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Sadly those giant wheel arches are required, thanks to our antiquated laws requiring clearance for snow chains. That's one of the requirements that the sketch artists often overlook - along with standards for lighting, bumper height, and rollover protection. You can ink up a really nice car, but producing it would be difficult thanks to NHTSA. Those extreme body panel creases are really difficult to stamp out too. especially in volume production.
People who have seen models and sketches of the new RX say it looks great, and I believe it will look great too. Both the front and rear have some interesting design elements going on, and I'm curious to see the interior.
Lil4X, Toyota has the most powerful stamping presses in the world. They're already being used for stamping the front fenders on the LS460. The wheel arches for this concept can easily be stamped in a high volume production setting using Toyota's latest machines.
It's concept. And it's one of the rare occasions where I will say that the production car will likely look better than the concept. This is just way too cartoony like the "space" cars I drew in my 8th grade notebook.
BTW, I think most people here didn't know that the RX330/350 has always been sold with an optional panoramic roof...just not in the US of A (for reasons we'll never know).
Last edited by XeroK00L; Oct 10, 2007 at 12:30 PM.
Agreed. All newer Lexus models, including the IS, GS and ES, have this problem, trading visibility for "style". I hope they'll tone it down significantly for production.
Wow...that looks pretty extreme. Some parts good and cool, other parts eye-openingly weird. It seems like a Hummer crossed with a Lexus.
A similar preview was given, when the LF-Sh came out to predate the LS 460.
Now the question is whether this LF-Xh is a production concept or a concept only.
Naturally the LX 570 previewed a rather polarizing Lexus approach to new SUVs.
I hope the next RX is a lot more curvaceous than the LF-Xh concept. Perhaps if it takes the futurism and smoothes it out, staying away from the blocky style that is similar to Acura and Cadillac, it will benefit.
Hopefully it will truly be "a coupe on stilts" as rumored.