As we reported on last week, Lexus announced their new concept to be revealed at this years Geneva Motor Show. Lexus’s LF-SA Concept was designed to be an entrance into the European market for sub-compacts. Since the concepts was unveiled at the automaker’s conferences yesterday, we finally get to see what it actually looks like.
The styling of the concept looks as thought someone took the front and rear facades off of a Lexus and stuck them on to a fourtwo.
Lexus’s LF-SA, besides having a name that the concept will never back up, is a sub-compact car that was designed by Lexus’s European-based design studio ED2 to celebrate Lexus’s 25th Anniversary. The LF-SA was designed to be a ultra-compact, sub-B-segment, urban 2+2 that would compete with cars such as the Audi A1, and most of the Mini lineup. Looking at the exterior of the concept, it would appear the ED2 has combined Lexus styling with the styling from the Smart fourtwo. A move which has, to be honest, has created so many odd corners and angles that the concept just does not look that interesting.
It is probably the angle from which this picture is taken, but the interior of the LF-SA concept looks like anyone with a bit of weight would not be comfortable in this car.
The interior LF-SA concept suffers from a similar problem. According to Lexus, the interior of the concept was designed to be as driver-central as possible because it mostly be just the driver in the vehicle. The interior was also designed to be luxurious and spacious as possible in a small car like this. Something that Lexus has not really pulled off. The interior of the vehicle looks very cramped and uninteresting. The only interesting feature of the interior is the hologram-style digital display incorporated in the instrument panel, and the wide-angle Head-Up-Display.
The LS-FA concept is clearly designed for a very small, specific market. It sounds like the production car version of this concept would serve basically one purpose, while not exactly being the most practical vehicle on the road. While I am sure that it would serve that purpose well, it will probably suffer the same ridicule as all of the vehicles in that market do. In my opinion it might have been better for Lexus to create something else for their 25th Anniversary.
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