Aron9000

^ I'm not trying to pigeonhole people, just saying that the Corvette and LC500 are very different cars that are likely to attract different buyers. There might be some cross shopping between the two, but I'm betting the cars most people cross shop the LC with are things like a BMW 650i/M6, S550 Benz Coupe, Bentley Continential GT, Porsche 911, maybe an Audi R8(once again that's a sports car and not an all out luxury two door).

Heck I bet the LC will be crossed shopped against other 100k cars from Benz, Audi, Porsche, BMW that you might not think of, like the G-wagon, BMW X5M, Benz-AMG GLS63, BMW M5, BMW 750i, Benz S550 sedan, Porsche Panamera, Porsche Cayenne, Audi A8/S8, Audi S7/RS7(great looking cars, perhaps my current favorite luxury car for 100k) People are a lot more practical and aren't slaves to style like they used to be with two door coupes. All of those cars have a honking twin turbo V8 and offer incredible performance along with refinement and luxury.

situman

I never mentioned anything about R&D money, I mentioned where their focus and energy is being spent. Where's the 3 row RX that dealers and everyone's been clamoring for? Lexus is 3rd in overall sales YTD with Audi and even Infiniti rapidly catching up. In the last couple of yrs, we had 4 car introductions, RC, GSF, LC and LS. There's the mediocre NX and refreshed LX both already long in the tooth. You need high volume vehicles to fund these pet projects and hobbies and without high volume products, where's the R&D money going to come from? All of the recent introductions and refreshes are low volume pet projects and hobbies. If it pleases so many enthusiasts, why arent more enthusiasts buying those cars?

EXE46

^
Yes indeed, and to add, they've always had massive R+D to focus on both yet just recently started to with this new CEO. Without Akio, they would be making the same boring cars and many of us would have kept buying Germans despite the disadvantages.

There is also something to be said regarding these new high performance cars since they aren't exactly selling as Lexus had anticipated. It's only a matter of time before they might pull the plug. GSF will be by next car for sure in 2019;the greatest car Lexus will ever make besides the LFA...

My0gr81

Maybe, just maybe there's a method to introducing new cutting edge tech into new low volume models to work out the kinks? Sure a 2l, 4cyl turbo doesn't really fit in an LS but it sure did wonder in an NX that was released in the EU market almost 6 months before making it in NA

situman

What's so cutting edge about the NX, RC and GS-F? The RC and GSF are wasted time and development money that could have been spent on better products. RC and GSF are both DOA. NX is selling well only because its a crossover and a Lexus that's priced reasonably, if they offered the V6 as an option it would have been a very good crossover instead of merely decent. I understand the LC and LS is needed since every brand needs a flagship or two.

Although I do want a GSF in the used market in 5 yrs, but I highly doubt I will be able to find any since an ISF is a rare find and I presume that was a better seller than the GSF and RCF.

My0gr81

I never said anything about these cars being cutting edge, just that their lower initial volume allowed Lexus to mitigate risk of introducing new technology. But hey,they don't have what you want, so they must doing something wrong.

situman

Its not about what I want. I'm only 1 person that can afford 1 car at a time. Its about what the overall market wants and the market, even Europe and Japan of all places wants SUVs. It is clear other makes are putting considerable efforts into expanding their lineup and adding optional powertrains and etc.