Lexus Tries to Lure UK Buyers with Special Edition IS Advance Models

Lexus has announced the availability of a pair of new special edition cars for the UK market called the IS 250 and IS 200d Advance. As is common with most special or limited edition models these days, the new IS cars are distinguished by the added -and not unique- features to the standard equipment.

Based on the regular SE specification, the new IS 250 and 200d Advance models come equipped with a hard disc drive (HDD) satellite navigation system, rear parking camera, heated electrically adjustable front seats, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, rain-sensing windscreen wipers and an auto-dimming rear view mirror.

These extras would normally cost an arm and leg if they were to be added to the SE separately, but in this case, the new Advance IS 250 costs just an extra £340 compared its SE equivalent (£26,495 on-the-road), with the diesel-powered IS 200d coming in at an additional £130 (£24,995).

Both cars are on sale in the UK now.

VIDEO: Lexus Sets the Bar High, Chains Four Cars on LS in New TV Ad

In another sign that luxury automakers in the U.S. are raising the stakes -or so to speak- with their latest commercials, following Audi's recent A8 ad, Lexus has released a new TV spot as part of an advertising campaign to demonstrate how far the company goes to achieve perfection.

This particular broadcast ad is titled “Chain” and it shows a crane slowly lifting the front end of a LS, which is attached to four more Lexus models (RX, GS, ES and IS) using nothing more than cables and stretch bars. At the end of the spot, a $375,000 LFA comes into the shot and parks directly below the chain of vehicles weighing a total 21,000 pounds.

The key point here is that the commercial is real and that no special effects were used for its creation as Lexus proves in the 'Behind the Scenes" video.

“It isn’t enough to just say that we pursue perfection, we want to demonstrate the great lengths we go to in our pursuit,” states Dave Nordstrom, vice president of marketing for Lexus.

“The new broadcast spot allows us to focus on the foundation of our vehicles, the chassis, and show its almost unbelievable strength. In fact, we feared that it would be so unbelievable, we invited a physicist and structural engineer to witness the shoot, to prove that it did, in fact, occur without the use of special effects or computer generated-imagery.”

Lexus Official Says IS Coupe worth Studying

When company execs are around journalists, they usually sound more like politicians than anything else, meaning that you rarely get a straightforward answer to a question especially if it involves future plans. This seems to be the case with the IS Coupe story. When asked by the folks over at Jalopnik if there was a possibility of an IS Coupe version in the future, Mark Templin, general manager of Toyota's Lexus division gave the following answer: "Obviously, we're making no announcements today, but it's certainly something we should study carefully."

That isn't a yes, it isn't a no, it's something that can be interpreted in more ways that we have time to address. And while we leave Templin to "think about it", let us ask you if you believe that Lexus should develop a coupe variant of the IS based on the Convertible. As always, leave your answers in the comment section below.