LEXUS 20 YEARS CELEBRATION 2010

The TV networks didn’t think it was possible. Stack 15 champagne glasses in a pyramid on the bonnet of a car as it accelerates on a dynamometer. Then, as the speedometer heads past 55mph, pour the bubbly into the top glass until it cascades elegantly into the 14 below. No way, surely? Yet, as independent observers confirmed in 1989, it is achievable with the LS 400. Not only did the pyramid remain undisturbed, but not one drop of champagne was spilled.

Few people knew about the refinement of a Lexus engine back then, but that advert soon changed things. Lexus, it said, was about ‘the relentless pursuit of perfection’, and here was a graphic illustration of that.

When the ‘LS 400’ launched in the UK a year later, it was another champagne moment that revolutionised the automotive industry. Luxury had a new name. Times may have moved on since then but the engineering shines as brightly as ever.

From day one, Lexus has been ahead of the times, providing culturally responsive and progressive solutions for the thinking motorist. It happened with the LS and its new paradigm of holistic luxury; it happened with the world’s first premium SUV, the RX; it happened with Lexus Hybrid Drive. And this evolution is set to continue with the launch of the CT 200h, the world's first full hybrid luxury compact car.

Each breakthrough moment has embodied a unique value – the desire to satisfy on a human level. That has meant, and continues to mean, that the customer is always at the centre of the experience.

Two decades, one goal

Our promise
‘We had to create an understanding within every Lexus person who dealt with the customer about the right culture, the right way of doing things, the right attitude. We launched a programme called Delivering The Promise. It was about understanding what Lexus meant, about getting people to treat customers as guests in their own home.’
Kevin Flynn, the first general manager of Lexus UK

Our customers
‘There’s no compromise with Lexus. I had a situation where my car was towed away and I was going to a wedding. I was actually driving some of the wedding party! Lexus supplied a vehicle free of charge at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, and I was back behind the wheel by 2pm. Brilliant.’
Peter Harvey, owner of 18 Lexus vehicles and counting