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BMW and Audi have embraced the “one sausage, many lengths” philosophy for their mainline sedans, and Lexus is the next lemming to jump off the cliff.
The first images of the upcoming LS sedan show a car that looks like a stretched Lexus GS. Though that’s not necessarily a terrible thing. The GS is attractive, if not striking in person, even if it’s not as compelling to drive as a 5-Series. Our own Alex Dykes will be attending a preview in the near future – for now, this is all we’ve got.
21 Comments on “Next-Generation Lexus LS Embraces The “Different Lengths Of Sausage” Philosophy...”
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“BMW and Audi have embraced the “one sausage, many lengths” philosophy for their mainline sedans,..”
I think BMW has done a lot more than embrace the philosophy, didn’t they basically invent it? Outside of a brief departure during Bangle’s tenure, this has been their modus operandi for a long time.
On the LS, it looks quite aggressive given the demographics for that car.
I agree. But I kind of like my cars to be a bit ostentatious :) What would this grille look like on the front of an IS? With such stubbier proportions, I think it would make the car look very front-heavy.
^X2
You could make the case that Mercedes started it in the 80’s. Examples: W124, W201, and the W126.. And the W202 in comparison to the W140.
I like my sausages as long as possible.
That’s what s/he said.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist… Feeling purile today…)
Being an ignorant rube when it comes to B-school stuff like marketing strategy, I’m not qualified to say whether or not the “Papa Bear,” “Mama Bear,” and “Baby Bear” strategy of styling cars of various size classes from the same company makes sense or not. I note that this is a relatively recent development in automotive marketing and might be considered “unproved.”
Nor am a qualified like Sajeev is to do a design analysis.
But since everyone on the Internet is an expert at something, I feel free to say that sometimes design elements don’t scale particularly well. And what looks good at a certain size looks silly when scaled down, or grotesque when scaled up.
I would put the front end of this Big Lexus in the “grotesque” cubby, even though I think it’s ok in the smaller Lexus cars.
I’m not a fan of the “Predator” grill look in general, but this one is particularly bad. It’s huge and doesn’t seem to fit the car from either a design or branding standpoint.
To me it looks reminiscent of an original Galactica centurion’s vocal aperture.
I’m envisioning a future, 25 years hence, where demolition derbies take the current design trend of gaping maws of radiator grilles and paint clown faces or some-such on them.
The problem with the new Lexus design language is that they have simply grafted the “Predator grill” onto what are otherwise pretty mundane designs, thinking that adding an “in your face” grill is all that is necessary to make a design “exciting.”
Case in point the new GS – pretty bland side/greenhouse and rear, but it has the polarizing “Predator grill.”
Considering how sales of the new GS have been (compared to sales in the 1st year for the previous GS), doesn’t exactly look promising for Lexus and this very well be their Acura “beak” mistake.
Or maybe they all remember that the last time a new GS was introduced, two years later they got a significant upgrade in the drivetrain department. Not saying it will happen this time, but just saying.
The new GS is meeting sales expectations and is a joy to drive.
I’m disappointed that the LS is facelifted rather than a redesign. I was hoping for a PHEV, a V6 option, an aluminum extended wheelbase chassis, and preferrable all of the above. I find the design too aggressive, and prefer the Equus or my LS430. Lexus doesn’t need their flagship to be a sport sedan.
+1.
If this is the sport version of the LS (akin to an M5, S8 or AMG) I can see that this works. But for a standard version it looks awfully aggressive.
But maybe this is just a speculative photoshop job?
Sorry, but I still like the original LS 400, I guess I’m just stuck in the past.
Never has the quote from Predator seemed so appropriate:
“You are one ugly mother******”.
Yes, I really want an aggressive Predator grille on my nice quiet Lexus, makes perfect sense!
I never cared for VW/Audi/BMW/recent Chevy/Porsche/Recent Ford “sausage styling”, it just comes off as careless and ruins any identity between the cars.
Are we SURE this is the new LS?
Imho not enough has been done to differentiate this LS from the previous one and other current lexus sedans. granted, the target age demographic for these types of vehicles probably favour more conservative designs…but then with that said, why did the change the front end so much and make it so aggressive? (assuming the the non F-sport version will look similar?) I actually like the front end on this particular LS a lot (i think this is the best application of the spindle grille thus far, excluding the facelifted RX), but i guess i’m just confused because they made the front so radical, and then just pretty much left everything else un-touched?