This is one of those cars that’s perfectly nice, but commands way more money than it ought to, because Lexus. I’ve entertained the SC 430, but ultimately cannot see myself buying one when there’s any number of other convertibles I’d rather have, and that would take a few grand to sort out for good, among them the…

Even the HEMI engines don’t have truly hemispherical combustion chambers, in the strictest sense. They are somewhat spherical. But that’s because an actual hemispherical (as in, a full half-a-sphere) combustion chamber is less than ideal.

Ah, gotcha. Give me the 3.0.

Ohhhhh.

That’s great news. Toyota doesn’t do orders, and never really has. Dealers can kind of request what they want, but they are really beholden to whatever Toyota (or one of its distributors, in regions where those are applicable) sends. And the Toyota dealers have been wildin’. Markups galore on anything remotely…

Though of COURSE they are only offering it on the hur-dur version, the basic 2.0T version...

I did exactly that, last month, for a 2008 Lexus LS 600h L.

I don’t want to blame the victim here, because I get how you could wire a reputable dealership money and think that was a good idea.

How small do you have to be to fit in that?

Either way, I’m a fan. Looks fantastic!

That’s pretty fucked up. Also, my condolences on your wife’s passing. That’s especially rough.

Exactly my thoughts. It seems like a way to move the C-Class Coupe upmarket and charge more for it.

Just about no one’s numbers refer to engine displacement, or even cylinder count, anymore. Lexus has a handful of models that still have displacement-based badging (ES 250, ES 350, IS 350, IS 500 F SPORT PERFORMANCE, RC 350, LC 500, GX 460), mainly because those are some of the last remaining luxury cars with regular…

It does not look striking enough to justify the price. It isn’t as pretty as the E-Class Coupe was, nor does it have that car’s pillarless design and functional rear windows.

We’ll need a Ouija board and one of those holograms they used for Michael Jackson, but I’m pretty sure we can arrange that.

Ah! That makes sense. But you’re talking to the same person who thought The King and I was the name of a Faith Evans album, and not a Rogers and Hammerstein musical.

I think they’re godawful. I have an acquaintance who had one that really acted up and was on the verge of needing a full engine replacement at 66K miles.

Thankfully, he replaced it with a ‘19 Forester Sport, and couldn’t be happier.

Haha, not my aunt. My friend’s aunt. And, yes, she is iconic.

I don’t know if it was on purpose, but your wording reminds me of the scene in Golden Girls in which Blanche finds out that Rose had 56 boyfriends as a high-school senior, prompting the sharp-tongued Dorothy to shout “The slut is dead! Long live the slut!”

I had a friend whose middle-aged aunt used to hang a Virginia Slim out of the window of her 1996 Mercury Cougar. If that wasn’t a cigarette car, I don’t know what was. But she thought she was better than his other aunt, who only had the contemporary Ford Thunderbird.

Correct. Being in the 194" class, the Highlander is a 5+2, and I think people would do well to remember that. Which is why the Grand Highlander was necessary, because not everyone wanted to drive a Sienna or step up to the far pricier and thirstier Sequoia.