2013 Lexus LS600h L Long Wheelbase Hybrid Luxury
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Text and photos by Marloes Villeneuve
The 2013 facelift of the Lexus LS600h L brings the car in line with Lexus’ new design language, which it is spreading throughout the whole range. It suits the car, although we have to admit that it does seem thus far that every Lexus snout is starting to look very much identical. When we picked up this car at the Lexus HQ, lined up against the rest of the Lexus’s, it was purely from the front difficult to distinguish it.As said, the new face suits the car, and the car is, as ever, an example of pure indulgence. We loved the exemplary fit and finish, the ride quality, the fuel consumption for this size of car, and the indulgence on the interior. Especially the rear seat passengers were thoroughly enjoying the rear seat massage options, while using the privacy options on the windows to enjoy the DVD entertainment to the max.
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The question though really should be weather it is a wise strategy of Lexus to simply copy and paste faces on their cars. The corporate identity is of extreme importance, and Lexus has far too long taken that with a pinch of salt, Now they are doing something, and the design language used for this front seems to be one for a dynamic and sporty luxury car. So far so good.
But.. Would the person paying well over $100,000 for this excellent vehicle really appreciate it that the customers driving away from the Lexus dealer lot with the bottom line Lexus, still get a virtually identical front end on their car, even though the price was about 1/5th of the price for the LS? We think not.
It would be wise for Lexus to use this basis of the front end, and derive from it many variations that will fit the specific categories of their line up of vehicles. Within a total they should still be clearly recognizable as a Lexus, so a clear family resemblance, but they should all be treated as individual children, not identical sextuplets of different ages. That makes no sense.
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