Remi

Very interesting!

"Lexus has become too dependent on the RX and other core entry level products such as IS and ES. The LS/LX/GX/GS/SC share of total Lexus sales has dropped from 26.7% in 2007 to 17.5% in 2010"


http://jalopnik.com/#!5797130/how-le...the-luxury-war

Make sure to scroll down and read the leaked notes...

spwolf

nice...

good things here, they mention GS launch 9 months away! Also the plan to sell 4x more of them in 2012. Which is not that outrageous, it is return to 2006 levels.

spwolf

So we can be sure that GS will be revealed at LA show at latest.

G Star

iTrader: (2)

Glad this was leaked out, this puts Toyota under pressure to follow through with the requests.

Everything mentioned is very true and Toyota should go beyond consideration to accommodate.

DIRECT LINK TO FILE OF LEXUS LETTER TO TOYOTA, JAPAN:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/54228371/wmfrontlex

*Batman*

Yeah I share many of the same frustrations as the dealers.

In particular I'm glad they called out Lexus for:

1. Excessively long product lifecycles of 7 or 8 years instead of consistent 6 year cycles for all products.
2. Being a follower and not a leader in technology
3. Failing to share plans (if they exist at all) to offer a competitive powertrain strategy and thereby implying that Lexus powertrains are not good enough
4. Failure to invest in aspirational models like SC, a more sporty SUV, GS, LS, IS coupe, and excessive reliance on cheap near-luxury models like ES and RX.
5. Lax CPO Standards relative to BMW and Mercedes
6. Increasingly unacceptable quality standards

I am curious to hear the reaction of the Lexus Fanboys. TRDFantasy went nuts once when someone suggested Lexus is in bad shape, and 1SICKLEX has recently asserted that Lexus is a technology leader, has great powertrains and that he prefers long 7+ year cycles on luxury cars.

mmarshall

I don't see how Lexus dealerships can gripe about the success of their own products. Looks like me like this article was simply written by people who are either in denial of the huge success of the RX and ES, or who simply don't understand it. The fact is that these are the Lexus bread-and-butter cars for a reason. This is the type of vehicle that Lexus built its success on, what the clear majority of its buyers want (no matter what their age). You aren't going to force them to turn to BMWs and Audis when that is not the vehicles they want.

I do agree, though, that Lexus needs to address some falling quality-standards.....and start building cars again like they did in the 1990s'. But, even there, the RX doesn't seem to have shown the quality-drop that some other Lexus models have.

pavelekPL

I'd consider a Q5/X3 version from Lexus. Sadly there isn't one and may never be.

IS-SV

Some very interesting feedback from the dealers, some obviously has merit.

*Batman*

I think that's missing the point. The point is that for a luxury brand to be strong, there have to be exciting aspirational cars on the streets that draw people to the brand. Mercedes isn't percieved to be a luxury brand because of the C-Class. Acura makes cars like the C-Class. Mercedes is percieved as a luxury brand because people associate them with the S-Class, E-Class, GL, CLS, SLK, E-Class Coupe/Cabrio, etc. If all Mercedes made were Cs and MLs, their reputation would dip quickly.

They are saying that Lexus isn't selling enough real luxury cars to maintain the perception as a luxury brand.

I bet if you looked at that stat in 2003 the percentage would have been in the high 30s.

Alucard

I'm sure many will disagree, but I think Lexus' focus on "sport" has been a mistake. The ISF and LFA are truly great, but I would rather see a sub $100K new SC than the LFA however.

The early Lexus cars took the established notions of luxury in a new direction. Now it seems like Lexus is just chasing the Audi-esque sporting vibe.

spwolf

this is just normal stuff really, nothing crazy... when I attended dealer councils in Europe, our tone was a lot lot higher :-).

But it is normal way of doing business - TMC expects excellence from its dealers and it is normal that dealers expect excellence from TMC.

spwolf

our Lexus Europe president was saying for last 2 years that smaller lexus suv is coming :-).

keep in mind that dealers will not know of future product plans that much in advance.

SaintNexus

Does this mean that we're going to see Lease specials for more of the Lexus Line-Up, like the LS, GX, and LX? Not to mention that there are Lease Specials for the IS250, but it would be nice to have some for the IS350 and ISF.

spwolf

i dont think they care how brand is perceived in a way you do - they want more marketing money and better lease deals for higher priced vehicles as well as solving some issues with availability of such vehicles.

I think they mentioned attractive price for next GS at least 3 times in that letter .

spwolf

it means dealers want Lexus to do it, but of course Lexus has to do it from their own pocket .