Lexus may mount face-off to GS

Lexus GS 300X Special Edition.
Stuart Martin

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

... but Lexus might just do it next year.

That's how confident they are about the new GS medium prestige sedan ahead of its arrival in the first half of next year, according to Lexus Australia chief executive Tony Cramb.

Together with the new-look nose arriving on the RX and LX models, the GS is described by the former Toyota executive as a car the company has never got quite right and the new model as "critical."

"The GS is really important, for us it's a car that we've never gotten quite right, if we're truthful, the new car itself, we think it's better," he says.

The company faces a big challenge to become a "serious player" in the prestige sedan market.

"The thing we have to work out now is how to get customers to believe Lexus can produce a car of that nature," he says. "It's a big challenge, if we can get it right then I think people will take us a lot more seriously."

Mr Cramb, speaking at the first local drive program of the LFA supercar and revamped ISF, also expressed a desire for a GS F but stopped short of confirming anything beyond the GS model being available with an F Sport pack similar to the current IS model.

"I'd love to introduce a GS F but at this point there's not talk of one, there's no doubt that in time that's something we've got to think about, but I can't talk about future product discussions at this point," he says.

And the suggestion of an LS F, in the same category as a Mercedes-Benz AMG S-Class, is deemed conceivable but unlikely.

"An opportunity exists for us to redefine luxury and performance-luxury motoring, clearly we need to move in this direction," he says.

The company remains on target to top its 2010 sales figures (they finished the year with 6526 sales) despite the interruption to supply from the Japanese natural disasters - so far this year it is 0.1% down.

"We're almost back on track, apart from the RX, but from here on in you'll see full supply of Lexus - we'll be more than last year even with around 1500 cars missing from Japanese supply issues, it's not as good as we would have hoped, we would expect more next year," he says.

Stuart Martin

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Stuart Martin started his legal driving life behind the wheel of a 1976 Jeep ragtop, which he still owns to this day, but his passion for wheeled things was inspired much earlier. Born into a family of car tinkerers and driving enthusiasts, he quickly settled into his DNA and was spotting cars or calling corners blindfolded from the backseat of his parents' car before he was out of junior primary. Playing with vehicles on his family's rural properties amplified the enthusiasm for driving and his period of schooling was always accompanied by part-time work around cars, filling with fuel, working on them or delivering pizzas in them. A career in journalism took an automotive turn at Sydney's Daily Telegraph in the early 1990s and Martin has not looked backed, covering motor shows and new model launches around the world ever since. Regular work and play has subsequently involved towing, off-roading, the school run and everything in between, with Martin now working freelance as a motoring journalist, contributing to several websites and publications including GoAuto - young enough for hybrid technology and old enough to remember carburettors, he’s happiest behind the wheel.
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