You have just entered a world where Toyota never created Lexus. Here's the question, what brand would get your business? I haven't defined whether it is for your current vehicle, your next vehicle, the family you would stay in, or the brand that is the benchmark that someone else would always have to be better than to get your business.

The poll options may or may not be your cup of tea but I tried to make more or less viable alternatives. Putting Porsche with Audi was more for the Cayenne and Jaguar with RR keeps in the corporate family. As for Lincoln, maybe that's a stretch but what the heck there is the Town Car and the Navigator. Before anyone brings it up, I am well aware that there aren't very many straight brand families that do compete with Lexus but let's see what brands would head your list in a world without Lexus.

Please remember that as we get into discussions of brands, there is no Lexus so it should be straightforward to keeps things a bit detached and avoid the nonsense. If you want to argue about my choices for the poll, fine. I am not blessed with any particular insight but I didn't want to get into people downgrading if Lexus wasn't around. Just tried to give a fair shot at the brands that at least in some way could be viewed as an alternative either on a particular model or as a brand family.

 

Without Lexus, I would go for the GT-R, but not Nissan so I couldn't choose the whole brand Nissan. The brand I love the second most overall after Lexus is BMW, so I picked it.

 

It really depends on the model rather than the brand for me, & the kind of car I'm looking for. So I can't name just one or two brands, but it will most likely be among Mercedes, Porsche, Infiniti, BMW & Audi.

 

I am stumped I voted for BMW even though I love the offerings from Caddy.

 

I have several thoughts on this but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Part of this was inspired by the Japanese vs German threads. I have to say that if you take Lexus out of the mix, the Japanese aren't much competition for the German makers. I would truly appreciate Acura and Infiniti being additional competition but with the exception of a model here or there, they don't offer a family of cars that I would benchmark anything else against. Whether I look at individual models or families in general it really gets tough if there were no Lexus out there. I voted for BMW as well and to tell you the truth, that surprised me as well.

 

I probably for car would get a BMW (I used to have a 90 325ic and one good little vehicle), but I nearly got an Infiniti QX4 instead of my RX300 way back in 2002 until I found out Toyota was going to opens its doors here (source of fluids and service items).

 

Uhmmm...

Toyota is not on the list...

 

That's a pretty tough question. I think I'd go BMW, although Audi/Porsche might work as well.

 

Honestly, Ford.

 

Tata......

 

anything but germans. i like my cars to just run without breaking and leaking fluids all the time. i'm voting infiniti, as the 1st gen M45 is badass and would work perfectly for my project.

 

I have never been a "One" brand car guy, so without Lexus I'd simply keep on buying either BMW or Acura which I have done in the past. Currently I really like Infiniti, so I'd probably buy that as well, and possibly Audi. It really just matters on who has what I want at the time I'm purchasing. I often find as new redesigned models overlap each other, one brand or another may take the lead. So, whatever floats my boat when the time comes I'll buy it.

 

Jump to Acura, go from one good quality ride to the next. A nice last year Legend perhaps.

 

Fascinating - this far into the poll, that no-one has nominated Mercedes... though surely the Mercedes customer (especially the S-Class) was exactly whom Lexus was targeting with the original LS... and who stll makes the most comparable cars in terms of general ride/comfort character... Quite surprised that BMW is doing so well... so different to many of the values associated with Lexus today...

...makes one wonder that if Lexus had never existed to put competitive pressure on Mercedes, perhaps they would never have gone through that cost-cutting phase and would still be basking in the tank-like reputation of their older models?

Chris

 

I couldn't agree with you more, this is actually quite fascinating. I hope the poll keeps attracting interest and getting votes before we add some other issues into the mix. At this point I find it interesting that Acura is doing as well as it is. I can totally understand it from the vehicles, build quality, interiors, etc. But of course Acura is not as well rounded a product line as Lexus. Looking for a large luxury sedan myself it is obvious that the only Japanese product in that class is from Lexus. If Lexus was not there I wouldn't have any Japanese option. Should be interesting to see where this goes. Thanks to everyone for participating.