HighestOfHigh
Cornering Kingpin
Love the rear, but I hate the side and the front. I think Lexus is doing too much too fast, but if it works then good for them.
RX [Official] 2015 LEXUS RX
- Thread starter vincentninety
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Mr. Mercedes
Premium
It's foul. But 80% of the buyers out there will be enamoured simply by the fact it stands out.
Gianclaudio
Aerodynamic Artisan
I like the stoplights very much. At least, one Japanese car with a stoplight's design I actually like. And that's all, for the rest....simply awful.
Merc1
Premium
I actually like this. I hope the F Sport model drives a lot better than the current one.
Lexus is going to take the sales crown in the U.S. this year IMO. They have a lot of momentum now and this is their best seller. The only thing I HATE is that stupid mouse controller. Why keep that when the new RC doesn't have it?
M
Lexus is going to take the sales crown in the U.S. this year IMO. They have a lot of momentum now and this is their best seller. The only thing I HATE is that stupid mouse controller. Why keep that when the new RC doesn't have it?
M
Mr. Mercedes
Premium
Lol @ modern gothic. Good description of this horror.
klier
Premium
Carmaker1
Quattro Commander
I find some aspects of it jarring to me. Seeing it the other day, it is an improvement in certain areas over my sister's'13 RX450h (her former UK car) and very much over her current 2008 RX400h (ATL, US). For some reason after waiting all this time, she doesn't like it due to the C/D pillar. I don't like that treatment either. Not sure why they felt that was so necessary, even if the LF-LC influenced that.
She just replaced the RX450h with an NX300h Premier (barely used it, based in GA), but had been banking on this new RX as her next daily driver and skipped past the current gen (stateside in ATL) for that reason. Maybe she should forget about it. The RC350 convertible will hopefully replace her IS350C, but they are dragging their feet as usual. BMW comparably rolls out 3/4-Series variants almost immediately, so they should've announced that by now. Same mistake made with the belated GS-F.
Come 2009, it seems the current GS (already finalised at the time) was supposed to be an evolution of second generation L-finesse, but somewhere along the way things changed up around early 2010 with design management, when the IS, RC, and NX were on the design table.
Lexus started using this unified grille in 2008 (showing up in early 2010), but did not mandate it until April 2010 when the current ES (Fall 2012 intro) was pretty much finished.That is the first and only only Lexus model redesign, that had the grille forced onto it during development.
The others were pretty much facelifts (RX, LS, GX) or already had it (CT, GS, LX). I wonder what will happen with the LC500 and LS500, as it is not right for flagship and halo models to borrow styling cues from subordinate models. Will the LS just have crazy headlights and a bigger grille design wise? Or should it be setting the tone for the Lexus range, which is something the RX cannot do? That would be like expecting GLE or E-Class to the MB trendsetter.
Based on what? This is the kind of thing that I hate, as you are a professional and yet took the easy way out to reference a past model with unfair accusations. Are you aware that the original Lexus RX design was approved well before the W163 was out? That was in 1995. The W163 design freeze was in February 1994, the calendar year before Toyota made similar decisions. However, these prototypes were out by March 1995.
That of course was originally developed as a W463 Gelandewagen successor (with Vito/V-Class cues), until one design proposal in July 1993 became the M-Class instead. The RX programme became underway in 1993, based on Daimler-Benz announcing their SUV plans and needing a model to sit below their upcoming BOF LX450 and replacement V8 LX470.
This is what Lexus built prior to final packaging sign-off and also this auto show orange "SLV" version developed during Autumn 1996 for the 1997 Chicago Auto Show. The AAV Concept debuted in January 1996 (completed November 1995), sometime after the Lexus RX300 design was defined.
The second generation RX design (XU30; 2003-2008), was approved 5 years later in the fall of 2000 and was partially based on this 1997 concept, that debuted before launch of the first generation RX. The W164 design wasn't available back then, being a late 2001 approval. In fact, I don't see any similarities in the current RX nor the 2003-2008 version to the E53, E70, W163, and W164. The current RX design (AL10/GYL10) was approved in 2006, arriving for the "2010 model year" and spindle grille facelift was frozen in 2010. RTI is an adaptation of iDrive, but otherwise no similarities to the X5,
The W163 was launched so parallel to the 1998 RX300, but MB being copied is minutely possible. It was never directly derivative of the M-Class, but that window of time 20 years ago is a mysterious one. I remember hating the RX as a kid, in it being of the more out there Lexus designs and quite scary/ugly looking to me as a 7-8 year old boy. I loved the ML more and later fell in love with the X5 4.4i. The second RX was more of an improvement to me, in being less jarring.
