How are these Japanese luxury brands doing these days?

I am trying to gauge on how well are these three Japanese luxury car makers doing at the present. It is my impression that the market seems to cool down for them. Either they do not offer some appealing products, the american cars are getting better and offer better values, their Japanese siblings (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda) are more appealing and cheaper to the people, or they do not meet with the high end luxury car's expectation. Is it any of the above? Are they doing well in comparison to other car makers, particularly the german car manufacturers? The Japanese luxury cars do not seem to give a "shock and awe" products at the moment. Despite of the problems and dissatisfaction toward quality of German luxury cars, Audis, Benz and Bimmer seem to offer lots of exciting, new products. Am I correct on this? Do young professionals, business type people prefer to get a Bimmer than a GS or TL or a G35? Does Audi offer better products in their S4, S6 and S8? Strangely, those products seem to have low long term satisfaction from their owners. Do these people look for quality, style, or sheer performance? Could Japanese car makers ever match the performance of German luxury cars? I noticed that Benz has a variety of products that they offer. The Japanese counterparts only offer one type for each categories (Lexus IS, GS, ES, RX, LS or Acura RSX,CSX,TL,EL, RDX and MDX, or Infiniti G35, and M35?). Should these Japanese Luxury car makers try to go into more product varieries? Or... is it really that BMW engine is the ultimate driving machine? I have not heard people raving about a Honda TL or EL. There are not too many GS430 or 450h on the street. Infiniti G or M35 looks nice, and solid, but they do not stand out in the crowd. They seem to be too quiet these days... or run out of steam? Just curious!

Reply to
aniramca
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You could accept what comes your way via Usenet - and do the copious math yourself, or Google a few of the more well-respected purveyors of customer satisfaction, such as:

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-BH-

Reply to
Brian Humphrey

Lexus is the top selling luxury brand in the US and continues to gain market share. Acura's TSX has the highest resale value in it's class.

Those who are seeking the hottest/trendiest/flashiest vehicle and plan to get ride of it by the time the warranty is over are still fawning over European brands, but other than that bunch the market continues to trend heavily towards the Japanese brands. Infiniti seems to be the one Japanese brand which is chasing the trendy crowd.

John

Reply to
John Horner

Lexus has the highest sales in the US, higher than any other luxury car maker, but in Europe people don't tend to like Lexus. It's hard to know why, but in Europe automotive tastes seem to differ significantly. E.g. virtually everyone in Continental Europe drives with manual transmission and if you don't people look down on you. In America most drive automatics. Lexuses tend to be more reliable and refined than other luxury cars, so perhaps the difference in sales reflect American consumers' utilitarianism and individualism versus the European consumers' snobbery.

See

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Reply to
norak

snip

IMHO, in the USA, the only one having a significant cool-down is Acura. Honda decided to invest more in light trucks than in cars so all Acura has to offer are warmed-over, FWD Accords (Acura TL and TSX), an over-priced RL and SUVs. Their SUVs may be good all weather highway vehicles but they're too late to market. On the other hand, you can make quite a good deal on a TL.

Lexus (Toyota's luxo-brand) is doing very well with new products in the pipeline. Infiniti (Nissan) is attempting to meet BMW's performance standards with their G35/G37 sedan/coupe and M35/M45. As another poster explained, those who lease a car for the life the warranty are probably still buying BMW but those who hold onto a car longer are probably going to buy from either of the more reliable Infiniti or Lexus brands. MB and Audi both are attempting to address significant quality control issues.

YMMV

Reply to
ACAR

I saw an article that says Lexus is going to introduce some super-lux models so yes, they seem to agree with your basic observation.

Acura, just doesn't seem to care, they make money on what they have even without an NSX for image, but really what did the NSX ever do for TL sales?

I still wish Honda/Acura would put out some V8 vehicles, but the RL body is probably just a little tight for it, and the cost of building on a new body is too high. They'd probably sell some in SUV bodies, but high powered FWD utilities vehicles wouldn't shock or awe anybody. But hey, an S4000 (or Acura badge whatever) to go against the X8 ...

... would harsh their fleet mileage, too.

J.

Reply to
JXStern

Don't know your age group, but when I was a kid in the fifties, an Oldsmobile super 88 was the supercar, way before the Pontiac Bonneville appeared on the scene. Why? Because it performed close to a muscle car of the sixties, otherwise the drive train was identical to a Chevy's.... would I buy a supercar today, yes, I would opt for a Mercedes, had two in fact before my Lexus GS300.... why did I pick Lexus or rather Japanese over the Germans, because (1) Everything was included essentially in one package, no funky long list of options especially like on a GM or BMW product, also (2) Going back to the dealer is expensive, and Japanese cars essentially are change the oil and rotate the tires... if you need a (3) Higher resale value, which may be moot when talking about the Germans, but certainly a propos when thinking of a domestic product...

