The Election Denier
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Governor Piglet added his calm voice of non-partisan statesmanly leadership
to Minnesota’s constitutional crisis yesterday: Just kidding. He’s doing
exac...
4 hours ago
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Amazing?
Leave it to Lexus to make a vehicle that deftly combines a hybrid powertrain, sedan body, and mileage comparable to that of a full size pickup or Suburban. I don't think that I'd throw a deer in the trunk, though, and certainly I'd hesitate to put lots of grubby little fingers on that upholstery.
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10 comments:
"On the other hand, short of rescinding capitalism, the car market must always offer the wealthy the rewards of wealth."
*smile*
Agreed, though I don't exactly see how this is a "perk" of prosperity, but rather an object lesson of what happens when you let engineers "run naked through the hallways" without cluing them in what really matters. One of those "let's throw in every feature that would be really cool and see what comes out" moments.
I think that the telling comment is that, for all the power and whizbang features, the reviewer probably feels that the dozing sensor might actually be necessary!
$104,000 base MSRP price tag! The price one pays to have people say, wow this is a really cool car. I think I'll stick to my 02 Explorer and forgo the compliments for a $90,000 savings.
...i actually can see the use of this car, and am glad that Lexus made it. At some point, I'm going to write about how it's good that companies produce products that are only for the rich...because, then, the rich pay for the perfection and refinement of these designs, and allow the company to find more cost effective ways of implementing those technologies/designs into more affordable products.
case in point: hard top convertible cars. those used to be available only on mercedes and lexus...now, there's a volkswagen "eos" that's rather affordable.
so, eventually, many of, or some of, these features on this lexus will trickle down into everyday vehicles.
Yeah, Lexus! My future self thanks you for your innovation.
It's important to note that lexus doesn't, as far as the article goes, necessarily NEED to sell many of these cars, they're just a 'get people in the doors' or a 'look at us' vehicle. Let those naked engineers run.
True, Shawn, but part of me (the clothed engineer part I guess) wonders how much more quickly some of these innovations would reach the common man if Lexus had said "put some clothes on, we're making a car."
I've owned three Lexus' in a row and marvel at their mastery of technology and service but wish they could also master the art of instilling a soul in their automobiles as BMW and Audi has.
Even my current car, a 300C has visceral appeal that my previous GS430 could not match. Even though the materials and fit and finish aren't even close.
PS nice blog Bert!
Thanks--perhaps you could post (or someone) about what creates that "soul" or visceral appeal of a car. As far as I can tell, visceral appeal can be spelled "V-8" or "HEMI", and it helps to have a "clutch" (a nice antitheft device too), but beyond that, I'm somewhat clueless about what does this.
...it's what the french call a certain "je ne sais qoi."
;)
...quoi, that is.
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