BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Looks like a cool car Garry! I don't know much about those

I created a thread on the crooked stance, maybe people would believe me now

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...cs-thread.html

sojah

iTrader: (1)

thats gangsta son!! the lean that is..

hoonunya

I think I need psychiatric help. I just spent close to 2 hours looking at ultra's within 599 miles. This is insane because I just got my Custom Lux 6 weeks ago and plan on keeping it forever.

Anyway, I put in my South Carolina zip and searched for ultra. 21 came up (within 599 miles) but 6 were not ultra's. (I looked at freaking pictures and/or descriptions). Non-Lexus dealers are the most clueless on what they have. I then took out ultra and got 616 LS430's.

That is: 2.4% of LS430's within 599 miles are Ultra's.

The insanity continued. I reduced it down to 250 miles and there were only 2 Ultra's out of 159 LS430's in Autotrader. This included North Carolina (1), Georgia (1) and South Carolina (0).

That is: 1.26% of LS430's within 250 miles are Ultra's

There are 3 possible explanations:
1) Ultra owners do not sell them,
2) The Carolina's and Georgia is an Ultra wasteland, and
3) I have too much free time and/or I have an OCD issue

must step away from the computer.......

AlexusAnja

Ultras only accounted for I think 5% of the models, or something like that. There was a thread on the production numbers. I'm gonna get hammered for this, but I would imagine that the Ultra went to "richer" areas like the North East and California, rather than mid-America or the Carolina region...

As for selling or not, if you got the best, why sell it? No where to go up beyond UL...

sojah

iTrader: (1)

yeah i may also tend to think that an 80k car would sell better where the jobs are paying more like soCal where the average salary is like $120k for middle class office types compared to maybe like a salary of like $70k for comparable positions in other regions. plus the relative proximity to j-pan and all... last time i visited j-pan (jan 09) i stopped by a lex dealership and inquired about the 04-06 celsior (ls430) and the new ls460 lineup and a couple salesmen (who in my opinion are the equivalent to like a freakin senior vp of lex over here) told me that the factory air suspension or UL which was called Ui in jp was very prevalent unlike our rare 5%... they said that there were a lot of the Ui vehicles around and that they were not rare at all. they had no idea and seemed very surprised that the UL's were so limited in the U.S or east coast at least.

hoonunya

Per capita income is definitely significantly higher so that's probably a lot of it. There were also a lot in Ohio, and a few in coastal Virginia. Only 1 in Florida but it didn't reach South Florida.

hoonunya

Wow. The world has really changed. I did engineering work at a few nuclear plants in Japan in the late seventies and everything was a compact. American cars were the primo item and hotels would park them at the entrance. Narita was new at the time.
I would go weeks without seeing a non-Japanese person and really only saw 1 other outside Tokyo.

AlexusAnja

This statement is what makes Chrysler (and soon to be GM's) bankruptcy status so saddening. The US auto manufacturers were the "BIG DAWGS" in the world, but then the 80's came along and they just killed themselves. I remember going back to Taiwan in '79 and every "poor man's" car was the local Taiwan makes, then the rich drove AMERICAN cars and they were admired for being big, spacious, and nice. Just look at Caddy, the biggest dawg in the dayz... but now, it's just another make of a company that's going Ch. 11 eventually. Really really sad.

I really hope that Toyota sees the current situation of the other makes and doesn't repeat the same thing in 10-15 years. I'd hate to have my LS430 with no nice dealership to go to to get my loaner and enjoy a nice coffee and donut... ha ha.

hoonunya

yep.
I knew the US auto industry was no longer a significant player when my father-in-law bought a Camry several years ago. He retired from a union job with a utilty. He had only bought American before. Now he has 2 cars, both japanese.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

You are not alone. I bought my UL 14 months ago and I still look on autotrader to see what's on the market once in a while.

I think is #1. People bought the best and just keep them, also since the UL depreciate more then the regular model, so why sell such an excellent car if you can't get much for it?

Those are my thoughts, I could be totally wrong though.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

I think this happens to just about everyone, I already feel the latest generation of Lexus (ES, IS, GS, LS), are not as well build or well design as the previous generation cars. Their quality is lower. I hear more problems about them and they fall apart faster. I just hope Toyota don't go down as much as the American car companies.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

one of my greatest fears (today at least) is that hyundai is somehow going to be the next lex in terms of their flagships at least... i really don't even want to share this with people who don't know already but i was talking to some korean's the other day and they were telling me about this hyundai model that is 100-150k in korea so i looked it up and it is not sold in the u.s but made its first appearance at the ny auto show a month or so back just to gauge our interest level in the car,, but the car looks like a direct knock off from a s600 mb but is only half the price.. the scary part for me is that this is how lex/toyota got into the industry a few years back... everywhere i look these days i see a freakin hyundai which i really just don't care for at all for some reason.

hoonunya

Wow! didn't see that coming, but Hyundai has been selling cars in the US since 1986.

The last 3 electronics I've bought are 2 flat panels (Samsung) and a cell phone (LG), all korean.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

scarry isn't it?? my wife is japanese and a lot of her local friends are either korean or japanese and they all seem to be thinking that its almost time for the rise of the kdp (korean domestic product).

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

I am wondering about the same thing. It happened a few times in history already, Cadillac was king in the 70s and early 80s, now is in the toilet. Benz was king from the 60s-early 90s, it was in the toilet from late 90s to 2006 or so, they are getting better since 2007. Lexus was king from mid 90s to 2006, and all the 2007+ cars are slowly getting worse. Hyundai is catching up quick and it might become the next Lexus.

Yeah the Equus, it look pretty nice. I think Hyundai is planning to bring it to the U.S. in the next few years, since the Genesis is selling so well.

Yup, Hyundai is doing exactly what Toyota did with Lexus 20 years ago. But they already failed to do one thing Toyota did, they didn't start a luxury brand like Lexus, and I think that is a big key to Lexus success, A LOT of wealthy people just don't want to drive a cheap brand, they really do care about their image. I think that reason alone would make Hyundai less successful then Toyota in the higher end market. And the Lexus brand not only provided a higher end image, they also provided excellent services and warranties coverage, that is the 2nd key to Lexus's success.

haha.....same here. If Hyundai do manage to pass Lexus in the future, we Lexus owners will be like the Benz owners now, refused to believe that Lexus is better then Benz