We knew Lexus was preparing a replacement for its five-year old ES sedan, but we weren't expecting to see the actual production model making its first appearance in China – not that we're complaining.

Surprisingly, casting aside some stickers on the alloy rims and a…craftily folded newspaper to hide the instrument binnacle and the steering wheel hub, the 2013 ES is virtually camouflage free.

And while this is probably the China market version, don't expect to see any noteworthy differences over the North American model that should follow later this year.

Like its predecessors, the sixth generation of Lexus' base luxury sedan is built upon the chassis of the Toyota Camry (the 2012 model in this case) featuring its own sheetmetal and interior designs.

Toyota just can't get pass its recall problems. Today, the troubled Japanese automaker issued a voluntary recall that involves approximately 283,200 Toyota and 137,000 Lexus vehicles equipped with V6 engines to replace the crankshaft pulley.

According to the company, there is a possibility that the outer ring of the engine's crankshaft pulley may become misaligned with the inner ring, causing noise and/or trigger a warning light on the dashboard.

A rescue attempt to save a Lexus ES300 that was on the verge of sinking into a lake in Russia had the opposite effect when the tow straps holding the car snapped off leading the Japanese model into the water.

We can’t confirm this, but the person who uploaded the video on Youtube says that the Lexus sedan was parked too close to the water and the driver couldn't get out.

What's the first thing automakers do when they want to boost their sales but don't have a completely new or refresh product(s) in the pipeline? The age-old answer to that question is a special edition model.

For Lexus it's actually three new limited edition models based on the 2012 LS 460, ES 350 and CT 200h, with the first two arriving in U.S. dealerships in November, and the third next month.