Now as for the i3, yes that might be what I'm looking for in terms of that possible inspiration for the RX C/D pillar. I know there are rare circumstances of espionage, but I'll refer to public examples instead. The i3 concept was shown in 2011, so that argument can be made.However the LF-LC has a similar cue. Concept selection on the RX happened over 2 years ago and final design freeze occurred by August 2013.
Shortly after that you saw RX200t test mules running around Japan by September of 2013. Early prototype winter testing began in Hokkaido over a year ago. As you know, spy shots from Japan are a rarity.
We have to take into account, development timelines. I have learned over time, that Lexus began this development about over a year before the RX facelift in early 2012 (2010-2011) and were slightly slowed down by the March 2011 natural disasters. By the end of 2012, much of critical design decision making was already taking place for this 2016 model (it is due around December 2015/January 2016, not a "2015").
Lexus since 1994, has spent 18 months on the design phase of the RX and then spends some more months fine-tuning the specifications of the concept into production feasibility. By the summer of 2013, the 2016 RX body design was final. F-Sport specific trim and the extra details were signed off by last year.
Where was the 2015 Murano during this development? Frozen final design since 2012, yet closely guarded and veiled intellectual property of Nissan until March 2014. The A36 Maxima has been shown annually at Nissan conferences since 2011, first in clay form, in being originally due for a fall 2014 launch. Nissan started their floating roof philosophy back in 2011, but execution to market is taking too long (especially for an Asian automaker).
Since working with Daimler AG, Nissan has gone back to ridiculously long lead times again (Q30 was already designed by 2012-13) and now infamously longer than MB (the longest in the business). The V37 (Q50) was rapidly re-done in under 14 months between April 2010 and June 2011, from its original 2009 sign-off, yet still uses some V36 components anyway.
The CV37 Q60 coupe suffered similar issues, as that was originally frozen in 2012 and then redone in 2013 (very similar to concept). It has been in development for 6-7 years already. My point is, that trends are trends, but it doesn't mean everyone is outright copying each other. Especially if they are closed off from each other's work until reveal or beyond concrete deadlines.
A number of JDM Toyota models already had this roof and so did the LF-LC concept designed in 2011. The same time Nissan was going in this direction.
That decision was made about 3 years ago from what I was told, before final approval of the interior. The 2016 LX may not have it though. The real game changers are the LS and LC in the months to come, which will change things up more. The RX is very much last at Lexus, except in some areas.
She just replaced the RX450h with an NX300h Premier (barely used it, based in GA), but had been banking on this new RX as her next daily driver and skipped past the current gen (stateside in ATL) for that reason. Maybe she should forget about it. The RC350 convertible will hopefully replace her IS350C, but they are dragging their feet as usual. BMW comparably rolls out 3/4-Series variants almost immediately, so they should've announced that by now. Same mistake made with the belated GS-F.
Come 2009, it seems the current GS (already finalised at the time) was supposed to be an evolution of second generation L-finesse, but somewhere along the way things changed up around early 2010 with design management, when the IS, RC, and NX were on the design table.
Lexus started using this unified grille in 2008 (showing up in early 2010), but did not mandate it until April 2010 when the current ES (Fall 2012 intro) was pretty much finished.That is the first and only only Lexus model redesign, that had the grille forced onto it during development.
The others were pretty much facelifts (RX, LS, GX) or already had it (CT, GS, LX). I wonder what will happen with the LC500 and LS500, as it is not right for flagship and halo models to borrow styling cues from subordinate models. Will the LS just have crazy headlights and a bigger grille design wise? Or should it be setting the tone for the Lexus range, which is something the RX cannot do? That would be like expecting GLE or E-Class to the MB trendsetter.
Krispy Kreme Donuts?
Its Original, that for sure gone is the days of Mercedes and BMW cues. I think I remember the first RX mimicked the ML?
However that C-Pillar reminds me of the i3 but interpreted differently.
I am at a loss to how they can progress this before it becomes almost comic book like.
Based on what? This is the kind of thing that I hate, as you are a professional and yet took the easy way out to reference a past model with unfair accusations. Are you aware that the original Lexus RX design was approved well before the W163 was out? That was in 1995. The W163 design freeze was in February 1994, the calendar year before Toyota made similar decisions. However, these prototypes were out by March 1995.
