. It had this pop up screen for its satellite radio and other controls. My first thought was, "..and they think cell phones are distracting." All of this useless rubbish in cars is a total distraction while driving. I guess even an old fashion radio is but you could adjust those blind. The climate control on my M5 I can adjust without every looking down, slide and twist big fat *****. It was so simple. All car companies have lost a bit of that because consumers demand that they have all of their home gadgets in their cars as well.

Personally, how the LS, S class or 7 series BMW's compare is not of much interest to me. I am nowhere near ready to drive a car like that yet.

jeffofla

R. Kelly, the R&B singer talks about Lexus in his song "Ignition" so there is some hip hop singers that mention songs other than MBs.