Lexus challenges passengers to control their heart rates... in a hybrid

Picture the scene: You're in a quiet place; a forest. The grass is green, the sky a perfect shade of blue. It's sunny; the temperature is hovering somewhere near perfect and a gentle breeze wafts by. You look at the pretty flowers – bend down to reach one... then, BAM!

No, we're not talking about Bambi versus Godzilla – though we do offer Marv Newland a healthy round of applause. What's we're talking about is the Lexus GS Hybrid. Or, more specifically, the car's Italian advertising campaign as seen in the video below.

Lexus claims its 2013 GS 450h can accelerate from 0 to 60 in just 5.6 seconds, courtesy of its 3.5-liter V6 engine and electric motor hybrid powertrain that puts out a combined 338 horsepower. Combine that level of thrust with rear-wheel drive and a professional driver and you've got yourself some fun at the race track.

Lexus decided to put this combination together, mixing in a blend of new-car shoppers to see what effect its hybrid sedan had on the heart. Scroll down below to watch it all unfold.

                            

Lexus tops quality survey, Ford stumbles again


lex660.jpg
Lexus makes the best-quality cars in the U.S., and automakers overall are much better at eliminating problems that land vehicles in the repair shop, according to a new survey of car owners.
Toyota's luxury brand had the fewest problems per 100 vehicles in a survey of 2012 models by research firm J.D. Power and Associates. The brand was followed by two other luxury carmakers, Jaguar and Porsche, which tied for second place. Cadillac and Honda rounded out the top five.
Cars and trucks sold in the U.S. had the highest quality since J.D. Power started doing the study in 1987. Still, quality was hurt by widespread glitches in technology such as touch-screen controls and voice-recognition software, said David Sargent, the firm's automotive vice president.
Companies have learned quality manufacturing techniques from top competitors, and they're using higher quality materials than in the past, he said. Quality has improved so much during the past decade that the difference between the best and worst brands is less than one problem per vehicle, according to the study.
"Everybody in the industry knows that if they don't keep improving, they're going to fall behind," said Sargent.
In the nationwide survey, J.D. Power asked 74,000 people who bought or leased 2012 models about how reliable their vehicles were and whether they had problems with knobs, switches, electronics and other items in the first 90 days of ownership.
It's the first major assessment of quality for 2012 vehicles. Consumer Reports magazine's influential quality study comes out in October and includes other years. J.D. Power follows up with a long-term quality study in March.
In the J.D. Power survey, the entire industry cut the number of problems per 100 vehicles by five to a score of 102.
Here are some highlights from the study:
WINNERS: Lexus owners reported only 73 problems per 100 vehicles. Lexus wins consistently because quality and customer service have guided the brand since its first car went on sale in 1989, Sargent said. Cadillac was Detroit's top entry at fourth, and Honda was the highest-ranking mainstream brand at fifth.
LOSERS: Italy's Fiat tied for last in quality with Mercedes' smart brand. Both had 151 problems per 100 vehicles.
BEST MODELS: Ford and Lexus had the top cars or trucks in three categories. Infiniti, Nissan and Toyota each won two categories.
TECHNOLOGY WOES: Sargent said the poor quality scores for new technology came because people had trouble adjusting to the devices, and because some of them don't operate right. Electronics are making their way from luxury to mainstream brands where they are new to people. "There are a lot of problems where the system just doesn't work as designed," he said.
MOST IMPROVED: Jaguar, which went from 21st place last year to second this year, and Nissan, which improved 11 spots to tie for 12th. Jaguar was weighed down last year by problems with the XJ model, which was new for 2011. Fixing those problems vaulted the brand, which has only three models, toward the top, Sargent said. Nissan improved by hard work across all of its models, he said.
GOING BACKWARD: Troubles with touch screens and automatic transmissions continued to hurt Ford, which finished 27th out of 34 brands in the survey. Ford was a star in 2010 at fifth place, but tumbled when it introduced its complicated MyFordTouch screens. Buyers also were annoyed with constant shifting by transmissions in small cars. Sargent said J.D. Power surveyed people who bought cars before Ford unveiled a major fix to its touch-screen. "That fix has taken MyFordTouch quite a ways toward where it needs to go," he said.

Lexus Boosts RX Manufacturing in Canada


Lexus RX Cambridge Manufacturing
Lexus RX manufacturing at the Cambridge plant in Canada is set to receive a big boost after a major announcement this morning:
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TMMC) announced today that it will invest more than $100 million and hire approximately 400 employees to increase Lexus RX production at its Cambridge, Ontario facility.
Overall Lexus RX capacity will increase by 30,000 vehicles to 104,000 units, including 15,000 RX450h vehicles, the hybrid electric version of the popular Lexus. The investment will take Toyota’s annual production capacity in Canada to 500,000 units.
Toyota is targeting early 2014 for expanded Lexus production.
The Canadian plant is the only factory outside of Japan to produce Lexus vehicles, and has been manufacturing RXs since 2003.
Automotive News has some additional insight into the story:
Toyota produced about 81,000 RX SUVs at Miyata [factory in Southern Japan] in 2011.
The total number of vehicles produced at the Miyata plant would likely be unchanged, as other models would be made instead of the RX, said the source, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.
Toyota is set to make an announcement on the matter soon, the source said.
Shifting 30,000 units out of Japan brings an opportunity to use that output for another model — whether that’s an existing model or something brand-new is where it gets interesting.
(Of course, it might be something as simple as increasing ES production — we do know that Lexus is forecasting an additional 20,000 ES worldwide sales.)