Where do you stand on the gaping grille trend?
Lexus Champion
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 3,309
Likes: 31
From: Canada
2015 (pre-facelift) Lexus ES has the front bumper visible between the top and bottom halves of the spindle grille.
2016 (facelifted) Lexus ES has the front bumper hidden behind the spindle grille. But if you look carefully (and head-on to it) you can see the bumper hidden behind the mesh.
Toyota and Lexus are darned if they do and darned if they don't with you people. There is no satisfying you, is there?
Before the Lexus spindle grille and Toyota's large grilles, the complaint was that Toyota and Lexus vehicles were too boring. So they added some different styling, and now, they look ugly.
Before the Lexus spindle grille and Toyota's large grilles, the complaint was that Toyota and Lexus vehicles were too boring. So they added some different styling, and now, they look ugly.
I love the new lexus era. At least it's sporty and edgy AND has the driving dynamic to go with it.
Lexus Champion
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,540
Likes: 273
From: Illinois
It's not just people here that don't care for the grill/front end. Most of the reviews agree that they are polarizing. Not a good or bad thing, and I'm sure the Lexus brand is well aware of it.
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 94,410
Likes: 249
From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
You can't get people to like something (or to separate themselves from their hard-earned money) just by telling them to suck it up.Now, of course, having said that, if this vehicle's history is any guide, it will sell in decent numbers (if not in quite the same numbers as before) simply because it has an "L" and "RX" on it. Even with polarizing designs, old habits are sometimes hard to break.....although Ford and Mercury admittedly paid a price from 1995-1999 when they re-did the Taurus/Sable into those all-oval designs.
Last edited by mmarshall; Oct 19, 2016 at 04:22 PM.
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 35,424
Likes: 369
From: ON/NY
That is the whole idea. Compared to the last gen model without the spindle grille which has almost everyone agreeing that it is dull and boring. Do I like the new RX front end? NO, not in any way. It is horrendous. But do I think it is boring or not catchy? Not at all.
Advanced
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 608
Likes: 23
From: CA
Toyota and Lexus are darned if they do and darned if they don't with you people. There is no satisfying you, is there?
Before the Lexus spindle grille and Toyota's large grilles, the complaint was that Toyota and Lexus vehicles were too boring. So they added some different styling, and now, they look ugly.
Before the Lexus spindle grille and Toyota's large grilles, the complaint was that Toyota and Lexus vehicles were too boring. So they added some different styling, and now, they look ugly.
In other words, they're not ugly because the styling is new, they're ugly because they're ugly.
Lexus Champion
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 2,300
Likes: 4
From: RightHere
It doesn't look that bad in person but it seems to be trying too hard.
The Wall Street Journal's Dan Neil doing one of the most caustic take-downs of the RX's spindle. Brilliant writing but he does admit that it's a popular vehicle and there's a lot of praise for the RX's drivetrain.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/lexus-rx...ong-1447876499
The Wall Street Journal's Dan Neil doing one of the most caustic take-downs of the RX's spindle. Brilliant writing but he does admit that it's a popular vehicle and there's a lot of praise for the RX's drivetrain.
This is of those times I am mystified by popular taste. The Lexus RX premium crossover sells about 100,000 copies a year, every year? Really? This plush, pas de balles, early-Cubist nightmare with a smile like **** Cheney will sell 100 grand in the next 12 months?
Almost certainly, because—timing. The Lexus RX (1998) was a pioneer in a market segment that now dominates the portfolios and profits of many auto makers: premium crossovers/SUVs. The lineup includes Acura MDX, Lincoln MKX, Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV/GLE Coupe, and Volvo XC90, the last being my pick of the litter.
What is it that people find so appealing about the Lexus RX Premier Crossover?
But if the people want a Lexus crossover, by God, a Lexus it shall be. Indeed, the company’s product planners seem to be locked into a morbid feedback loop with current, much-dialogued Lexus owners, making features that strike many outside the circle as just plain weird into brand signatures.
