Motorola

A fascinating piece of history. It's essentially a rebadged Mazda Sentia/929, and made at a time when Ford owned Kia and Mazda, before the Hyundai-Kia merger. That 2nd generation of the Sentia that's in this video was supposedly cobbled from the leftovers of a never-publicly-shown model from Mazda's infamously aborted Amati luxury brand. How ironic that 20 years later, the Koreans would be building their own luxury brand based on their own RWD platforms, while Mazda is still struggling to move upmarket with mostly FWD vehicles.

Lexmex

I remember that time in motoring. Every previous non-luxury car maker was at least eyeing what Honda, Nissan and Toyota had done in terms of bringing in Acura, Infiniti and Lexus but I got the sense that they were all rushing to get up to those big 3 and when the economy started to uptick in the states after the early 90s, the niche was set with those 3 and I think it was a case of careful research by them in the 1980s.

Motorola

The Japanese big 3 were really lucky with their timing. Had they waited a few years later to start developing their luxury brands in the 90s, it would have been a catastrophic failure due to the collapse of the Japanese economic bubble. Had it not been for that bubble and the favorable yen-to-dollar exchange rate, something like the LS400 would have had absolutely no chance of existing. This is why the people asking for Lexus to re-create the success of the LS400 are asking for something that no company, nevermind modern-day Lexus, is capable of doing.

mmarshall

With all due respect, I don't quite agree with your reasoning. Recreating the original market for the LS400 is one thing...they may indeed be beyond the control of automakers. But, Lexus CAN, very much, IF they put their minds to it, produce a sedan just as well-built as the LS400 and 430 were. That's not Pie-in-the-Sky thinking, simply a matter of management saying "Yes", and not yielding to bean-counters.

Motorola

You misread. I said Lexus can't duplicate the success of the LS400. It's what it accomplished at the time 30 years ago by substantially raising the standards of engineering and build quality at the time that is commendable. But if you're talking about the car itself, then the LS400 is not going to impress by modern luxury car standards, not even compared to the LS500. With modern CAD and manufacturing techniques, I can absolutely guarantee you that the LS500 is far better built and to tighter tolerances than the LS400 ever was.