That of course was originally developed as a W463 Gelandewagen successor (with Vito/V-Class cues), until one design proposal in July 1993 became the M-Class instead. The RX programme became underway in 1993, based on Daimler-Benz announcing their SUV plans and needing a model to sit below their upcoming BOF LX450 and replacement V8 LX470.
This is what Lexus built prior to final packaging sign-off and also this auto show orange "SLV" version developed during Autumn 1996 for the 1997 Chicago Auto Show. The AAV Concept debuted in January 1996 (completed November 1995), sometime after the Lexus RX300 design was defined.
The second generation RX design (XU30; 2003-2008), was approved 5 years later in the fall of 2000 and was partially based on this 1997 concept, that debuted before launch of the first generation RX. The W164 design wasn't available back then, being a late 2001 approval. In fact, I don't see any similarities in the current RX nor the 2003-2008 version to the E53, E70, W163, and W164. The current RX design (AL10/GYL10) was approved in 2006, arriving for the "2010 model year" and spindle grille facelift was frozen in 2010. RTI is an adaptation of iDrive, but otherwise no similarities to the X5,
The W163 was launched so parallel to the 1998 RX300, but MB being copied is minutely possible. It was never directly derivative of the M-Class, but that window of time 20 years ago is a mysterious one. I remember hating the RX as a kid, in it being of the more out there Lexus designs and quite scary/ugly looking to me as a 7-8 year old boy. I loved the ML more and later fell in love with the X5 4.4i. The second RX was more of an improvement to me, in being less jarring.
Now as for the i3, yes that might be what I'm looking for in terms of that possible inspiration for the RX C/D pillar. I know there are rare circumstances of espionage, but I'll refer to public examples instead. The i3 concept was shown in 2011, so that argument can be made.However the LF-LC has a similar cue. Concept selection on the RX happened over 2 years ago and final design freeze occurred by August 2013.
Shortly after that you saw RX200t test mules running around Japan by September of 2013. Early prototype winter testing began in Hokkaido over a year ago. As you know, spy shots from Japan are a rarity.
Also very Nissan-esque.
We have to take into account, development timelines. I have learned over time, that Lexus began this development about over a year before the RX facelift in early 2012 (2010-2011) and were slightly slowed down by the March 2011 natural disasters. By the end of 2012, much of critical design decision making was already taking place for this 2016 model (it is due around December 2015/January 2016, not a "2015").
Lexus since 1994, has spent 18 months on the design phase of the RX and then spends some more months fine-tuning the specifications of the concept into production feasibility. By the summer of 2013, the 2016 RX body design was final. F-Sport specific trim and the extra details were signed off by last year.
Where was the 2015 Murano during this development? Frozen final design since 2012, yet closely guarded and veiled intellectual property of Nissan until March 2014. The A36 Maxima has been shown annually at Nissan conferences since 2011, first in clay form, in being originally due for a fall 2014 launch. Nissan started their floating roof philosophy back in 2011, but execution to market is taking too long (especially for an Asian automaker).
Since working with Daimler AG, Nissan has gone back to ridiculously long lead times again (Q30 was already designed by 2012-13) and now infamously longer than MB (the longest in the business). The V37 (Q50) was rapidly re-done in under 14 months between April 2010 and June 2011, from its original 2009 sign-off, yet still uses some V36 components anyway.
The CV37 Q60 coupe suffered similar issues, as that was originally frozen in 2012 and then redone in 2013 (very similar to concept). It has been in development for 6-7 years already. My point is, that trends are trends, but it doesn't mean everyone is outright copying each other. Especially if they are closed off from each other's work until reveal or beyond concrete deadlines.
A number of JDM Toyota models already had this roof and so did the LF-LC concept designed in 2011. The same time Nissan was going in this direction.
Likely focus groups and due to their customer base in general. Someone alluded to this after seeing a prototype up close in a Lexus development facility, that Remote Touch Interface would be retained, so this doesn't shock me.
That decision was made about 3 years ago from what I was told, before final approval of the interior. The 2016 LX may not have it though. The real game changers are the LS and LC in the months to come, which will change things up more. The RX is very much last at Lexus, except in some areas.
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Lexus
Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation.
Founded in 1989, the Lexus brand is marketed in over 90 countries and territories worldwide
and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. Lexus is headquartered in Nagoya, Japan.
Its operational centers are in Brussels, Belgium, and Plano, Texas, United States.
Official website: Lexus
Official website: Lexus
