What was the first model sold by Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand, launched in 1989?

The Lexus LS 400 was the first model sold by Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand, launched in 1989.

Toyota created Lexus to compete directly with established European and American luxury marques, particularly in the United States. The project began in the 1980s under the internal name F1, with a goal of producing a quiet, refined, high-speed sedan rather than simply an upscale version of an existing Toyota.

The resulting LS 400 debuted at the 1989 North American International Auto Show in Detroit and went on sale in the United States later that year. It used a 4.0-liter V8 engine and emphasized smoothness, build quality, quiet operation, and extensive standard equipment. The related ES 250 launched alongside it, but the LS was Lexus’s flagship and first model developed for the new marque.

The LS 400 is sometimes mistaken for the first Lexus model because the ES 250 was also introduced in 1989. Both were launch models, but the LS 400 was the brand’s first flagship model and the one most closely associated with Lexus’s original luxury mission.