Groundbreaking! Monumental! Perception Defying! Shattering a Glass Ceiling! Summiting a towering mountain displacing the existing occupants!
These adjectives articulate the 1990 Lexus LS400 well (you will find me using similar ones for the 1990 Honda/Aura NSX).
The story of the LS400 is excellent for history buffs, management gurus, business case studies, etc. I will not discuss any of those here. Instead, my sole focus is to offer a tribute to Lexus (and Toyota) for producing a masterpiece that created a new benchmark for the entire industry.
It is hard to describe what a prospective luxury car buyer in 1990 must have been thinking when Lexus launched the LS400 for $35K – about half of the competition’s. Media reviews were very positive – every auto journalist sounded the alarm for the incumbents. But, would they be a subject of ridicule among friends and family if they bought the LS vs a BMW 7-Series, Mercedes S Class, or Jaguar XJ Series? Would they be considered cheap? Can Toyota, a manufacturer of economy commuter cars, be trusted to build a worthy competitor?
Thankfully, for the early adopters, any such worries were soon rested. The LS400 didn’t just prove to be a great car; it beat the competition so handily that these early adopters earned the entire industry’s respect.
The LS400 had an exceptional build quality ahead of its time – a credit to the enormous amount of research conducted. But that was just one of the long list of innovations that went into the car. I have read extensively about the LS, and every single time, I am amazed at how much work Toyota did to make this dream a reality. The project was a considerable investment – over a billion dollars, which I am sure wasn’t planned for when they embarked on this journey. At every step of development, they aimed to be different from the competition, and almost all of them were brand-new ventures for Toyota. That they executed it so well in an exercise that lasted over 6 years is a testament to their determination and discipline.
For anyone interested in understanding how monumental this effort was, all the extraordinary innovations that went into the car, the complexities, revisions, constraints, demand conflicts between America and Japan, hurdles, no-compromises attitude, etc., this video from Barchetta is highly recommended.
The LS’s styling can be called subtle but turned out to be the right recipe as the engineers avoided excesses in design and engineering that the American and German cars were known for. While lacking the same formula as its competition, the Lexus looked, smelled, and felt luxurious enough to allure customers.
Even though there were some areas that Lexus continued to improve in future models, the original LS400 was still much superior to its competition. It continued with facelifts and engine upgrades until 2006, when an entirely new LS460 was launched. This was a great car with contemporary looks and innovations like self-park and an 8-speed transmission. Still, by this time, the competition had caught up, and for anyone other than a Lexus loyalist, the LS was now regarded as just one more option. Since its launch, the LS has gone through several upgrades. As of Jan’24, the major upgrades are listed here as model years – 1990, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2021
While Lexus is credited for raising the bar on luxury, this achievement wasn’t just tied to the quality of the car. Lexus also introduced customers to an entirely new dealership experience and exceptional customer service. As a part of their research to understand the American consumer’s definition of luxury, they realized that customers weren’t happy with the indifferent attitude at the competition’s dealerships. So, Lexus redefined it by designing a brand new dealership with unmatched customer experience. One hundred such dealerships were created right at the brand’s launch.
The LS400 wasn’t just a great car. The lessons Toyota learned while building it were applied to everyday cars for years afterward, especially in areas of build quality and ride. Lexuses of the past decade have lost some of their original luster, but the LS400s from 1990 and 1998 are still in high demand.
With this small article, I can’t even scratch the surface of what this car achieved for Toyota, Japan, and the entire automotive industry. So much has already been written about the LS400, so I will leave you with this recommendation: If you can get your hands on a low-mileage example from the 1990 – 2003 models, buy it. And just to be clear, an LS with 150K to 200K miles is considered low mileage.
