SLegacy99

Yeah, but when you are already making a ton of money as a top exec. does it really make a difference? I guess it does if you have aspirations of owning an island one day or building your very own Biltmore Estate.

TRDRAV4

This is American business culture...you don't hear much about Japanese execs jump from one company to another (like from Toyota to Honda). This is simply how our marketplace is. If you look at most executive resumes at companies in the US, I'm sure you'll see that most worked for more than just two or three companies in their lifetime.

and for those Toyota execs that have jumped ship, they might even come back (so far, none have it seems).

LexFather

I'll be applying for the position!

xioix

Well, I hope the new comers doesn't stray too far away from traditional Lexus customers and drive other Lexus buyers or potential buyers away

LexFather

Mr. Farley, currently group vice president at Toyota's U.S. sales arm and manager of the Lexus brand, will be replaced by Mark Templin, 46, a vice president in charge of the Scion brand

This kind of excites me. Mr. Templin is only 46, so hopefully he will want more sporty products for Lexus. MORE "F"!!!

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Farley was only 45

spwolf

no it does not... Toyota is just fine as it is - everyone working together, as supposed tostrong leadership.

But, heck, ppl are paying huge sums for Toyota exec, so they must be doing something right :-)

encore888

Talk about a sudden shift....a few weeks ago he was giving interviews and now this....Mr. Farley has a record I think for shortest Lexus chief tenure...less than a year.

Mark Templin did the NYIAS premiere presentation for the IS 350 and GS 450h....great job IMO. Please don't grab him away from the brand!!!

jruhi4

Interesting that Mark Templin is only a year older than Bob Farley and has followed the same Scion-to-Lexus path.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Great age.

LexFather

How on earth are things stagnant at Lexus. That is one of the funniest things I've read all year.

ST430

Keep this in mind folks: toyota and honda has the lowest base compensation package and highest numbers of top level executives in the automotive industry. Ford, amazingly, had one of the highest figures with the lowest headcount.

Good luck to them and hope they can turn around the abysmal american automotive industry.

encore888

LOL, flipped on CNN and the crawl was leading with "James Farley, head of Toyota's Lexus luxury division, is leaving to head marketing at Ford" ...

...Maybe Toyota should consider upping the pay for the American executive leadership!

flipside909

This is definitely an interesting 2007. I get to interact with 3 Lexus Group VP and General Managers in one year.

Jim Farley is definitely a brilliant guy in person. I've met him on 3 different occassions this year. I can tell you he's definitely a car guy...not just Toyota, but in general. It's really good to know Toyota produces talent of this caliber. It's just sad to see him go in just a few short months, especially with the launch of the IS-F and the upcoming SEMA projects to be unveiled.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

And the Solistice took forever to be produced; and when it did it was a performance flop; and so were many other cars. The bad decisions made on the GTO and various other vehicles add to the problem too.

The cars he is responsible for "excitement" are the vette and higher-end Caddys (I like the CTS-V and Z06 a lot). But as far as progressing the brand; GM has LOST ground while he's been around. I mean seriously, does a FWD Impala with a 5.3L V8 thats slower than a comparable Camry get you excited? GM vehicles minus the mentioned cars are the most boring-looking cars on the planet minus some of the crap Citroen and Renault shell out. The REALLY cool cars they've done (minus the vette and ctsv) they brought from overseas. The GTO and G8 are both Holden vehicles (and you can see the quality difference from a 100ft). The Solstice and Sky are just Opel Speedsters with a front engine conversion (albeit a very bad one, an N/A ECOtec 4cyl standard at 3200lbs? they should be ashamed).

There is nothing wrong over at Lexus other than you dont seem to like the cars they are producing and think they take too long to produce a new one. They are still growing and growing. Whatever they are doing, its working; unlike GM. You say things are stagnant, but only because they havent released the ISF and GSF ahead of schedule? They can't just churn these things out that quick; unless they want their reliability to go out the window like Mercedes and BMW did (and GM has done for the past 20 years)