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L-finesse styling makes its way to entry-luxury.
Lexus quietly released a few images of its new, 2014 IS sedan this afternoon, giving us a preview of the car that will hit the stand at this year’s Detroit auto show. Conceived under Lexus’s L-finesse styling initiative, the new IS is the second model—after the GS—to receive stem-to-stern applications of the design language.
Even the most casual automotive fan would have a hard time overlooking the IS’s adoption of the prominent spindle grille that’s been making it’s way across the Lexus lineup. Pinched in the middle, the large grille flares out at the bottom, where its bracketed by a pair of aggressively recessed air ducts; equally intense headlamps stretch out to meet the grille at it’s narrowest point, balancing out the geometry of the front fascia. In spots where the current IS still displayed traces of the soft, round, carb-eating Lexus of yore, the 2013 looks comparatively long and lean thanks to sharpened creases. Although we’re digging the rear three-quarter view, which exudes a slightly sinister sports-sedan vibe, the profile view reveals what appears to be a slightly ungainly booty protruding from the lower rear fascia.
We already know a bit about the 2014 IS thanks to a prototype drive we conducted last month. The car will continue to offer a 3.5-liter V-6 and a 2.5-liter V-6, with power not moving far from their current outputs of 306- and 204 hp, respectively. Inside and out, however, the new IS seems to have taken an awful lot of cues from Lexus’s sportiest offerings.
We’ll have the full monty on the IS—including whether its rear end is Kardashian-esque or something lifted from a lineman of the Lions—from the floor of the 2013 Detroit auto show right here when the wrap comes off.
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