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Ive just been looking at the official website of the new CT200h (so I can enter the competition). You wouldnt buy it for its graceful lines, would you? It resembles the love-child of a BMW 1 series and a Sherman tank. OK, I didnt buy my LS400 for its looks, but in comparison, its almost pretty. Why are modern cars so ugly?

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Aren't they just and most cars, especially from the same manufacturer, all look like they have come out of the same mould. I like the fact that the LS has very distinctive styling that means that it can't be confused with any other car. (or to me anyway)

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SteveLS400, the CT200h looks like it's already been partly crushed! It's all personal and subjective, I know. And things go in fashions, which is why most new cars look like either the BMW 1 series (which if any other manufacturer had launched would have been laughed at) or the Megane/Astra/Leon/new Focus. I've always thought that when Toyota were developing the LS they should have paid a bit more attention to its looks, because it's not a pretty car, but at least it isn't pig-ugly.

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SteveLS400, the CT200h looks like it's already been partly crushed! It's all personal and subjective, I know. And things go in fashions, which is why most new cars look like either the BMW 1 series (which if any other manufacturer had launched would have been laughed at) or the Megane/Astra/Leon/new Focus. I've always thought that when Toyota were developing the LS they should have paid a bit more attention to its looks, because it's not a pretty car, but at least it isn't pig-ugly.

I agree about the looks of modern cars, but I rather like the LS400 styling which was based on the big Merc and BMW form the mid/late 80's, its intended target market. Mind you a favourite of mine from the past is the Jensen Interceptor.

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A mate of mine at work (drives a 2000 XJ6) says that my LS is ugly. Nothing I said would change his mind.

Some people, eh?

Mike

Is a 2000 Jaguar XJS not a rebadged FORD! now that is ugly lol

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It's all personal and subjective, I know. And things go in fashions, which is why most new cars look like either the BMW 1 series (which if any other manufacturer had launched would have been laughed at) or the Megane/Astra/Leon/new Focus. I've always thought that when Toyota were developing the LS they should have paid a bit more attention to its looks, because it's not a pretty car, but at least it isn't pig-ugly.

Absolutely agree with all of this! Whilst bearing in mind that one man's meat is another man's poisson, I reckon a BMW X1 is of such laughable ugliness that it should be forced to drive around behind a veil. On the other hand I love the current 6-series. It's all so subjective, init?

I never thought my MkIII Ls 400 was beautiful from the front, being more dated than ugly; but the side view of the rear pillar is a visual treat. If only I could upload a piccy I took a while ago...

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Passing lads, they're usually under 16, point at my LS430 and exclaim loudly to each other, Wow! & "that is the one that i want". I know my Dad would have loved the styling but.........

i wanted a Ferrari Dino, but times change?

I like the styling of the 460 much more than the 430 but then that may just be aspiration?

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There have been some plug ugly cars over the years but the bmw 1 is by far the ugliest...by a mile.

As for the looks of the LS, I have to take a stance. I really think that the mk1 is a fine looking car. It looks like a car should. The new baby Lexus on the other hand looks like a cheap hatch back.

Sorry Lexus but you should stick to what you do best.

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There have been some plug ugly cars over the years but the bmw 1 is by far the ugliest...by a mile.

As for the looks of the LS, I have to take a stance. I really think that the mk1 is a fine looking car. It looks like a car should. The new baby Lexus on the other hand looks like a cheap hatch back.

Sorry Lexus but you should stick to what you do best.

That's why I hunted for at least 6 months to replace my tired J reg LS400 for my 1994 M reg now with 36,000 miles !

Just think that the original body shape is, well, the very best.

malc

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Maybe (without wishing to get too philosophical) there's a difference between styling and 'style'. Stylists are presumably the people who design turd-like lumps such as the CT200h which are full of individual features that aren't integrated into an overall style. The LS400 is to my mind a bit plain-looking, but at least there isn't a single feature that jars with everything else. It has a certain understated style, and all its features are integrated. Unlike the CT200h and most BMWs, which clearly aren't intended to be good-looking as such. I think they're intended to intimidate, actually - which, in my experience, is how most of them are driven (i.e. 'Move over, I'm in a Beemer and I'm coming through'). It's the Hummer Effect. Sorry if there are any members who drive a Lexus AND a BMW...

I know I'm a grumpy old man, but what happened to grace, elegance, beauty? And why don't punters paying tens of thousands of pounds for a new car demand it? On that subject, how much do you think the styling of current Lexuses puts off buyers? I hardly ever see a 460. In London the other day practically every big executive car was a Merc S- or E-class.