...The RX’s carry-over engine, the 3.5-liter V6, can be celebrated, I suppose, as one of the last naturally aspirated, premium-market engines. It’s not a trivial piece, either: port/direct-injection with a 11:8 compression ratio, and variable valve timing that can switch between Otto and fuel-saving Atkinson combustion cycle, as load requires. Try that with your ’32 Ford Flathead.To add depth and color to the sound of the naturally aspirated V6, there is a resonator device on the intake side of the engine, a snarling little duck call that plays in the higher rpm. Snirr! The transverse-mounted engine’s 295 hp (up 25 over the previous model) and 267 pound-feet of torque get pumped through the whispering, if overeager, eight-speed automatic transmission.
That delivers 0-60 mph acceleration pace in the 7s—adequate, though hardly besotting. A little more body structure here, some retuning of the MacPherson strut/double-wishbone rear suspension there. Otherwise, and except for the hallucinogens in the styling department’s water, the RX is a dependably iterative generation of Lexus’s bread-and-butter product. So, about the styling. Is it in pain? Should somebody help it? No, it’s just very focused on being exciting. These stylistic exertions are, as near as I can tell from the media briefing, the direct result and marching orders from Toyota president Akio Toyoda, who has publicly expressed his desire to raise the Lexus brand’s emotional temperature. The RX is practically a nervous wreck.
The Lexus’s spindle grille—in F Sport trim comprising a warped field of black plastic webbing, outlined in lustrous alloy lips—is the brand singularity, drawing us toward a Lexus badge with arrows pointing to it from all sides, including the LED headlamps and arrowhead pointed bezels of the cornering lamps. At night it looks like its own dealership. At one point, as recounted in the briefing, the RX program managers went to see Mr. Toyoda after he had driven a late-phase prototype and he asked them, sagely, “Is it the best you can do?” See, it’s all about the inflection. But, in fairness, no crossover/SUV on the market is a beauty, due to packaging and performance constraints.
In the luxe-SUV segment, all dimensions are obliged to grow over time: head, leg and hip room; seating height (H point); luggage capacity and overall interior cubes.By the time you accommodate all that, with a V6 engine, eight-speed transmission and all-wheel drive, you have two big, ugly boring boxes. These must be rakishly dressed in stamped steel panels, glass and resinous plastics, as convincingly as possible. The RX’s vigorous light-lining, slashes of character lines and vectoring rays of negative draft (the hollows in the sheet metal) are what’s required when you want to make a box look like it has shoulders.
Stylistic trade-offs can be costly, too. For example, the front overhang of the RX 350 F Sport ($49,125), our top-shelf tester, jutted out to catch the handsomely made, aggressively styled, acutely useless twin-splitter, pouting at the lower front bumper. Sassy, sultry? Yes, but every millimeter comes at the cost of vehicle approach angle, the maximum incline negotiable without the vehicle’s nose touching the ground.
Almost certainly, because—timing. The Lexus RX (1998) was a pioneer in a market segment that now dominates the portfolios and profits of many auto makers: premium crossovers/SUVs. The lineup includes Acura MDX, Lincoln MKX, Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV/GLE Coupe, and Volvo XC90, the last being my pick of the litter.
What is it that people find so appealing about the Lexus RX Premier Crossover?
But if the people want a Lexus crossover, by God, a Lexus it shall be. Indeed, the company’s product planners seem to be locked into a morbid feedback loop with current, much-dialogued Lexus owners, making features that strike many outside the circle as just plain weird into brand signatures.
That delivers 0-60 mph acceleration pace in the 7s—adequate, though hardly besotting. A little more body structure here, some retuning of the MacPherson strut/double-wishbone rear suspension there. Otherwise, and except for the hallucinogens in the styling department’s water, the RX is a dependably iterative generation of Lexus’s bread-and-butter product. So, about the styling. Is it in pain? Should somebody help it? No, it’s just very focused on being exciting. These stylistic exertions are, as near as I can tell from the media briefing, the direct result and marching orders from Toyota president Akio Toyoda, who has publicly expressed his desire to raise the Lexus brand’s emotional temperature. The RX is practically a nervous wreck.
