dseag2

Maybe because Sewell is a major dealership, but I have seen lots of them in Dallas. Saw a Black F Sport today on the road, followed by a Black Luxury model with chrome wheels at a shopping center. I've also seen a Nebula Gray base in my neighborhood, a Silver F Sport parked at the airport and a White F Sport parked at the local market. They seem to be selling well here. Dallas is the right market... conservative and "over the top" at the same time!

asoksevil

I've been checking other brand's sales figures and they are likely the same as Lexus. Mercedes and BMW they all sold less in April than in March, about 2k more or less.

Let's see how the GS performs with the new GS450h this month.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i am not sure where you pulled your numbers?

mb e class
feb 12 - 4206
mar 12 - 5570
apr 12 - 5328

bmw 5
feb 12 - 4042
mar 12 - 5451
apr 12 - 3566

they aren't in the 2k range. but for sure we are seeing even bigger fluctuations in them. that's why i said the drop in apr on the gs shouldn't be an indication yet

zoombie99

Plenty of cars in the NY metro area now

spwolf

May until September are weaker months btw... so they should be going down, unless there are sale events that boost the numbers.

i doubt we will see anything about GS actual sales until at least 2 years have passed.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

to be honest if they are able to keep it around 2k+ for 2 years that's pretty darn good. as i posted, the sales of the 3gs fell like that after 1 year

asoksevil

I didn't mean just the E Class and the 5 Series, I meant overall sales of Mercedes and BMW.

But yeah, April wasn't a good month for the luxury automobile industry.

LexFather

Feb-2396
March-2558
April-2006
May-1996

Holding steady for its sales goal of 24k! Mind you marketing/advertising seems non-existent since launch.

On another note the 5 series sold an incredible 6k cars last month! Wowzers.

Rexus300

iTrader: (1)

Its amazing how brainwashed people are in believing the new 5 is a great car. I owned one 2011 BMW 535i xdrive for 1 while year with great dissapointment. Such a poor car dynamically wise and reliability wise. It gave me headaches and felt so numb and isolating. BMW really is discounting these cars and with lease deals to get them moving but again its a boring car and the new 2013 Lexus GS F-Sport I purchased as replacement trumps this BMW 5 any day in every category. I am glad the GS is selling well and is more rare then the ubiquitous boring BMW 5.

ISFSPORT10

FYI . Lexus of Japan, has told the us market that if we want to see a gs coupe, gsf they need to smash their objective for the year. This is 100% confirmed

LexFather

Yeah the 5 is the default pic in class, people buy no questions asked. They also offer more variants as well as the lease specials you mentioned so that helps sales. Now that its based on the bigger 7 series and drives more like an old Lexus I doubt BMW has any intentions to make it lose weight or become unique again looking at the smoking sales figures. Can't fault them at all looking at the numbers they sell it in! FYI they sold 6k 3 serie s models too, so the next higher class car sold like the less expensive model. That is insane. The 5 series sold better than many non luxury vehicles. Its amazing.
528
535
550
5GT
M5

The Lexus strategy will never be the same with the ES around. The 5 series is BMWs biggest deal accounting I believe anywhere from 60-70% of profits.

I think with this 4GS "word of mouth" will help sell the car more than the 3GS and I think the bold front end is attracting new buyers to the brand.

Rexus300

iTrader: (1)

Yeah its the number of variants of the 5 that helps. I wonder why Lexus doesn't offer a GS250 for certain customers and maybe as you said its because of the ES eating a piece of the pie. Either way the GS is a superior car then 5 and that is a surprising statement as I am also an owner of a 2008 BMW 335xi coupe.

jtrue28

Well that is bad news. They're not going to "smash" anything in this economy.

LexFather

I don't believe that b/c auto sales this year have been one of the brightest spots of the economy.

What does concern me are salesman and dealerships who rather go for the easy sale in a white/beige leather ES instead of them trying to sell people the GS. It has sadly been my experience that Lexus salesman still for the most part are not enthusiasts of any time and are used to people just walking in and buying RX/ES models that they have a harder time actually "selling" the GS in this segment. It reminds me of asshats that try to say a TL is better than a 5/GS/A6 b/c its cheaper and bigger with NAV.

If the dealers don't push the GS then ultimately it will hurt the vehicle. If they rather sell the ES and ignore the GS then the issue becomes one of support. The GS is "not" going to be an easy sale.

IMO Lexus cannot wait on the GS-F, they should have debut the car next year just as BMW debuts the M5 the year after the GS. If Cadillac can make a CTS-V there is no reason Lexus should not have a GS F.

Bottom line I am as big of a Lexus enthusiast as they come but they need a GS F and a coupe, period. If they plan to just have the GS be sold another 7 years with no significant updates the car will sell like crap at the end again.

mordecai

I am disappointed that Lexus has not been pushing this car more. Sustained marketing = greater awareness, greater sales. Even with poor marketing, this car is still selling well although it's a little worrying that it's already below 2000. If the rumor that the release of the GS F relies on "smashing" their goals, it's not a good thing that Lexus is merely meeting their sales goal of 24k per year.