pmkoc

Question
Seats are leather Yes Ok. Is the Door panels as well and the Dash, is it Leather or Vinyl? Cleaning and Leather care is concern...

Paul

MellonC00

I keep telling people that Lexus probably uses the least amout of money on interior "premium" items. Leather used on the seat bottom and seat back. Not the sides, back of the seat nor the side of the door.

Of course, Jaguar uses nice leather EVERYWHERE, not to metion real wood dash board (I mean a "board" since a same piece of wood goes all the way from right to left). But then again, Jag isn't considered bulletproof in terms of reliability.

If you asked me, Lexus needs to have the following:
Metal cover on vent holes,
leather on seat backs, sides, armrest on door panel and back of rear seats
Alcantera headliner
metal ring around door hinges (not just the hinge inself)
chrome ring on the speedometer (like the Miata)
either alcantera or suede dashboard tops to not make the area so reflective on windshield (Maseraties and Ferraries have them)
center console needs to have either wood or metal
sheep skin carpeting (like the ones in jaguar)

A Jag or MB interior with Lexus quality would be a real winner. We can dream....

HarrierAWD

Just the seating surface and seat back are real leather. Everything else is vinyl.

salimshah

I am not 100% sure but have a strong feeling that ... Leather is on seats, arm-rests, shift **** and steering (non-wood).

Less sure about the creased insert in the door of being leather.

Even less sure about the back of the front seats ... most probably it is not leather.

Salim

salimshah

MelonCOO:

There is a pricepoint for the RX and the question is would customers pay extra money for the features you listed.

Although my data point is very limited (1 car), jagaur S class/type had poor leather on the seats, so much so that the owner disposed the car within the first year.

Salim

MellonC00

Easy to answer this question. Just look at the interior of Audi A6. About the same price but it has most of the items I metioned earlier. (again, though, you cannot say the same for reliability)

All in all, I belive Toyota's core strength is in manufacturing. These are the guys who brought us just-in-time inventory and total quality manufacturing. For that I gave'em my money.

BTW. my professor from my grad school days went to Toyoda city to witness just in time inventory in action. Guess what? There were a whole bunch of trucks from parts companies circling around the city and hours and sometimes days to deliver their parts. Why? All because Toyota said that it cannot take inventory according to its just in time inventory method. Kinda interesting?!?!

HarrierAWD

The Lexus RX didn't start out as a high-end luxury vehicle like the Audi A6. As Toyota Harrier in Japan, it can be had with 4-cylinder engine and cloth seats. With starting price at just 2.9 million Japanese yens (or about US $25,000,) Toyota has to use some cheaper materials. Thus the vinyl.

HarrierAWD

Not exactly. Those trucks usually wait in some "shady spot" outside of town, where the drivers can get some "R&R."

Toyota specifies the date & time of the delivery. So if the trucks come too early, they'll be turned away. There might not even be a loading dock available since the docks are by appointments only. People in the shipping business know this well.

MellonC00

Yes, I was in the multi-modal shipping business and I know this very well. Toyota purposely pushed just-in-time inventory concept to its parts suppliers and made all those guys eat dirt or take losses. It wasn't because the drivers came early. It was because Toyota engineers refused to take inventory of anything because of its managers said not to. So the parts costs are bound to go up. HOwever, in Toyota's case, the suppliers just keep the old price and simply reduced the quality of the part and hoped people didn't notice. Leather is a good exmaple and Club Lexus noticed....

I'm getting off topic here..... IMHO, Toyota still knows how manufacture car the most efficient way possible. You don't wan to know what goes on in Detroit. My buddy works for Ford's suspension design/cost group and ...... that's for some other thread all together.....

MellonC00

Passat was never intended to be a high end luxury sedan. Virtually all the high end sedans in the US have a very humble cousins/siblilngs (save for Mercs, BMWs and Jags)

HarrierAWD

Huh? What's Passat gotta do with this thread? Let's not deviate too far from the topic. And just FYI:

Jaguar X-Type = Ford Mondeo / Contour
Jaguar S-Type = Ford Taurus
Next gen Jaguar XK series = Ford Crown Vic??? Beverly Hills PD would probably get those.

MellonC00

Passat is the basis for both A4 and A6.

In anycase,,,,, err.... going back to leather..... I think we've discussed this topic to death.

HarrierAWD

Basis, not the same car. Toyota Harrier is identical to the RX, other than the badges and a few small parts, of course.

MellonC00

Are you sure? the parts content for A4, A6 and Passat are just about the same. But whatever the case may be.... I guess your point is that Lexus uses nice parts including leather. Everyone is entitled to his/her oppinion. But let's not forget that even GM or Lincoln SUVs use real leather on the backs and sides of the seats. As far as I am concerned, I am going to get real leather seats after the stock leather gets old and dirty. You can, of course, keep your leather/leatherette seats and enjoy it.

squarehat

Jag S-Type is actually the same as the Ford Thunderbird/Lincoln LS, even if the trunkline does look like a Taurus

I don't believe the other entry luxury SUVs in the RX330's range (X5 3.0i, ML350, FX35, XC90, etc) have full leather on the sides of seats/doorpanels, or an alcantara dash/headliner, either. Those are features in the $75K range, not the $40K range.