Lexus

Base price: $47,775 (including destination charge) Price, as tested: $50,910 Powertrain: 3.5-liter, DOHC, direct-injected V-6; six-speed automatic transmission with manual mode and paddle shifters Horsepower: 306 at 6,400 rpm Torque: 277 pound-feet at 4,800 rpm 0-60 mph: 5.7 seconds Curb weight: 3,795 pounds Wheelbase: 112.2 inches Overall length: 190.7 inches EPA fuel economy: 19/28 mpg city/highway ...

The gig: David Gooding, 45, is president and founder of Gooding & Co. in Santa Monica, which sells classic cars - from antiques such as a 1912 Model T Speedster to hot sports cars such as a 1973 Porsche 917/30 Can-Am Spyder - typically at auctions. Hot market: "We have seen extraordinary prices and growth in our market," he said. "It is not just a few buyers driving the price up but rather many buyers from all over the globe. " Gooding's company sold 297 collector cars last year, averaging $441,218 each.

It was only a month ago that BMW's top U.S. marketing executive predicted that new luxury cars from Toyota and Nissan would not hurt his business much for at least a couple of years, until they establish reputations. But in its first month on the market, Toyota's Lexus is already outselling BMW in the United States. Toyota officials said an early survey of buyers showed that 15% were trading in BMWs.

Toyota Motor Co.'s luxury division Lexus grabbed top honors as the best line of autos in 1991, according to the influential D. Power survey released Monday. The consumer satisfaction survey by the market research company is based on responses from 34,000 motorists after one year of ownership. General Motors Corp. was the only U.S. car maker to make the survey's top 10 list, with its upstart Saturn division placing third and its luxury Cadillac line in the No. 8 spot.

IF watchers of automotive styling wondered where all the flares, waveforms and undulations went on the latest BMW 3-series, I've found them: They're on Lexus' new IS sport sedans. Inspired by the company's new design language, called L-Finesse -- which sounds like the name of a Mexican wrestler -- the luxury division of Toyota has managed, not quite consciously, to build the 3-series that Munich would have built if they hadn't gotten a straitjacket on design chief Chris Bangle.

The Terraces subdivision here contains rows of 2,000-plus-square-foot homes appointed with sunken tubs, granite countertops and tile floors that stare off into open desert. But as the economy has contracted, so have the homes. The development will soon be dotted with new 1,700-square-foot houses on narrower lots that retail for more than $100,000 less than their predecessors.

Toyota's new U.S. boat-building unit, Toyota Marine Sports, has firmed up pricing for its first two offerings, bringing both high-performance ski boats in at what industry watchers say is the high side of the competitive price range for tournament-class boats. The Torrance-based marine unit also named the first 11 dealers who will handle the V-8-powered Epic ski boats when they are introduced later this month. Only one, Rice Honda Sea Doo, of landlocked La Puente, is in Southern California.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has upgraded an investigation into the 2007 Lexus ES 350 sedan after at least 12 people were injured when it accelerated without warning. The government agency said an all-weather floor mat, found in the majority of the vehicles that reported the problem, could trap the gas pedal, causing acceleration.

The nation's seemingly supercharged economy has been good to car makers and very good to their luxury-vehicle units. And it was especially good to Lexus, Toyota's high-end marque, in the first quarter of 1999. Coming off a year in which it posted a 60% U.S. sales increase, Torrance-based Lexus ended the first quarter with a 42.5% hike in sales. The gain was driven by the division's two hot-selling sport-utility models.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest seller of cars powered by a combination of gasoline and electricity, will build a hybrid model of its Lexus LS sedan in 2007. It will be the luxury brand's most expensive model to date. The Lexus LS600hL will arrive in the U.S. in early 2007 with a V-8 engine and electric motor that produce more than 430 horsepower, the company said. Its price hasn't been set.