TwiBlueG35

It used to be war between Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and now the war is shifted between Lexus and BMW. See, BMW owners just think their cars are better than everybody else......E36 and E46 have conquered this compact luxury sports sedan class for so long, and the bimmer guys are so used to this number one feeling, but they have not realized or at least have not admitted that their beloved 3-series has been caught up by at least three Japanese competitors(Lexus IS350/IS250, Infiniti G35, and Acura TL) already, if not surpassed by them.

Badman Forever

i'd say the sports sedan war is primarily revolving around bmw-lexus-infiniti too.
they got the 3 vs IS vs G
also got the 5 vs GS vs M

lexus still #1 imo.
bmw/infiniti are tied for runner-up.

hector

[ There is no more Toyota Altezza or any other Toyota equivalent to the IS. This car was designed from the ground up as a Lexus and will be sold world wide (yes, even in Japan) as the Lexus IS. People who make that comment aren't even worth arguing with because they are obviously misinformed.

James[/QUOTE]
until they make a supra out of it!

flipside909

Not quite. If Toyota releases the Supra, it will be it's own car on it's own chassis with possible shared/related components. It won't be marketed under a different brand anywhere else. Don't confuse this.

hector

i had read a while ago that the new supra ( if and when it materializes) might be built on the same platform as the IS to reduce costs. in any event i really don't have an issue with platform- sharing especially if it makes platform derivatives such as a low-volume sports car more feasible/ economical to produce. i was simply responding to the notion that the IS is not a toyota becauce i don't belive that it's a meaningful distinction, i don't believe that if a supra were derived from the IS platform that that would in any way denegrate the lexus brand because the quality is there. conversely however, i do believe that taking a camry and slapping some burl walnut onto the dash and then calling it a lexus does do so!, i guess for me it depends which is the chicken and which is the egg.