Lexus

As you know, Lexus is the top quality model that Toyota is betting the company’s fate on. The other day, we got an order from a customer in Japan and won a 2007 model of the “LS460 VersionU I-Package” for around JPY7,000,000 (JPY9,650,000 if you buy them new). We, at JPC, had dealt with some IS & GS Grades, a grade lower than this type but it was the first time to try this grade. Taken it for a test drive to check the condition, I noticed all the bits & pieces were top quality. No wonder! They are made to compete against models such as Mercedes Benz S Class and BMW 7 Series. Especially when I was a back seat passenger, listening to the music coming out of the genuine Mark Levinson’s speakers, it felt like sitting in a reclining chair in an acoustic room. As for the engine, everything from the quietness, torque stabilisation to vibrational absorption gives perfect comfort. As for acceleration, it can reach around 100Km instantly in D-mode and it flies along showing the 385 horse power with its V8 Engine despite its huge body of 2060Kg just in the vehicle weight. Seems perfect, but I cannot help thinking something is missing in a car this expensive… What is it?

Well, it is not fun, I mean, fun to drive around. You do not feel the “joy of speeding through everything” as with a BMW. You do not feel the “car’s adjustability to the individual driver” as with a Mercedes Benz S Class. It seems the maker cannot decide in concept whether they want its Lexus to be sport-mode or stability. People who choose BMW or Mercedes Benz have the reason for their choice. Maybe people who choose Lexus do not worry much about its feeling of drive.

Also, although the interior is made incredibly luxurious and you feel the comfort, it does not seem anything special compared to BMWs and Mercedes Benz. Simply speaking, it looks like Toyota took the most popular bits & pieces out of its range of vehicles and put them together; I feel that it needs more to be one of the world first-class cars.

In fact, according to news from some economic papers, the Lexus are struggling to make sales. Lexus dealers were aiming to get more than half numbers of their customers from people who were using BMWs and Mercedes Benz but only 20% of the new customers changed to the Lexus from imported cars. Being successful in the USA with the new style of sales, which is no door-to-door sale but just let the customers come to them, they wanted to bring it to Japan to expand their share in the market. I guess, Japanese like different sales styles to the Americans.
When we won this auction, before taking it to the customer, we wanted to take it to the dealer for its guarantee transfer but they did not accept it if we do it on our customer’s behalf, insisting the customer has to do it himself. I am talking about a case when he has to drive to the nearest Lexus dealer, 100Km one way, leave his car at the dealer’s, go home by train, go back there the next day by train to get the car and drive the 100Km again back home. I could not believe that it is what Toyota says when their usual stance is customer oriented and they do not let this car’s guarantee transfer without this customer’s ridiculously troublesome task, so I rang the Customer Service Centre at Toyota’s main office. I got a man who introduced himself as the Centre Chief. Although he was polite, the answer was the same as the one I had got from the dealer. I then asked him what their stance is when it is going to give the customer great inconvenience, he just kept explaining the rules in selling the Lexus. Unfortunately I could not get a good answer. To be honest, I was not happy with their explanation, but I could clearly see that they are themselves under pressure in selling the Lexus. With the introduction of RX SUV and Hybrid private car models, I wonder how the Lexus is going to sell in the future.





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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
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Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
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