jrock65

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...14/175199.html

I think Nissan said that it will introduce Infiniti in Japan around the same time.

Do they even sell the TL or the MDX in Japan right now? What are they called?

I know that the RL is the Legend. The TSX is the Accord, and the Accord is the Inspire.

bizzy928

I think the TL is the Inspire

whoster

the old TL was the previous gen Inspire

but the US market Accord (current)
is the current JDM inspire ( i never thought i'd use JDM in a sentence...)

TheRupp

I saw this coming after Lexus was introduced in Japan

Gojirra99

Good for them, but I think they shouldn't be making CSX & EL, or have TSX as Acura's anymore then . . . & how about V8/V10 models other than a NSX ?

Stage3

iTrader: (3)

Bingo!

foofighter

does this mean that they'll stop selling some hondas over in japan and strictly sell them as acuras now?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

agree, it's a good thing they do it, especially with lexus ahead of them by a good 2 yrs.

and they should just leave those 4 bangers back for honda and get some v8+ going for acura. otherwise they are not going to distinguish themselves from honda...

Iceman

I wonder if they will match the way Lexus has gone all-out on the dealership experience in Japan. When visiting my friends over there it became very clear that Honda is significantly lower on the prestige scale than Toyota, and the exact same thing will happen with Lexus/Acura unless Honda goes all out.

mmarshall

The real question here is why this move was so long in coming. Acura was created in 1985-86, and Lexus in 89-90, and just NOW ( and in 2008) they are coming to Japan?

IMO, instead of explaing the details of their move now, Acura and Lexus reps need to come up with some good answers why this was not done LONG ago.....and I don't mean BS or smoke-and-mirror answers.

( Sorry, folks, if this sounds like I'm venting.......I sometimes have a tendency to do that. I just get p***ed when auto companies do dumb things )

rominl

iTrader: (4)

imho it's about how they leverage off the status in other countries to make people in japan to believe.

think about this (using toyota/lexus). soarer, aristo, celsior, windom, harrier, they were all under toyota, so people KNOW it's a toyota. if suddenly one day toyota put up couple of lexus dealeships and these suddenly goes into sc430, gs430, ls430, es330, rx330, it's hard for people to adjust. i don' tknow about the price but i assume these cars might now be sold a bit higher than before under the lexus name (consider how much better looking those dealerships are, it's money), how would people judge it?

and you can't expect toyota to build up the lexus name in japan from ground zero, too much money to lose.

so what do they do? they continued to build the lexus name here in the US (mainly). now lexus is a spell out name, people know it's luxury, and with the recent yrs vip bloom in japan, toyota see the chance. they see that people in japan all know about lexus already and it means luxury, and also the fact that a lot of people they are trying to make their cars into a lexus.

so now they just comfortably roll out the lexus name in japan, and without much work, people accept the name, people know what it is, and people are willing to pay.

same for honda/acura i think. though i think its very obvious that acura couldn't build up the name fast enough as lexus (well, after the first legend, the acura name got slumped quite a bit)

mmarshall

I agree with much of what you say, Henry, but history shows that Acura and Lexus were both successful here in the U.S. from Day One....although Acura, like Infiniti, was later somewhat overshadowed in the 1990's by Lexus.
Still, the point remains that you cannot be successful in any country if you don't actually get in and introduce your products. As the old saying goes....you have to walk before you run, and before you can walk you have to get up off your a**.

Anyhow, that's water under the dam now. No matter what I think ( and I am only one person ) at least Honda has made a commitment to do so that with the Acura nameplate, so I guess they deserve some credit....perhaps I simply vented too much in my first post.

Iceman

I really think it comes down to a cultural difference between Japan and America, and the "westernization" of some aspects of Japanese culture. The Japanese are EXTREMELY brand conscious and love to show off logos, but only of foreign companies. Wearing jeans with a Levi's patch is considered very fashionable, for example. Lexus and Acura are associated with America, and my guess is that Toyota and Honda have decided the Japanese consumer will be impressed enough with the label to pay the premium. The other brilliant thing Toyota is doing is elevating the dealer experience to a whole new level, commensurate with how good they say the cars are (and how good we owners believe they are, but the typical Japanese consumer doesn't know that yet).

LexFather

Great post Henry. One thing I am curious about is did they really see how successful Lexus would become? I mean, I am sure they planned very well to make it profitable and excel but at this level? We are talking about now 6 years a row #1 in sales here in the USA and finally sales expanding in Europe.

It seems they didn't feel that way in the early 90s, thus, Lexus didn't roll out in Japan b/c they felt it would not compete well at home. But as you stated, Lexus has PROVEN it is a serious contender.

As for Acura, I don't have enough confidence in their management to understand this move, other than "Since they did it, we have to do it"

Thing is they DON'T have the products. As ICEMAN stated, Japan is VERY BRAND conscious and while Lexus offers German competiton on most levels, Acura still is a niche brand (FWD, I-4/V-6, etc) offering mostly entry level and sub entry level cars.

It seems Lexus waited this long, b/c they have some SERIOUS hardware. New most powerful V-6s, new V-8s coming, AWD, RWD, top luxury SUVs and now hybrids and a new design language.

To me its apples to oranges at this point.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

excellent point there as well mike. personally, i think toyota was NOT prepared about what's coming in the lexus name when they first debut it in early 90s. they knew they could build a car better than the mb and bimmer, that i am sure. however i am sure they knew about the brand name effect too, and they probably wasn't that sure how they are going to tackle it and able to compete.

howeve by end of 90s, i think toyota was pretty confident in lexus already, and they started to see the grow where lexus can be a separate entity instead of "under toyota". and with that coming, putting lexus as a separate brand in japan started to make sense

and yes, i still think honda putting up acura in japan could be a good thing, but they have a lot more work to do than toyota/lexus. their foundation is poor at best, and with their current acura lineup it's far from strong (keep in mind they still have no future answer on the nsx, and putting up the RL as flagship is like lexus without the LS but instead GS). that's a far stretch. they need to have a big game plan and a lot of stuff up their sleeves.

for now, they shouldn't expect the same outcome as lexus