rominl

iTrader: (4)

i am surprised infiniti moved its hq to hk too, never heard of it

lexus in japan is weak, and their sales have shown that. problem is toyota is way too strong in japan and toyota's offering is way bigger than most other regions. lexus imho has always been about other regions so it's probably better idea to be in other countries.

to me, the bigger problem is more about how toyota is going to let lexus make their own calls on design and executive. from what i see, so far a lot of the things are limited by the executive of high ups in japan. if that's the case, lexus hq can be anywhere but that's not bottleneck

spwolf

indeed... and thats why they want to move to US and make more decisions here.

Lexus is mainly built for US and to do that they have to be located in the US.

p.s. CTh is doubling sales in Japan as well, last month i saw lexus get 100% raise of sales and now is on track to an healthy 50k/year. Which is pretty good considering when they started they did only 15k or so. Main problem is of course that they still have Crown series in Japan that outsells complete Lexus brand.

OCTOBER BRANDS RANKING
Toyota 111,533
Honda 44,019
Daihatsu 42,711
Nissan 40,494
35,018 Suzuki
13,194 Mazda
7853 Subaru
7677 Mitsubishi
4308 Lexus
3861 VW
2215 BMW
1771 Mercedes
Audi 1568
Volvo 646
Fiat 457
Peugeot 364
Ford 347
Porsche 268
Citroen 265
Renault 261
Jeep 145
86 Chevrolet
77 Dodge
Jaguar 75
Alfa Romeo 67
56 Mitsuoka
49 Chrysler
Land Rover 49
Smart 49
Cadillac 45
Ferrari 32
Bentley 15
Lotus 15
Maserati 15
11 Hummer
Aston Martin 9
Lamborghini 8
Lancia 8
Alpina 7
Saab 6
Rolls Royce 3
Morgan 2
MG 2
GM Daewoo 1
Buick 1

spwolf

Just to point out the obvious:

Lexus US October: 20k
Lexus JDM October: 4.3k
Lexus Euro October: ~4k-5k

It is crazy to even think that their HQ should be anywhere but US.

LexFather

You are wrong trolling again. Lexus was designed in Japan and while was aimed squarely for the American market it also debuted in Europe and shocked the motoring press in 1989. Lexus sells well in Russia, Asia is 4th in China, does well in the U.K, South Africa and is getting better in Canada. You lack the knowledge to come to a reasonable conclusion on why Lexus doesn't sell better in other countries b/c it isn't solely how the cars are designed. They have no plants in China and had high HP engines to sell compared to the GErmans who build cars there and supply 4 cylinder engines in everything. That is one of the main reasons they don't do as well here.

I find it funny Infiniti moved their H.Q to Hong Kong and there wasn't a peep. I guess no one cares. This is simply a way for Lexus haters to bash Lexus who somehow think Lexus moving to America would be a bad thing. Way to typical.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

yup, in some way i really hope lexus can put hq here (US), let lexus does their things, and then BRING the cars back to japan and give it an import feel. spice it up more and separate it further from toyota root. i think that's what they need to further expand.

ct is a good example. it doesn't have much toyota feel to it imho, on the other hand more european feel. i wonder if that's what interest the japanese market

RA40

iTrader: (6)

No. They can have design and testing teams all over the world if need be. The final production and decisions should be based near the source of production. I feel Japan is suitable for the time being.

spwolf

CTh sells great in Japan and Europe because:
a. Price
b. Size

Best selling cars in Japan and Europe are at CTh size or lower... very different from US where Camry and F-150 is best seller. For instance Yaris in Europe sells 4x more than Avensis... where in US, Camry sells 4x more than Yaris :-).

Blackraven

You know, it was actually the Lexus LS that paved the way for the "REAL LAUNCH" of Lexus Japan (it reached highs of MORE THAN 10,000 units per month FOR AN ENTIRE CALENDAR YEAR).

10,000+ units per month for a premium auto vehicle (in JDM land) is A LOT

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Guys, knock off the commentary about the people posting (and your opinions of them) and keep to the subject of the thread.

Trexus

AT&T is headquartered in Dallas, TX and Coca Cola is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

Trexus

As of current no Lexus are built in the United States. Only some RX's are built in Canada. I could see more Lexus models being built in Canada by expanding the plant there if Lexus decides to.

Toys4RJill

IMO, Lexus is going to really go after the American market with an aggressive push to become more American in their design of Lexus models for the US market. This is what I am reading the between the lines.

This is about making money and profit and has nothing to do with pleasing the past Lexus fanboys who still believe Japan made Lexus models are superior to what Americans can build.

Anyone want to bet that the next Gen ES will come out of the US or Canada?

Trexus

I think you're reading too far in between the lines. Also your opinion/perception is that of yours and not Lexus/Toyota. Lexus is global and has recently entered the Mexican and Indian market. Also check out their global site and don't think that the world revolves around the U.S. Lexus is in six major continents such as Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Oceania.

http://www.lexus-global.com/index.html

Well over history Japanese vehicles have been superior to american vehicles. I understand about making money and profits. Lexus is the luxury division of Toyota and Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in the whole entire world. Toyota is number 8 in the Global 500 companies. So they are making money and have lots of profits.

I don't think the next generation ES will be made in the U.S. I can see that some of the RX's will continue be built in Canada. As of YTD 2011 71,087 RX's have been sold in the U.S and 35,991 ES's have been sold in the U.S. Unless the ES will double or triple in sales will Lexus consider building the ES in their Canadian plant. Worldwide sales I'm guessing Lexus has sold about 140,000 RX's and roughly 70,000 ES's.

*Batman*

So basically you view the future of Lexus as being a US luxury car company with limited exports, just like Cadillac.

I would like to think they can be as successful as Mercedes on a global level.

spwolf

no, i see it expanding... but you cant expand by ignoring your largest market.

Lexus needs to build on their strength in the USA, their largest market.

Putting HQ in Germany would be ridiculous and would make no sense.
It doesnt mean that they wont have input from Europe or Japan, it just means their priority and their strength is in USA, as it is.

Otherwise, Lexus is expanding world wide... I was very surprised that China just became its 2nd biggest market, after USA. I think that by 2013, Lexus will sell more than 500,000 world wide, which is a big feat for such brand.