Category Archives: ES
Lexus ES to be phased out? You’ve got to be kidding…
Among this author’s many oddball geeky/nerdy automotive interests is following Motor Trend magazine’s annual Power List of the “Top 50 movers, shakers, heart-breakers in the mercurial world of autodom”, as they described it in 2008. This ritual goes back further … Continue reading
The 2012 Informed Speculation scoreboard
Rare is the car magazine that does not have a section dedicated to brief notes and comments on future vehicle news, rumors and what we refer to as Informed Speculation, bearing titles such as Upfront, the Oracle, Ampersand and MT … Continue reading
TMC’s Environmental Technology Development update: a peek at Toyota and Lexus’ powertrain future (Part 1)
On Monday 24 September, what was ostensibly the press preview for the (very limited) production version of the battery electric variant of the Toyota iQ soon became, in the words of Bertel Schmitt of The Truth About Cars, “the strangest … Continue reading
Lexus ES gets the Ponce de Leon spa treatment
Although my entry into the world of Lexus – as vehicle owner, website editor and new model reviewer – was via the IS sport sedan line and the my.IS (née IS300.NET) fan site, I’m more familiar with the sedate, old-mannish … Continue reading
Informed Speculation: the 19 new Toyota, Lexus and Scion models to launch during 2012
Ahhh… Pavlov and the conditioned reflex. For those of you that stayed awake during high school science or psychology classes, this was the famous experiment where Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov would ring a bell at the same time as offering … Continue reading
As Toyota further extends its Japan shutdown, a picture emerges on which models will run out first
To hardly anyone’s surprise, Toyota has announced yet another extension of its vehicle-production halt at all plants in Japan (including subsidiary vehicle manufacturers) until at least Saturday 26 March (a previously-scheduled Saturday production day), as reported on Toyota’s USA and … Continue reading
Lexus and Toyota’s newest registered trademarks: ES 300h and HSD
As we reminded you in an earlier Kaizen Factor story, poking around trademark and copyright applications and registrations filed by carmakers can provide vital clues to their possible future plans. We have just learned of two new trademark applications filed … Continue reading
Informed Speculation: The 7 new Toyota and Lexus hybrids due by the end of 2012
Coinciding with the public debut at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show of the Toyota RAV4 EV Demonstration Vehicle jointly developed by Toyota and Tesla, a press release in the Toyota USA Newsroom ends with this sentence: “Finally, by the … Continue reading
