Otto Explains — Legendary Cars
The Legendary Cars That Defined Lexus
Short Answer
Seven cars changed Lexus as a company. The LS 400 created the brand, the RX 300 opened the luxury crossover market, the RX 400h made hybrid power its signature, the IS F started its F performance line, the LFA showed what its engineers could build, the LC 500 began a design-led phase on a new platform, and the RZ started its move to battery-electric cars.
How did Otto decide which cars changed Lexus?
Each car here is included for what it changed at Lexus: the kind of cars it built, the markets it reached or the technology that became its signature. Cars remembered mainly for their design or their records, such as the SC 430, the LS 460 or the RC F, appear in Otto's list of ten iconic Lexus cars instead. Company events appear only as the background to each car; the full chronology is in Otto's history of Lexus.
How did the LS 400 create Lexus?
The LS 400 is the reason Lexus exists: Toyota's teams concluded that a car of this ambition needed a new brand, a new sales channel and an identity of its own. Lexus describes it as the answer to a challenge to build “the world's finest luxury performance saloon”. It brought hundreds of new patents, fully automated welding at Tahara that made welds 1.5 times stronger, and a drag coefficient of 0.29 helped by flush glass and door handles, and Lexus's American newsroom says it shared nothing with Toyota's earlier cars. It also defined how Lexus treats owners: when 8,000 early cars were recalled for a wiring fault and an overheating brake light, Lexus picked them up, fixed them and brought them back free within 20 days.
How did the RX 300 take Lexus into a new market?
The RX 300 of 1998 created a segment that had not existed: the luxury crossover, sitting between a saloon and an off-roader. Its first version used an all-aluminium 3.0-litre V6 with VVT-i, and by the time it reached Britain in 2000 it was already Lexus's best-selling vehicle in the United States. More than 1 million RX had been sold in the United States by 2009, and about 3.5 million worldwide, in about 95 countries and regions, by April 2022. It also took Lexus production abroad, as the RX 330 became the first Lexus built outside Japan, in Canada.
How did the RX 400h make hybrids the Lexus signature?
The RX 400h of 2005 was the world's first luxury hybrid SUV. It paired a 3.3-litre V6 with an electric motor, added a second motor on the rear axle for electric four-wheel drive, and as a full hybrid could move on electric power alone. From then on every new Lexus range included a hybrid: the GS 450h followed in 2006, the LS 600h in 2007, the CT 200h in 2011 and the IS 300h in 2013. By 2019 Lexus had sold more than 1.6 million self-charging hybrids, and in the summer of that year hybrids made up 99 per cent of new Lexus cars sold in Western Europe. How these differ from plug-in and fully electric cars is explained in Otto's guide to hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars.
How did the IS F give Lexus a performance line?
The IS F of 2007 was the first Lexus to carry the F badge, and it was never part of a long-term plan. It grew out of the enthusiasm of two engineers, Yaguchi and Sakamoto, who experimented with the IS 300 and in 2004 won approval for what became the F project; Lexus's American newsroom later called it the most uncharacteristic car Lexus had ever built. Its 5.0-litre V8 of 417 bhp was the most powerful engine Lexus had made. The F, named after Fuji Speedway where the car was tested, became the badge of the LFA, RC F and GS F, while F Sport versions brought sportier styling and engineering to everyday models.
How did the LFA change what Lexus could build?
The LFA began in 2000 as a Toyota research project led by Haruhiko Tanahashi, and Akio Toyoda became its main supporter in 2002. During development Lexus switched its body from aluminium to carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic, which makes up 65 per cent of the body structure, and to make it Lexus drew on Toyota's origins in textile weaving and developed its own carbon-fibre looms. Exactly 500 were built by hand, the last on 14 December 2012. The skills stayed in the company: the LC's carbon-fibre roof is made with a moulding process developed at the Motomachi plant from an LFA technique. Its V10 is explained in Otto's article on Lexus engines and drivetrains.
How did the LC 500 open a new phase for Lexus?
When the LC 500 was revealed in Detroit in January 2016, Toyota called it the beginning of a new phase for the Lexus brand, and Akio Toyoda said Lexus would guide its future with products of more passion and distinction. Underneath, it introduced the GA-L platform, the blueprint for Lexus's future front-engine, rear-drive cars, which also carries the fifth-generation LS, together with the first 10-speed automatic gearbox in a luxury car. On track, the LC 500 won Japan's Super GT GT500 championship in its debut season, 2017, and again in 2019.
How did the RZ start Lexus's electric era?
The UX 300e of 2019 was Lexus's first battery-electric model, but it was an electric version of an existing car. The RZ, announced in December 2021, was the first Lexus designed only as an electric car, on a platform built for batteries, and Lexus says it marked its transition into a brand centred on battery-electric vehicles. It introduced DIRECT4 all-wheel drive, which can send drive anywhere from fully front to fully rear, and Lexus's first steer-by-wire system. It came with the targets Lexus set in December 2021: 100 per cent battery-electric sales in Europe, North America and China by 2030, and worldwide by 2035.
Common Questions
- Which Lexus has sold the most? Among the figures Lexus has published, the RX stands out: about 3.5 million had been sold by April 2022, and it was already Lexus's best-selling vehicle in the United States by 2000. For comparison, about 1.9 million NX had been sold by the end of July 2026.
- Was the LX or the RX the first Lexus SUV? The LX 450 came first, revealed in 1995 and on sale in 1996. The RX 300 of 1998 was something new: the first luxury crossover, sitting between a luxury saloon and an off-roader.
- Why isn't the RC F among the cars that changed Lexus? Because it continued a change the IS F had already made. The RC F, with a 477 PS version of the IS F's V8, is profiled in Otto's list of ten iconic Lexus cars.
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