Nov, 28th 2017: Yes, history now, but still worth a quick gander as they say. The latest Lexus LS350 and LS500h launch in Bahrain. Entitled: ‘Lexus LS 1990 to 2018 – Launch’ Bahrain, is a bit of a misnomer, since it only refers to the display of older models outside of the venue. We just thought it a neat thing to do; a little history in video.
Unfortunately, we could not get to actually test drive the vehicle for a review, to add to the video. We tried! Hence the delay with this post. Several reasons prevented, such as no car available; incompatible days, since we are out filming something all day every day. It just got too late to do it.
So this time EK Kanoo, the dealer decided to splash out a bit with a touch of drama with the unveiling. They’ve got a good team, but we’ve only ever known them to do media launches in the Lexus showroom with juice and petit fores. For sure they do more elaborate launches with gala dinners and so on as other car dealers do, but ‘Who Does What’ has never been deemed worthy to be invited, so we cannot comment. This time it was a hotel ballroom with some heavy scenery. Oh and juice and petit fores.
Perhaps the 2018 LS is a tad more special. There was certainly a lot of interest shown and the Lexus range is a big seller in Bahrain. As one Manger said when launching a Volvo XC90; ‘It’s a great car (Volvo) but this is Toyota/Lexus country’. He is not wrong! No idea of the figures, but over the years, those with the money honey mostly went for Mercedes, then there was a period of lots of BMWs popping up, especially the higher-end models. Then Lexus got a little more gutzy with their releases, although keeping the standard image, whereby you know it is a Lexus if you see it (no matter which year). Once there was a bit more poke under the bonnet and the look got a tad more aggressive (grill), the Lexus took off and no doubt outsell by far the other competitors with similar offerings. Hard to say, but merely an observation when driving around Bahrain. There are plenty of them and the LS seems the one they go for.
Another plus is the Lexus engine, it is a well tried and tested beast and the tweaks they do with each new model is never going to be an issue as far as reliability is concerned. Every review we read is also pretty standard with nothing going to jump out at you to worry about.
