20 Years of Lexus

It never fails to amaze us how quickly time passes – whether it’s watching our children grow or looking back through the invoices covering our car payments. Seems like just yesterday your daughter was born, or that the car was new. Where in the world has the time gone?

And that’s our feeling now as we mark 20 years of Lexus.

We initially noted this anniversary at the Detroit auto show because it was at that show, back in 1989, that we first announced the two cars that would be the foundation of the Lexus line – the LS 400 and the ES 250.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that upon hearing this announcement, some questioned our sanity. The luxury-car market was so entrenched and traditional that it seemed a new player had a snowball’s chance of breaking in.

Good News Lists

Like most people, we here at Toyota love good news. So the following piece of business from the Insurance Institute of Canada (IIoC) interests us a great deal.

The thing that’s caught our attention is a list from IIoC that purports to detail the 10 vehicles that were the most frequently stolen in 2008, and also the 10 cars least frequently stolen.

So the good news is that the IIoC listed no Toyota products on the most-stolen list. None. Zilch. Nada. There are lots of other brands represented there, some of them repeatedly. Some luxury brands, some aging economy brands. But not us.

Introducing the 2010 Prius

When we introduced the first Prius Hybrid automobile more than 10 years ago, we didn’t just introduce an interesting new car. We also introduced a vehicle powered by a game-changing technology. The name of that technology, of course, is Hybrid Synergy Drive.  

But a great deal has happened since that first Prius. Fuel prices have fluctuated wildly and the urgent need for environmental stewardship has been driven home by a steady tocsin of bad news about global warming and climate change. Drivers have come to realize that automobiles that deliver very low emissions while delivering very high fuel-economy numbers might just be the way to go.

For these reasons and more, then, interest in the third-generation 2010 Prius, revealed to the public today in Detroit, has been intense. So we thought that now that details about the new Prius are public, we’d tell you about a few of them here.

Lexus HS 250h: World’s First Dedicated Luxury Hybrid

If our name Lexus reminds you of luxury and excellence, well, that’s as intended. But from today forward, we intend for it also to remind you of efficiency and we’ve got the hardware to back that reminder up.

We’ve just shown that hardware to an assembly of automotive journalists in Detroit. It’s the new Lexus HS 250h, the most fuel-efficient Lexus ever.

Our emphasis on luxury, value, quality and innovation helped us grow from question mark to benchmark and, with the HS, to landmark.

We see the HS 250h as a landmark vehicle because it is the world’s first dedicated, purpose-built luxury hybrid vehicle that isn’t a variation of another model. It is maneuverable in urban areas, gets outstanding gas mileage and is enjoyable to drive, even as it retains all the usual and expected Lexus luxury qualities.