Vladi

Oh yeah don't get me wrong they do have it, technically. It's just the poorest PHEV implementation on the market period that's why it got canceled.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

iirc the NX has a new six speed but still odd they went with six ratios.

Also it's rumored the RWD variant of the 2.0T will have closer to 250bhp when IS and RC gain 200t trims this fall.

RNM GS3

How is it nonsense?????

Have you ever heard of economies of scale.
China is going to influence the auto industry more than anyone - just look at why Buick still exists, reason Lincoln is bringing back Continental name, etc.

Lexus introduced 1 new engine (2.0 turbo) in past 10 years thats unacceptable.
RX engine is not all new neither is the RCF V8.
Germans are way ahead in powertrains and i only see the gap widening.

JDR76

Luxury market sales for 1Q 2015 are pretty interesting. It really is a 3 way race with BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes.

1. BMW - 78,492
2. Mercedes - 78,156
3. Lexus - 77,180
4. Audi - 17,102
5. Acura - 14,670
6. Cadillac - 13,756
7. Infiniti - 12,525
8. Lincoln - 8,695

http://www.autonews.com/article/2015...exus-takes-2nd

Mr Bond

Lexus may be in third place, but honestly , isnt that mainly because of the considerable lower price tag ? I dont know how BMW and MB are priced in the US, but in Europe you will pay at least 30-40 % more for a simliar german car. Especially since MB and Audi comes with very little as standard.

SW17LS

But remember....Lexus is on the verge of being irrelevant! LOL

The difference isn't that big here. A similarly equipped MB or BMW costs ~ 10% more than a Lexus. Stock the prices are very similar but the Lexus is better equipped stock.

spwolf

Toyota and Lexus are introducing 14 new engines in 2015 alone... V6 and V8 have so many changes that they are essentially all new engines, it is well documented anyway (we dont know anything about RX engine yet, but we know Tacoma is going to be what they consider all new, so I doubt that RX wont).

As to them not introducing any new engines in 10 years, thats just not true - they introduced hybrid engines in between as well if we are strictly talking about Lexus.

Only powertrains germans are ahead of is ones that sell to 1%-5% of the buyers, simply because Lexus does not cater to the small niches well at all. Also, Germans are not Borg. There are huge differences between them as well. However, again, these new Toyota/Lexus powertrains coming out are very competitive, as 2.0t tests have shown so far (as well as V8), we have yet to see new V6 in action but I doubt it will be disappointment. And of course lets mention hybrids where Toyota/Lexus is by far in the lead.

When it comes to economies of scale, lets again remember that Toyota is largest manufacturer in the world as well as BY FAR the most profitable one. So economies of scale are there regardless if they start building factories in China or not.

So again, turning back the argument, do you think that Germans will stop buying Opel, Ford and even VW because Toyota is #1 in the world? They couldnt care less about the world - Toyota is #15th in the Germany despite being #1 in the world. Same happens in every market worldwide... here in Europe 30+ markets and they are completely different often country to country.

Same goes for Lexus sales in the USA... it does not matter one bit if Lexus sells well in China or Europe when it comes to the sales in the USA... only thing that matters for US sales is that they have good lineup and good engines for the US, which they will have with new V6 and 2.0t going into IS and RC, as well as existing hybrids.

Most important development for the US market would be TX as well as CTh sedan. LS and LC (?) will be cool products but their sales are not that important even if coming within next 2 years and here we are discussing sales.

spwolf

differences are not that big in Europe either, because most people dont load their German vehicles these days either... and their base prices are actually lower than Lexus, sometimes considerably so, even if they have less equipment, most of the customers dont care about equipment that much. Some do but most do not so quite often in magazines, you will see Lexus being more expensive.

Around here, our BMW distributor has special packages that rival mainstream vehicles with mid-equipment... so you can buy BMW 3 series with the price of similar to Avensis or 1 series similar to Auris. Yes, you might get a bit more equipment in mainstream vehicle but people dont care that much about it - this is where luxury brands growth is coming from in Europe - small engines and smaller equipments, taking sales from mainstream brands like Ford and Opel.

Mr Bond

Lexus NX 200t AWD executive line at 49 000 euro and X3 2.0t base at 49 with only sport automatic as option, who buys a bone stock X3 2.0t ? GS450h 55 000 euro, BMW 5 active hybrid 65 000 euro . Are you comparing a GS 450h to s 520d ? Who cares about that. ? I said similar car with similar technology. ( german prices )

Toys4RJill

Does anyone know what the percentages of the lower priced cars are from the higher priced cars for the top 3?

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Should be able to get numbers from these. Still looking for BMW breakdown.

spwolf

please tell me who buys 5 active hybrid? I will tell you right now - nobody. Mobile.de has 17 active hybrids available in Germany right now, and 7500 520d's. Best selling engine is 520d. Considering how tiny number of active hybrids there are in Germany, I would suspect it is unofficially discontinued.

Here is what is being purchased, I am pulling these models straight from distributor website:
116dd M Edition - 25k (Auris Hybrid Sol - €26k)
318d M Sport - 37k (Avensis 2.2d Executive - €37k)
520d "All In" package - 50k
X1 "1.8d" - 29k (base Rav4 2.0d FWD - 29k)

All include 4 years of free service. This is eastern european market so prices are slightly more expensive than germany due to higher taxes, but comparisment between other brands is the same.

Non M-Edition packages are 2-5k less, depending on vehicles... You get less equipment but vehicles themselves have all the basics like Xenons, alloys, digital air, etc, etc as well as M-Sport packages exterior/interior so they look great and much better IMHO than mainstream vehicles.

This is what majority of people are buying right now and this is why Ford, Opel, Citroen, Peugeot and Renault are losing sales in Europe right now. If you are buying anything but mid-spec, you are hard looking at big 3 premium vehicles in many European countries (not all but many).

As to X3, they dont sell great here, but lets check mobile.de... first 2015 X3's start at €30k with RWD, AT and 2.0 turbo engine. Now lets check NX? First models start at €45k.

See the difference?

RNM GS3

These figures are wrong for Audi, Acura etc.
They have way more than that for Q1.

As for Lexus - these are US sales
Lets see the worldwide figures - those are scary!

SW17LS

Then post conflicting data from another source. Automotive News is a very respected source.

As for US vs worldwide sales, who cares? Lexus was designed for the US market, growth in other markets is secondary. US trends aren't really affected by trends in other countries.

Lexus is doing fine.

LexBob2

Yeah, some of the numbers appear to be Q1 totals and others (Audi, Acura etc.) appear to be for March only. The article quotes numbers for both Q1 and March. A quick glance for example shows US sales thru April for Audi 56,925 and Acura 54,918.