Nights

A very similar article was written in Australia's largest print auto magazine that was published over a week ago.

Basically, Toyoda wants more sporty products catered to a youthful market ie. coupes/convertibles, whereas the US dealer network had a hissy fit and wants the dev $$$ to be spent on bigger and more SUVs. Basically they want different things.

I know who I'd want to win in that from a car enthusiast point of view.

spwolf

problem with that is that Lexus does not lack resources to have to limit themselves to one car. I would suppose that development for CC is already completely done. Same goes for big SUV - they trademarked TX long time ago. To suggest that RX couldnt fit 7 seats due to platform is idiocy, in the same sense that suggestion of LS based TX is idiocy.

Then they said how GX has poor sales - when opposite is true... that article is completely incorrect in everything it has written in it.

Australian and UK papers usually post this kind of rubbish - MT probably took over their article. Reminded me of that rumor (really a lie) that they posted years ago about FR-S Turbo being just around a corner.

Trexus

The GX 460 is still selling well...last year 2013 Lexus sold 12,136 GX's and YTD (Jan-Oct) 2014 Lexus has sold 17,935. I project Lexus will sell over 21K GX's this year....the GX is not selling poorly...so far the GX is outselling the LS, LX and CT...

Nights

Actually Akio just drove a FR-S Turbo recently when he visited Australia

GX actually sells pretty poorly in all markets except for US/Middle East. Pretty much every other market has stopped offering the vehicle due to this.

spwolf

GX sells superbly in the USA... for US magazine to say that it sells poorly, is just wrong info. And GX usually isnt even sold in other places, because LC200 is cheaper than it, unlike the US, where LC has price much higher than GX. Bascially GX cant compete with cheaper LX (LC).

So do you also believe that RX could not fit 3 row seats due to platform? (Even if Highlander can, on same platform :-)).
Or do you believe that TX will be built based on LS chasis? Thats just lies.

So, out of 4 statements in that article, we know for a fact that 3 are straight up lies and made up completely out of thin air.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

GX dropped their MSRP by $5000 and refreshed it. Sales doubled

pbm317

Superbly?? Maybe it's selling well relatively to its own recent lackluster sales, but it's far from superb. Nowhere near the peak of GX sales when it first launched in the U.S. ~36,000 total units in 2004.

Range Rover Sport has nearly matched the sales volume of the GX while commanding a price over $20,000 more expensive than the GX.

BMW X5 has more than doubled GX sales volume, yes with a two engine strategy, but average price is still above that of GX.

Even Audi Q7, one of the only models even older than the GX, basically unchanged since 06, has sold nearly as many as GX. Once a new Q7 debuts, would have to believe that it would pass the GX in sales.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i call that hitting the sweet spot

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

fixed. if you want an actual luxury GX, it's over $60K

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i think at most comparable trims, the facelifted gx are still a bit cheaper (or unchanged) from before

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

maybe so but it's another strange packaging setup. just looked on lexus.com/gx and they're not even mentioning the driver assistance package at all now, so it seems like features like lane warning and adaptive cruise (available on mainstream vehicles now) are not available at all?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i won't be surprised. lexus has never been that good in offering options and choices

pbm317

The Driver Support Package is available, and mentioned on the site, but it also says "Special Order" and since we all know how much Lexus loves special orders... haha

http://www.lexus.com/models/GX/packa...-special-order

spwolf

yes, their sales went up 2.5x after a facelift, i would say thats good. GX has a big competitor in RX, which has YoY growth in its last year on market. Not to mention that GX is based on truck chassis - not really best base for this market.

In any case, them saying it sells poorly is simply wrong, its currently one of the fastest selling Lexus vehicles. Only ones that are better are new NX and RC. Probably makes them a lot of money too.... after all it sells 2x better than combined LS and LX, other 2 cars long in the tooth.

Trexus

Lexus can do that with the GX since it has a higher profit margin to begin with. Lexus has stated the GX is very profitable even though it's a slow seller.

If Lexus were to drop their MSRP by $5,000 and refresh the ES and RX or the rest of the Lexus lineup sales would double or more than double but it would most likely hurt profit margin...so that may not necessarily be hitting the sweet spot...