/N.

Reply to
kitzler

Lexus is a great disappointment if you have ever driven a Mercedes. It is a noisy, rough, small car engineered for show, not go. It is not even civilized. It is just not a luxury car. But it is about 30,000 cheaper than a Mercedes which accounts for its popularity. The thing that got me to buy one was that my wife has had two of the mini-ES cars and they have not needed much repair. The first one, a 1993, blew its tranny which was normal for that year. The second one has rotten brakes, but so does my crappy LS430. The Mercedeses needed constant repair. Every 3 years they stranded me beside the road. But the Lexus needs constant oil and service - every 5000 miles. And then some little motor burns out or something, so you go to the stealership just as often as with a Mercedes. Am probably going back to the Mercedes and buy a little dodge neon to put in the trunk or something. At least the Mercedes is engineered for go and it does go when it isn't broken. And the Mercedes is comfortable and logical and does not have blind spots engineered in.

Reply to
mcbrue

Maybe that's why the lease pricing has gotten better since introduction, a good record is probably worth $10/20 per month.

J.

Reply to
JXStern

I doubt we will ever see V-8 powered Hondas. Honda's view seems to be that the V-6 is all the motor any street car ever will need. Remember that Honda is led first and foremost by engineers, everyone else is supporting cast. The engineers see a future where more fuel efficiency is needed and don't see any reason to make bigger more fuel thirst engines. They really don't care that this means ignoring certain market segments. Toyota and Honda obviously have different operating principles. Toyota is focused on the mission to provide a vehicle for every purse and purpose, as Alfred Sloan of GM's great years famously said. Honda is a rifle shot competitor which takes as it's prime directive "being a company society wants to have exist". Honda thus puts it's speculative money and effort into small jet airplane development and robot development while Honda's products are rifle shots at particular market segments. It is interesting that in Japan Honda is now the #2 automaker behind Toyota after unseating Nissan from that spot. Considering that when Honda first moved up from motorcycles to automobiles the Japanese government tried to stop them this is a very interesting development. Also, Honda has far fewer base designs and models than does Toyota. Basically Honda has the Civic platform, the Accord platform, the Odyssey platform, the Fit platform. It is truly stunning how many successful products they spin out of those.

Reply to
John Horner

Well I know, and that's probably true, now that they're finally getting into turbos, too, if only with the 4 so far here in the US, ... but I can still wish!

Yeah, I grok marketing, at least a little. I admit, from an engineering point of view, there's little need.

Yah.

Yes, well, I support and admire Honda for their vision, but even so, as a skeptic or cynic or something, and this is a marketing and finance perspective, they simply target the highest-return segments.

But note there have been and are exceptions, the NSX being the biggest, but I wonder if the S2000 turns a profit, either. Doubt it. A V8 would come in under the same heading, only it would probably cost much more.

If Honda ever decides to open a product branch of $100k++ automobiles, that would justify the V8. No straight 5's or V10's, please, it just ain't natural! And not having a straight six, I can't see them jumping to a V12. Just as well. Unless they want to get into $200k++. Y'know, something for Paris Hilton to drive to the store to pick up some cookies, and run out of gas in on the way home.

J.

Reply to
JXStern

Really the European cars have gadgets that work and do right. The Japanese gadgets are just not the same - they just don't do right! Engineering for show, not go is the Japanese moto from Mr Moto.

Reply to
mcbrue

I've heard BMW's i-Drive is very popular.

Reply to
Gordon McGrew

If I compare Lexus (with IS,ES,RX,GS,LS,SC,LX and GX series), Acura (EL,TL,RL,TSX,MDX,RDX), or Infiniti (M, G, FX and Qx series) with Mercedes Benz (MB), MB has much more products to offer. There are A,B,C,E,S,SLK,SL,CLK,CL,SLR,CLS,ML and G series car that MB offers, in comparison to the Japanese luxury brands.

Reply to
aniramca

On 14 Apr 2007 18:38:57 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com graced this newsgroup with:

you're so right. Run out a buy one.

Reply to
Max

...but because of Mercedes' naming convention, there is overlap in those model, that is, there aren't as many series (Mercedes calls them "classes") as there are model names.

Reply to
St. John Smythe

And GM loves people that think like you do.

------------------------------------------------------------- The email address associated with this messages is a SPAM trap that is automatically deleted before downloaded to my PC.

Reply to
Garry Owen

I have owned MB, Jaguar, Ford, GM, & VW. I think the Lexus overall is better than any of these. The only problem I have with Lexus is the softness of the paint job. It seems to suffer more from road rash than any (Except Jaguar) of the other cars that I have owned.

Reply to
W. Wells

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:54:32 -0500, "W. Wells" graced this newsgroup with:

"road rash"? You lowsiding your cars?

Reply to
Max

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