LexBob2

It's a sign of the times. In addition to the entire Acura line, BMW and Mercedes are building cuvs and suvs in South Carolina and Alabama.

SW17LS

I'm just saying give Lexus a chance. You're making conclusions about the quality of cars the plant will put out before the plant is even built.

dbcanuck

Ontario has more auto manufacturing than Michigan nowadays, for a variety of reasons. The public healthcare makes employee benefits cheaper as an overall cost, and whatever additional taxes manufacturers have to pay being in Canada are offset by the (traditionally) lower $. In the past 2-4 years the Canadian $ has been at par with the USD, but as the recession finally begins to life expect the CAD to drop back to between $0.75-0.90 USD equivalent.

The Kentucky plant for Lexus will be interesting. Benefits for employees will cost more, and wages are in USD. There's better corporate tax breaks though, so it might wash out for Lexus. And if demand is growing as they've forecast, then they'll need more than just Japan.

There's been rumors for years that the ES could potentially be marketed to other regions outside of North America...but to do that, they'd need more inventory.

SW17LS

Have you ever owned a Lexus product built in the US? No. Nobody has. Wait to judge.

JMWarren

I have my concerns, the South isn't known for high quality car production....look at the disasters that are the Mercedes ML and BMW X Series...and thoughs are made in top notch, newer plants.

Having seen the Japanese work ethic vs the American work ethic in automotive first hand....I'd avoid a US made ES until they are proven.

SW17LS

But understand that quality of the ML and BMW X have improved tremendously...

LexBob2

Yes they have.

Hondas have been made in the U.S, for years, and Acura's have only been made here, their reliability is unquestioned. I'd like to think that Toyota has too much at stake to screw up ES quality with the move to U.S. production.

wasjr

While I am sure KY gave economic incentives, a huge factor in foreign automakers building in the US is the currency exchange rate. In this case the strength of the dollar vs. the yen.

As to quality, this is not a brand new plant. They have been building Toyotas at this plant for over 20 yrs so they should know the Toyota way. Current builds at the plant include Camry and Avalon, including hybrids of both.

Arty101

Just wondering if Toyotas and Lexus are built to the same standard and tolerance?

LexBob2

Good question. The RX350 has been built in Canada for a couple of model years and I haven't heard of any major issues.

SW17LS

Tolerances are significantly stricter on a Lexus.

Arty101

This would make sense. Which begs the question: Can a US plant produce that higher level tolerance expected from Lexus?

SW17LS

A Canadian plant seems to be able to. I personally think a US plant can as well.

Arty101

Let's hope Lexus doesn't have the teething problems that BMW & MB had in their early years.

SW17LS

They didn't in Canada and that was an all new plant...