How do you define luxury? To some it is being blinded with all manner of technological wizardry, from massaging heated seats to being able to activate everything with your voice, be it the driver’s side window or the next track on Spotify. To others, the most exorbitant price tag will dictate how luxurious a car is.
For me, true automotive luxury comes from being transported in unparalleled comfort, refinement, and smoothness of power under complete control. Forget millions of technological toys; if one can be transported here and there without the sensation of moving at all, that is luxury — something that is perfectly encapsulated by the original Lexus LS400. It was the first truly global luxury car from Toyota, and one that made the big luxury brands take notice.
Toyota was no stranger to the luxury game; its Crown and stately Century luxury saloons were selling well locally. However, it had no luxury car for the global stage. Toyota chairman Eiji Toyoda saw the success of Mercedes-Benz and BMW amongst the newly emerging yuppie set during the early 1980s. The US market was very lucrative, especially as the recent US import tax on Japanese cars had hurt Toyota sales stateside. Toyoda decided then and there that Toyota would have not only a piece but the whole luxury pie.
In 1983, Toyoda gathered all the