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Until the most recent version, the LS has always been a clone of the previous gen Merc S Class, but I must admit the CT isn't as good looking as it could have been (based on the original concept car)

It's all about saving costs and interior space, we have a CLS which to me is one of the most beautiful saloon cars yet to have a design like that it has compromised rear seat space - that simply wouldn't work for a mainstream model.

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Grace and elegance!

I remember LJK Setright writing an article along these lines a few years back.

I LOVED driving in my Citroen DS23. IN it AND looking AT it!

Now then.....a C6? Nearest I guess?

The DS is my all-time favourite car. Pity they weren't better made. The C6 looks okay, but not as stunning as I remember Citroens being when I was young. I can't think of a contemporary car that's really elegant, though Mercedes are doing OK these days - especially in comparison to BMW (and Lexus!).

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I'm under no delusions that my LS430 is Bug Ugly, I think of it as a hooker - I want it to pamper me and pander to my every whim but I don't want to pay too much for it. If I wanted to fall in love with a wallet-draining beauty, I would have gone for a Daimler Super V8.

Despite its ungainly appearance, I have to say that every morning when I open the garage door I'm always slightly taken aback by its majesty, it absolutely fills the garage, it's huge and menacing and I love that first few seconds when I think "wow, is this beast really mine?"

Regarding the C6 that some guys have mentioned. I think it's a seriously, seriously cool car. Pity the French don't do V8s because it's crying out for one.

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I don't understand this Merc comparison.

The Lexus was the look that others copied. The S class were nothing like it. I had the 78 and 85 and the s600 was just a god awful brick. Get some photos of them all and see for yourselves.

All the LS400s are just clean pure and beautiful. Not sharp or flashy, no sculpted edges or weird dams etc.

That is why it will be a classic and the 430 and upwards will not.

I'm not saying the later models are any worse or technically poorer, they just do not have the timeless classic style.

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Quite agree, my sentiments entirely. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The early LS400 is a timeless and understated design classic .................. but I am old and maybe set in my ways !

And one of my other cars is a 1932 Triumph Southern Cross Sports Tourer ......... wow, that really is in a timewarp.

Malc

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I don't understand this Merc comparison.

The Lexus was the look that others copied. The S class were nothing like it. I had the 78 and 85 and the s600 was just a god awful brick. Get some photos of them all and see for yourselves.

Err, I'm not sure if you were the one who questioned this the last time but someone has and I have posted pics in the past - and almost unanimously everyone who saw the thread agreed that they are Merc clones.

I've reposted them below to highlight this, the design is a copy right down to the alloy wheel design! Anyone who can't see how similar they look needs their eyes tested imho :blink::hehe:

393128031.jpg

393127776.jpg

393128029.jpg

393127778.jpg

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Not spent any time looking at Mercs of the period but I like the elegant, understated shape of my LS400MK4 just as much as I like the shape of my 928GTS (Porsche) - do I need glasses? No, I have had glasses since I was 9!

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Hello Parthiban.

I am not sure that I did dispute this before but maybe I did.

I do see what you mean to some extent but when you have hand washed the things weekly over several years there is a world of difference.

Merc is edgy and the angular lines do not run like the Lexus which is more rounded and slopes back more. The rear roof is more gently curved down too.

The interior plastic of the Merc is very poor and insubstantial in comparison. It also decomposes very quickly in the heat of Saudi Arabia.

Style is how it all fits together.

Wheels are not so similar close up.

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For the ipitome of questionable styling, take a look at the lin and video! Don;t all be rushing out to but this stunning car which has been designed with just 1 rear seat for that porr lonely, friendless business man!

http://www.webhush.com/2009/04/23/chinese-geely-ge-china-rolls-royce-rip-off/

Bless the chinese automotive industry

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I do see what you mean to some extent but when you have hand washed the things weekly over several years there is a world of difference.

Merc is edgy and the angular lines do not run like the Lexus which is more rounded and slopes back more. The rear roof is more gently curved down too.

Absolutely mate, obviously I didn't mean that take the badges off and you don't know which is which, but the cars bear too close a resemblance for that to be just a coincidence.

Toyota were always going to tweak the styling slightly, plus the Lexus version was always a good few years after the Merc version so design moves forward and production techniques change.

In any case I hope I didn't cause offence, I just have a feeling that in the Lexus design studio, they had a picture of the current S-class on the wall until the most recent version. In the same way that I actually feel the current Merc C-Class bears a slight resemblance to the mk1 IS - somehow the tables have turned :)

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