SPIED: Does This New Japanese Toyota Give Us A Glimpse Into The Design Of The Next Lexus RX?

This is better looking than the Lexus is going to be, in my opinion. Spindle grill is OK but this is cooler.

This vehicle has nothing to do with the next gen RX or NX. It is just platform sharing (and not much more than badge engineering, tho at least it gets unique front and rear). Toyota trying to make some more cash off its Lexus models by selling a Toyota version. Japanese don't value lux auto brands as much as Americans do, which is why it took Toyota so long to start a Lexus channel to begin with. Now even though Lexus is Lexus no matter where it is sold (ie. no more Soarers, Celsiors, etc), Toyota goes for volume in its mainstream brand by filtering some of the Lexuses back to Toyotas. They did this also a few years ago with the Lexus HS250h/Toyota Sai. The Lexus and the Toyota are sold spearately with enough sheet metal differences (front and rear)to make them unique.

But it does not portend the future RX, as it is just a platform mate of the current one. And the RX/Harrier has nothing at all to do with the upcoming NX.

History is not on the side of your argument.

http://carsfolia.com/data_images/models/toyota-harrier/toyota-harrier-01.jpg

Virtually identical design to an RX.

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I'd say history is definitely on my side.

That generation 2 RX you have linked was sold exactly as a Toyota Harrier, as was gen 1. As all Lexuses were originally.

Within the last 6 years, every new generation of Lexus as we know it in the States has become a Lexus in Japan also. The third generation Lexus RX was not sold as a Harrier because it debuted after Lexus had been established a brand worldwide, including Japan. Current Lexuses in Japan are Lexuses. There is no more Soarer or Celsior. But that does not mean that Toyota cannot sell a version of the Lexus, with some distinctions. They definitely straddles the line of badge engineering/platform sharing when they do this. But that is a far cry from the original days of US Lexus RX=Japanese Toyota Harrier.

So this sharp looking 2013 Toyota Harrier is most likely a platform mate to the current Lexus RX, as the Toyota Sai is to the Lexus HS250h(which soldiers on in Japan).

Now if you had just said I may be wrong because there are too many differences between this and the current RX, that would have been a stronger argument. The RX just got a facelift for this year, and it is selling well. If Lexus is already planning a new model, I would be shocked if a Toyota version of it debuted first. But there are a couple details above that differ from the current RX-larger rear-most windows, body crease. So I could be wrong. Tho these look awfully photoshopped to me.

However, trotting out a pic of the gen 2 harrier does nothing to help prove either possibility to be the case.

And I guess you agree this has nothing to do with the NX.

I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that it's the next RX, with spindle grille. I think it looks good.

Pretty sure we won't see this Toyota on our shores.