SW17LS

Those numbers make more sense as quarterly figures.

mmarshall

Buick still exists for more reasons than just China. If that were the case, GM would have simply shut down Buick's North American operations, and kept the operation going in China. Nope.....the fact is a number of people here in North America want Buicks. The Lacrosse, Enclave, Encore, and Verano have all been successful....the Regal not as much, because it's being squeezed between the Verano and the LaCrosse.

But it is also true that Buick benefitted from a number of gross mistakes at Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Saturn, leading to the demise of those three brands.

The Continental is coming back because Lincoln finally realizes that the MKS was not an acceptable replacement for the Town Car. The question, though, is if Lincoln is even doing the Continental correctly. The Continental's stunning interior is a major upgrade over the MKS, but it remains to be seen if the rest of the car is or not. The Continental, though, unlike Cadillac's CT-6, is not RWD, which, in some ways, makes it just a successor to the FWD/AWD MKS and perhaps not a true replacement. .


.......If you don't count the 1.8L Atkinson-cycle four used in the CT, although that did have some previous use with Toyota in the Prius.

RNM GS3

Again I disagree - this USED to be the case when the US had the largest auto market but other parts of the world are now very important as well especially for Luxury automakers.

Just as an example - the S-class/E-class trounce the LS/GS in sales worldwide; just image the profits they generate.....thats why MB can afford to develop niche models like an S-coupe or CLS or AMG versions. There is enough economies of scale to make it work.
Lexus can't be as aggressive or build low volume models / engines bec their profit margins are not comparable on their RWD models and they cant truly spread out the cost to keep their bean counters happy.

Anyway thats my 2 cents.....

RNM GS3

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/au...ntal.html?_r=0

SW17LS

I'm not saying that other markets aren't important also, but if a product is popular in one market, and not in another, it doesn't mean the product is irrelevant. We don't have Peugeot here, or Vauxhall, or Opel, but that doesn't mean those products are irrelevant...they're quite relevant in the markets they serve.

If Lexus never caught on in China, that doesn't mean it won't continue to be popular or even become more popular here.

Lexus can be plenty aggressive...its just that Lexus/Toyota is not an aggressive company... they aren't the sort of company that designs niche vehicles. Doesn't mean they aren't successful. They're within 1k units of top sales with way fewer models than MB and BMW.

Different companies with different perspectives and goals.

RNM GS3

Lexus will be relevant in the US for many years to come but globally they are not and that can impact their ability to deliver competitive product set in the US market. We already are seeing this with their limited models, powertrains etc. to certain extent.

Just look at the movie Box Office - nobody cares about US #s - its about Global #s........same thing with autos is coming very soon.

mmarshall

Fine, but I don't see how any of this contradicts what I said earlier about the MKS. As I read it, what it basically says is that the Chinese are as unimpressed with the MKS as Americans are....and help put additional pressure on Ford to replace it.

SW17LS

But they've never been relevant outside the US. Their sales outside the US have grown as they expand into other markets. You talk as if they were relevant and now aren't.

Not being relevant in other markets hasn't hurt Lexus so far.

What you're missing is Lexus doesn't have to rely on themselves like BMW or Mercedes do. Toyota's huge R&D capability comes into play here. Lexus doesn't have to sell cars in China to be able to develop new models and powertrains for our market.

As always you speak as if Lexus is hurting and limping and there is just no evidence to support that at all.

mmarshall

I think one reason why Lexus isn't more popular in China than it actually is gets back to the fact that Toyota itself sells a number of large executive class vehicles in Asia that they don't here in the American market. Here, Lexus more or less fills that role, and there, the executive-class Toyota products do.


I agree on them being relevant in their own markets. As for the American market, I don't know of any Peugeot-derived vehicles that have been sold here in the U.S. since the 1980s. But the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore are both rebadged/redone versions of the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka, the Buick Regal is an almost cookie-cutter rebadge of the Opel Insignia (with a Buick powertrain), and the Buick Verano, like the Regal, is mostly a rebadge of the Opel Astra sedan, with a Buick drivetrain and Buick sound-insulation.

Hope your new LS is doing well, BTW............