The Lexus’s spindle grille—in F Sport trim comprising a warped field of black plastic webbing, outlined in lustrous alloy lips—is the brand singularity, drawing us toward a Lexus badge with arrows pointing to it from all sides, including the LED headlamps and arrowhead pointed bezels of the cornering lamps. At night it looks like its own dealership. At one point, as recounted in the briefing, the RX program managers went to see Mr. Toyoda after he had driven a late-phase prototype and he asked them, sagely, “Is it the best you can do?” See, it’s all about the inflection. But, in fairness, no crossover/SUV on the market is a beauty, due to packaging and performance constraints.
In the luxe-SUV segment, all dimensions are obliged to grow over time: head, leg and hip room; seating height (H point); luggage capacity and overall interior cubes.By the time you accommodate all that, with a V6 engine, eight-speed transmission and all-wheel drive, you have two big, ugly boring boxes. These must be rakishly dressed in stamped steel panels, glass and resinous plastics, as convincingly as possible. The RX’s vigorous light-lining, slashes of character lines and vectoring rays of negative draft (the hollows in the sheet metal) are what’s required when you want to make a box look like it has shoulders.
Stylistic trade-offs can be costly, too. For example, the front overhang of the RX 350 F Sport ($49,125), our top-shelf tester, jutted out to catch the handsomely made, aggressively styled, acutely useless twin-splitter, pouting at the lower front bumper. Sassy, sultry? Yes, but every millimeter comes at the cost of vehicle approach angle, the maximum incline negotiable without the vehicle’s nose touching the ground.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/lexus-rx...ong-1447876499
Racer
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,582
Likes: 100
From: Florida
it really works for Lexus. better than I thought it would honestly. gives our cars a more polarizing, unique, and aggressive look. I love it! and when you see one going down the road now, its never been clearer its a lexus then it is now.
the new RX F-sport looks like a weapon! the regular one, a luxury urban assault vehicle. the ES looks like a menacing demon in the rear view. -which is something I would have NEVER dreamed in a million years about these two cars. the words "menacing" or "weapon" never came to mind when looking at the pre 2016 models. at this point, in styling, they could pull off a ES-F or an RX-F.
however,
the new camry and corolla. epic, spectacular fail. it looks like half the bumper fell off the front of the car.
the new RX F-sport looks like a weapon! the regular one, a luxury urban assault vehicle. the ES looks like a menacing demon in the rear view. -which is something I would have NEVER dreamed in a million years about these two cars. the words "menacing" or "weapon" never came to mind when looking at the pre 2016 models. at this point, in styling, they could pull off a ES-F or an RX-F.
however,
the new camry and corolla. epic, spectacular fail. it looks like half the bumper fell off the front of the car.
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 9,994
Likes: 247
From: California
it really works for Lexus. better than I thought it would honestly. gives our cars a more polarizing, unique, and aggressive look. I love it! and when you see one going down the road now, its never been clearer its a lexus then it is now.
the new RX F-sport looks like a weapon! the regular one, a luxury urban assault vehicle. the ES looks like a menacing demon in the rear view. -which is something I would have NEVER dreamed in a million years about these two cars. the words "menacing" or "weapon" never came to mind when looking at the pre 2016 models. at this point, in styling, they could pull off a ES-F or an RX-F.
however,
the new camry and corolla. epic, spectacular fail. it looks like half the bumper fell off the front of the car.
the new RX F-sport looks like a weapon! the regular one, a luxury urban assault vehicle. the ES looks like a menacing demon in the rear view. -which is something I would have NEVER dreamed in a million years about these two cars. the words "menacing" or "weapon" never came to mind when looking at the pre 2016 models. at this point, in styling, they could pull off a ES-F or an RX-F.
however,
the new camry and corolla. epic, spectacular fail. it looks like half the bumper fell off the front of the car.
Toyota and Lexus are darned if they do and darned if they don't with you people. There is no satisfying you, is there?
Before the Lexus spindle grille and Toyota's large grilles, the complaint was that Toyota and Lexus vehicles were too boring. So they added some different styling, and now, they look ugly.
Before the Lexus spindle grille and Toyota's large grilles, the complaint was that Toyota and Lexus vehicles were too boring. So they added some different styling, and now, they look ugly.
it's not 'our' fault that lexus went from bland to over the top in some cases.
