Toyota established Lexus in 1989, spinning off the companion luxury brand with the release of the LS 400 and ES 250. In the 35 years since then, the offerings from Lexus have grown to include sporty coupes, family-friendly SUVs, and a solid line of vehicles with electric and hybrid powertains. While Lexus caters to a clientele of refined and often carefully coiffed customers, some Lexus buyers still want to feel the wind in their hair.
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Beginning in 2001, Lexus has offered an impressive and gorgeously styled line of convertibles for customers seeking an open-air cruising experience. We took a careful look through the entire Lexus catalog and selected our favorite drop-top models for you based solely on their designs. We’d love to include the stunning LF-A Spyder shown above on this list, but that model was shown as a concept in Detroit in 2008, and only two of the 500 production LF-As built between 2010 and 2012 were roadsters.
The SC 430 was made between 2001 and 2010
For the 1992 model year, Lexus added the SC 300 and SC 400 coupes to its lineup, and the SC line was updated in 2001 to include the SC430 hardtop convertible. This 2+2 roadster had smooth lines that evoked classic designs from the likes of European automakers like Fiat and MG, although the SC 430 had a rigid mechanical top that folded away behind the rear seats instead of a traditional canvas top.
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Digging under the skin, the SC 430 was powered by Toyota’s 3UZ-FE, a 4.3-liter V8 engine that generated 288 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque despite lacking a turbocharger or supercharger. Power went to the rear wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission, and the SC 430 carried a hefty starting price of $69,280 in its final production year of 2010. That equals more than $100,000 today when accounting for inflation, which would have made the SC430 a poor financial investment despite its stunning design and powerful V8. Classic.com reports nearly 200 sales of used SC 430s in the past five years, at an average price of less than $22,500.
[Featured image by Altair78 via Wikimedia Commons|Cropped and scaled|CC-BY SA 3.0]
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The IS 250 was a compact beauty
Lexus released its line of compact cars in 1998 with the IS 200 and added the IS 250C convertible in 2009. Like the SC 430, it had a 2+2 seating arrangement and a mechanical hardtop roof, and was similarly designed to cut back on the amount of wind that whipped through the cabin when the top was down. Thanks to an array of 15 motors and 35 sensors, the aluminum top could be raised or lowered in just 20 seconds, making it the fastest such mechanism on the market.
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The IS 250C was ferried along by a 2.5-liter V6 that made 204 horsepower and 185 pound-feet of torque, enough to get the 3,840-pound roadster from 0-60 in a respectable 8.4 seconds. A six-speed manual transmission was standard, but surprisingly, it offered slightly worse fuel economy (21 miles per gallon combined) than the six-speed automatic’s 24 mpg.
The IS 350C was a more powerful cousin to the 250C
The IS 250C was beautiful, but its performance didn’t quite do justice to its sporty looks. For folks looking for something with a little more oomph, the IS 350C was a welcome alternative. It shared the swept-back look and quick-folding top with its smaller sibling but swapped out the 2.5-liter engine for a 3.5-liter V6 that made 306 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque. This cut the 0-60 time to a roadster-appropriate 5.2 seconds, despite the bigger engine adding 400 pounds to the IS’s weight.
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The 2010 IS 350C’s starting price of $44,890 was on the high side (it’s equal to about $65,000 today), although it matched up fairly in that respect with its competitors: the BMW 3 series, Infiniti G37, and Volvo C70 convertibles. You can find a stylish IS 350 C at a bargain price today relative to its cost when new. We found more than three dozen active listings for this model at prices ranging from less than $5,000 to just under $46,000. Four were available for less than $10,000, although three of them had been involved in prior accidents.
The LC500 is beautiful, but expensive
Lexus’ latest convertible might be one of its most visually appealing models of any kind. The LC 500 coupe debuted in 2016, and Toyota unveiled the convertible version at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show. SlashGear’s Chris Davies got an early look at that event and called it “more stunning than we dared hope.” The LC 500 convertible went on sale as a 2021 model, with a four-layer soft top that could be raised or lowered at speeds of up to 31 miles per hour.
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Like its SC predecessors, it was engineered to keep wind in the cabin to a minimum and was updated with modern driver assist systems and an automatic roll bar that deploys in the event of a crash. This beauty has remained relatively unchanged through the current model year, although the base price has risen to above $107,000. For that investment, you get more than just a stunning car with a top that can be raised and lowered in a quarter of a minute at neighborhood cruising speeds. The LC 500 has flush-mounted exterior door handles with integrated LED lighting, wedge-shaped taillights designed to mimic jet afterburners, and 21-inch, five-spoke wheels.
