I love many Lexus gimmicks. Lexus making NX wheels out of ice is not one of them. See, the gold badging the brand offers is great—gilded “Landcruiser” script over dark red or green paint is about the perfect look for a luxury SUV. The company also made a hoverboard this summer—that’s rad. Plus, even 26 years after the debut of Toyota’s luxury subsidiary, the whole Faultless Reliability thing has its charms. But now, the otherwise thoughtful folks at Lexus have fitted an NX SUV with a set (four) of ice wheels. That is, wheels and tires made of meltable, crackable, crushable frozen water. I am a man with a capacity for humor, jokes, levity, silly vibes. But these icy wheels do not tickle my funny bone. I am just confused.
This coldest of gimmicks wasn’t even a hack job. Lexus hired ice sculptors to create flawless, translucent reproductions of the NX’s existing wheels and tires. After three months of research, development and testing, the artists were ready to freeze. The NX, stripped of its criminally un-festive rubber tires and alloy wheels, was “deep-frozen” for five days at -22°F, to ensure that its components didn’t turn this lukewarm marketing idea into lukewarm water. Meantime, the wheels were carved into existence, each taking no fewer than 36 hours to go from ice block to functional cube. Due to the inherent instability of ice, the wheels were reinforced with acrylic spokes. Due the apparent boringness of ice, the wheels were also reinforced with LED lighting, because sparkle.
Again, we’re unsure about the thrust of this particular stunt and will be making no jokes about numb handling or Jack Frost or how about the traction of those ICE WHEELS. Let’s give the Lexus ice wheels their Internet-mandated minute in the baking sun, and then let them melt.
As with all automotive components, we hope the ice wheels are recyclable, because around this time of year, too many a whiskey goes drunk without a proper cooling hunk in the glass. Let’s end this “wheel” nonsense and get that good frosty stuff into some booze where it belongs.
