CALL me an uncomplicated soul if you must, but there are times in this techno-driven world of ours where I yearn for the simplicity of yore when sports coupes usually combined a fine blend of stylish beauty with a mechanical beefiness that allowed it perform to a hair-raising degree yet still managing to look raffishly composed.

AS IS NORMAL with such things, upon returning the Lexus RX450h to the garage from which I collected it, the personnel there were anxious to see what I thought of the car and seemed happy when I said it was a very nice beast to drive and very sophisticated with it. They did blanche however when I suggested it was something they might not sell very many of, writes Declan Colley

New figures reveal an increase in unemployment for July, Irish Water meet with stiff resistance in Cork as defiant residents block meter installations, a young woman tries to chop off one of her own fingers in a desperate bid to end chronic pain and an NCT tester is sacked over a breach of its code of integrity. Here’s today’s lunchtime irishexaminer.com round-up.

With kids in the back, tent packed and a Lexus GS 450h F Sport for transport, John O’Mahony hits the trail.

When one of the Lexus engineering team cited the cup holders of the company’s new premium mid-size SUV — the NX — as being one of the car’s most important characteristics, he raised a few eyebrows among motoring hacks.

YOU’D have to think that there are a lot of smug people these days at Toyota and the Japanese giants’ luxury car arm, Lexus.

THE Lexus brand has achieved considerable

THESE are edgy times at Opel AG, the German-based arm of American giant General Motors. In recent weeks there has been considerable speculation about the future of Opel which, of course, also plies its trade in England as Vauxhall, and central to all that talk has been the consolidation of the company’s European operations, particularly its manufacturing capacity.