Lexus F upgrade, at a cost

LEXUS Australia has hiked the price of its newly enhanced 2017 GS F and RC F sports flagships by between $2050 and $9067 in exchange for adaptive variable suspension and other tweaks.

While most of the F variants go up about $2000-$3000, the price of the RC F Carbon rises $9067, from $149,770 to $158,837, plus on-road costs.

According to Lexus, the RC F Carbon’s hefty price rise is explained by the addition of a number of extra features, including ventilated semi-aniline leather-accented front seats, higher grade alloy wheels and an upgrade to the Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM) system.

The change makes the RC F Carbon the most expensive F-Line variant, topping the priciest GS F, while at the same time stretching the price premium of the RC F Carbon over the $138,240 base RC F to almost $20,000.

Lexus says adaptive variable suspension is now standard on all GS F and RC F variants, offering improved ride comfort and advanced handling stability at the tip of the fingers.

It claims the system monitors all four wheels simultaneously, offering up to 30 levels of damping force automatically for precise control on all road surfaces.

Using a range of sensors to detect G force, yaw rate and speed, it adjusts to reduce body roll, squat and dive, while also detecting rough roads and softening the dampers accordingly.

It works with the driver mode control with four settings – Eco, Normal, Sports and Sports+.

In Sports+, all functions switch straight to sports mode for maximum handling and powertrain performance.

As before, the F variants all share the grunty 5.0-litre V8 delivering 351kW of power to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Along with the F model upgrades, Lexus has also given a couple of RC 350 variants a minor upgrade at no extra cost. The RC 350 Luxury and RC 350 Sports Luxury both now get the body damper that previously only came with the RC 350 F Sport.

So far this year, Lexus sales in Australia are up 6.6 per cent to a year-to-date record 7941 units. While GS sales are up 60 per cent off a low base, RC sales have slipped 2.7 per cent.

2017 Lexus pricing*

RC
RC 350 Luxury (a)	$68,390
RC 350 F Sport (a)	$77,240
RC 350 Sports Luxury (a)	$88,280
RC F (a)	$138,240
RC F Carbon (a)	$158,837
GS
GS F Alcantara trim (a)	$153,540
GS F Semi-aniline trim (a)	$156,500

*Excludes on-road costs