Gatriel

Hey All -

I wasn't sure or not if this is worth its own thread, but I thought it was interesting, albeit not completely unexpected given where I live.

I drive the same commute to work every day. Its almost like Autopilot for me, same driving style, nothing really changed. With my old BMW I felt that drivers here in Frankfurt were courteous and "fairly normal." I put 30tkm on the old BMW in one year, and had -- one incident of a driver road raging on me for my failure to use a turn signal. I've had the Lexus for a couple weeks now -- and its seriously every day. My driving habits haven't changed, just the car. I was chatting with a co-worker yesterday, and she commented that Germans are kinda "programmed" to hate the competition to their premium brands.

For example, if you ask a German about Honda, Toyota or Nissan they'll say "oh good little cheap cars." If you ask them about Lexus or Infiniti "or they're a POS, I cannot understand why anyone would buy one when you could get a BMW/Mercedes for the same price."

I am thinking that this could be the reason, just pentup rage -- but when you have an 18 wheeler stopping less than a foot away from your rear bumper in traffic, over and over and over again with his high beams on --- you kinda have to think "whats the deal?"

I have come to the conclusion that its either what my co-worker said, or in the alternative, I have just become an *** driver and just don't know it, and people let it slide with the BMW.

DocFreud

never experienced any road rage while driving my IS here in germany. same area as you..

but yea, most germans think that lexus is not the same quality or whatever compared to their german premium cars.
"it's a cheap copy of mercedes" i've hear alot :lol:

Gatriel

Hmmm, interesting.

I got blasted by a truck driver today as I merged right. There were 4-5 car lengths, I merged over, and he got in the left lane and blasted me as he drove by.

Just don't understand.

Bist du Deutsch oder nur noch ein Ami in Deutschland?

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

They're just jealous of your vehicle's low maintenance costs! LOL!

February

Just curious, is Lexus in the same price range in Germany as Audi, BMW and Mercedes? I remember reading some like the equivalent German cars in Germany would cost ~50% more in Germany than the US due to various taxes.

Gatriel

They are typically the same price, but remember price as "relative."

So lets take the BMW 3er for example. 335i starts at 45,000€ here and $44,000 in the US.

When the € was much stronger than the dollar (taking $1.40 to get 1€), from an USD perspective, the same car in German way running almost $60k, whereas in Germany if you purchased your car in the US and shipped it over it was running 37k€.

However, to combat this (much like the US did with Grey Market German cars from the 80s) the German government imposed a 29% tax & import fees on any used cars from the US, subject to a few exceptions, one of which is living outside of Germany for a year.

Its very common for Germans, especially those in business or engineering to spend a few years working overseas for a whole variety of reasons. When this is the case, it isn't (wasn't due to currency issues now) uncommon for someone to purchase 3 or 4 cars and ship them back to Germany in a container. As long as they've lived outside of Germany for more than a year, the 29% fee is waived.

TL;DR - The price differences have to do primarily with FX exchange rates moreso than prices differences in the underlying car.

ICU2

What is your everyday car brand over there? Is it true that all your taxi's are Mercedes E-Classes?

How does Audi stand up against BMW/MB?

DocFreud

you see mostly german cars. but there isn't one that stands out i think. vw, opel, bmw, merc, audi's everywhere. you see a lot japanese and korean cars allthough..

there is one thing you can say. the typical german car is a silver compact car



yes e-class is very common as a taxi. there are other cars aswell.. like priuses

Audis are really good cars, they are more reliable than mercs and beemers.


@february: a lexus is a bit cheaper than a comparable audi/bmw/merc. and a lexus has more built in options than the german premium brands. i think lexus does it here because they need an advantage.
lexus has still only niche status in the german automobile market.

@gatriel: bin deutsch

FSportIS

iTrader: (13)

Wow! Really? Seriously? Germans are that loyal to their BMW and Benz like this and hate all other brands to the point of hating the drivers who drive non-German brand cars??

That is just ridiculous.

Not to bash BMW or Benz but almost all of their cars interior look outdated, old and ugly. Also, many who drive BMW or Benz lease them anyways because they know if they own it, they have to pay more to repair the car than buying the car itself.

With the Lexus, it is all well rounded car that can get me everywhere in comfort and pride for years and years with just basic maintenance.

realkrs

I like to think that German cars are more reliable in European versions than they have been in those for the US market. If so a national pride may be understandable to some extent.

But if the German cars are as headachey in Europe as they have been here I'd think that Germans raging on drivers of Japanese cars could be jealosy as described by Gvill350 above.

mmaandy

iTrader: (2)

Drive a BMW in Japan and see what happens.

Justind27

iTrader: (6)

I dislike German cars and American cars equally, and some Asian ones (I say Asian due to Korea, China and Japan).. Does this make me racist lol?

Gatriel

It could also be just the aesthetics of the back end of the car. The e46 has a much less aggressive tail end than the IS 250 does.

I just cannot for the life of me explain it. Yesterday no road rage -- which was good. First time all week.

FSportIS

iTrader: (13)

Please have dashcam ready... I want to see the road rage you are talking about

Jacket

Or in most other European countries....