Lexus Certified, Backup Camera, Vent. Seats, 1-owner, Clean Carfax on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lexus IS to get Deviant at SEMA

It's time to start gathering intel on SEMA, and it starts with this drawing of a modified 2014 Lexus IS. Lexus ran a competition on DeviantART, an online community for artists, to find a suitably modified IS that it could build and display at the temple of all things aftermarket in Las Vegas. The winner, as judged by a four-person panel from among more than 600 entries, is the IS rendered above by Rob Evans.
The winner looks like the beginning of a build for an IS entry into Japan's Super GT series, with a seriously exaggerated front spoiler and rear diffuser and fender flares that aren't just punched out, they're throwing 12-punch combinations.
Evans will have his car built by VIP Auto Salon and plastered all over Lexus materials promoting its presence at the show. Oh, and he gets an IS F-Sport for a year, among other prizes. Second place went to Lucia Lee, third place to Guangho Huang. A press release below has more on the competition and the winner.

2013 Lexus LS460 F-Sport AWD

Gary Approved
There's a guy that goes to my gym who can't get enough of the Lexus LS - let's call him Gary. Gary's the guy - you've probably got one at your gym, or coffee shop, or some other public but quasi-social location - who talks to everyone he meets. Sit next to him on the rowing machine or run by him on the track, and he's almost certainly going to bend your ear for a minute or 20. Gary is in his mid-60s, a business owner, and the super-proud owner of a 2013 Lexus LS.
Not being a shy man, Gary will be the first one to tell you that he didn't do much comparative shopping (he "drove by" the BMW dealership, and looked at a 7 Series "on the computer"). Being a satisfied former owner of multiple Lexus RXs, there was probably only a tiny statistical chance that Gary wouldn't end up in an LS when it came time for him to treat himself to the tricked out luxury car that he'd wanted for a long time. Still, when I found myself chatting with Gary about his new LS, right after I had spent a wintry week in the 2013 LS460 F-Sport AWD, I figured that he'd have some light to shed on the car.

J.D. Power study sees new car dependability problems increase for first time since 1998

For the first time since 1998, J.D. Power and Associates says its data shows that the average number of problems per 100 cars has increased. The finding is the result of the firm's much-touted annual Vehicle Dependability Study, which charts incidents of problems in new vehicle purchases over three years from 41,000 respondents.
Looking at first-owner cars from the 2011 model year, the study found an average of 133 problems per 100 cars (PP100, for short), up 6 percent from 126 PP100 in last year's study, which covered 2010 model-year vehicles. Disturbingly, the bulk of the increase is being attributed to engine and transmission problems, with a 6 PP100 boost.
Interestingly, JDP notes that "the decline in quality is particularly acute for vehicles with four-cylinder engines, where problem levels increase by nearly 10 PP100." Its findings also noticed that large diesel engines also tended to be more problematic than most five- and six-cylinder engines.