This is a 1998 Toyota Altezza AS200. Designed by Tomoyasu Nishi and engineered by Nobuaki Katayama, the Altezza was a compact executive car produced by Toyota starting October 1998. In other countries, the Altezza was known as the Lexus IS; at this time the Lexus marque had not been introduced to Japan yet.
Design work was frozen in 1996, with engineering work carried from 1994 to 1998. The Altezza was designed as a direct competitor to European luxury sports sedans, with a greater emphasis on performance than prior Japanese luxury vehicles. Launched in October 1998 and sold exclusively as Toyota Netz Store dealerships, the Altezza was highly praised and awarded Japan's Car of the Year honors. The Lexus IS would be marketed some months later in January 1999 for export markets.
Variants available at launch were the 1G-FE-powered AS200 and the 3S-GE-powered RS200; both were fitted with a 6-speed J160 manual as standard. The car's taillight style was so popular it was copied by numerous aftermarket accessory makers. In July 2000, a station wagon version, the Gita AS300, was added. Hiroyuki Tada styled a facelift for the Altezza and IS in 2003; both cars were discontinued in August 2005 when the second generation was introduced the next month. For the second generation onwards, the Altezza name was dropped, with the Lexus IS name used in all markets, including Japan, with the Lexus marque finally introduced to Japan in July 2005.
Now this casting was designed by Mark Jones and introduced in 2023 in the Modern Classics segment of the Car Culture line. This casting has seen three known releases, the last being this one in 2025. This casting originally had no door handles due to a design oversight but was retooled by Ron Wong in 2024 to fix the issue.
