What do you think of the brand " LEXUS "?
A boring car? Quiet, comfortable ride? Most people think it's boring and conservative, or rather stuffy when you talk too harshly.
Personally, I think it is a quality company that pursues a premium in a different way than the three German premium makers - Benz, BMW and Audi. That's what sales in North America are saying.
Once referred to as the Gangnam Sonata and directed the Korean import car market, the German brands with more flexibility and sportsmanship are less likely to feel comfortable and secure.
Called as Gangnam Sonata, Lexus ES (Gen 4)
BMW 5 Series Resigns to Gangnam Sonata from Lexus
However, Lexus has changed recently. While throwing off the conservative ambience of the past and adopting the funky design, the setting changes from the earlier quiet and relaxing settings to the sports-like performance.
Let's take a look at Lexus who challenged German premium brands to regain their stolen throne in the Korean market.
An Entrepreneur of Toyota Motor into North American Luxury Cars Market
After oil shocks of the 1970s, high-fueled Japanese cars such as Nissan, Toyota, and Honda, together with their highly fuel-efficient cars, make a breakthrough in the North American market with the image of being " reasonably priced and quality cars. " But developments are limited to the mass car market, with the lucrative luxury car market at the mercy of U.S. and European brands.
Toyota has expressed its reluctance to launch Crown, a luxury sedan dedicated to domestic demand, as the U.S. company points out lower power output and vehicle size than other luxury models.
At that time, the seventh generation of Crown that Toyota wanted to launch into the market (left), and the fifth generation of Mercedes S Class (right) who led the market.
So in the mid-'80s, Toyota's market research team moved to a satellite town in Los Angeles to analyze the vehicles and their lifestyle used by wealthy people. Having looked closely at their vehicles, of course, their eating habits, what they do in their spare time, their family and sex, they began drawing blueprints for their first luxury model.
To make a difference in luxury car markets, where European and U.S. brands are already divided, Toyota has experienced a need for a new car with a starting speed of less than 58 litres per liter per hour and a starting speed of less than its previous competitors, at a top speed of 250 kilometers per hour.
Finally, in 1989, Lexus LS was able to launch it. Brand Name LE XUS is a name modified to give the luxury feel by transforming the name of the popular TV series ' main character, ALEXIS. Model name LS takes the name of the Luxury Sedan with the name of the market place
The wealthy Americans literally hit the jackpot by cheering for the Lexus LS model, which outperforms their competition in speed, fuel economy, and quiet. The success was accompanied by a superior service to those of their competitors. What was the extent to which Lexus's service was able to do is to recall an all-model model due to a cruise control problem on their original LS model, which then filled the customer's personal model and filled the cost of returning a car to us with a brand name, free of charge, with an apparent fuel recall, and a full of charge.
(Lexus's flagship LS, manufactured until 1994 and discontinued in the second generation)
Later, the models were put on the market for luxury cars in North America, where they received good reviews and were sold at a high volume of sales, separating German and American cars.
Lexus has gained confidence in the North American market by knocking at the door of Europe and Asia, but it won't be as successful.
The following post will cover Lexus's entry into the Korean market and their future.