Now, all three brands have different purposes:

Lexus addresses innovation, sport, and technology.

Toyota embraces reliability, functionality, and mass appeal.

Scion presents value, personality, and individuality.


Of the three, which do you think succeeds in its market niche?

DISCUSS.

Don't compare them to one another; compare them with their perspective competition...

 

I say Lexus. BMW, MB, Audi all have been around longer yet Lexus is the number one selling luxury car company. Acura was here before Lexus and yet they don't have anywhere near the lineup that Lexus does. I must also give Lexus kudos for having pretty quick cars that still get good gas mileage.

 

They all succeed.

Lexus is highly profitable has a great luxury reputation and is growing.

Toyota makes boring vehicles, but like McDonalds, they serve billions.

Scion has appealed to and won a lot of young buyers with the customization, low prices and funky designs. I don't know that Scion really has ANY competition.

 

i agree with Bit in saying that Scion pretty much created and dominates a niche...

 

I'd say Scion. Toyota created it and it succeeded in its goal - to attract younger buyers and allow a greater customisation of their vehicle. While the same could've been said for Lexus - formed to create the finest luxury automobiles, it doesn't address everything the OP listed.

 

i say scion. toyota took a chance on this market segment and more or less got everyone else copying them. the current lineup is not as good as the first lineup but still the segment leader. toyota quality is going down the drain, so they fail on that one. leuxs quality is going down the drain also, and how do you make a sports sedan and not have an option for an manual??

 

because the ISF shifts faster and has no parasitic losses compared to a manual tranny?

I also dont see quality going down the drain either. One or two miscues can cause your rating to change over a year drastically. But good job on exagerration there; your English teacher would be proud.

 

yup yup ... i cant even really think of a direct competitor to scion ... maybe some of hondas cheeper cars ... but not even those really

 

Hmm, actually Scion pickup where Honda and Mitsu left off.

 

Scion has overall been successful, but I would hardly call it "dominant". Just because there isn't a niche brand/other company that does exactly as Scion, doesn't mean there isn't "direct competition". Honda, Mitsubishi, Ford, and Volkswagon all have vehicles that compete directly with (and outsell) Scion's offerings and they don't need to create their own brands to do it. There's plenty of competition in the entry-level car market.

 

I have to say all 3 are successful but Lexus, b/c of the odds it faced in the past and today. Scion is doing well, I expected it to fail and posted that here. I was wrong. However, lets look at its price point, they are for the most part under 20k cars, which should not be that hard to sell and they had an established Toyota and Lexus relation to lean on.

Toyota has just been incredible and well, is #1 worldwide in sales but perception by so many people is YUCK. BUT they are hugely profitable and influence everyone from Nissan to Porsche. They either don't fail or fail and fix it next generation.

Lexus sells at a price point UNHEARD OF for Japanese cars 20 years ago and hell 5 years ago. They went from offering the same/more and costing less to offering the same/more, costing as much if not more, yet CONTINUE to sell. You read ANY publication and even if a Lexus is not tested, its mentioned for either being the standard or as something good. Even with quality issues, they manage to be in the top 2. They are #1 in sales for 8 years in America and #4 worldwide in only 18 years.

 

Toyota and Scion seems to be filling their markets fine...Scion being primarily a niche market for young and first-time buyers but also surprisingly popular with older people on fixed-incomes.

Lexus, however, seems to have lost its way. For years, it excelled in superbly-built/engineered vehicles that spared little or nothing in delivering perhaps the best luxury vehicles available for the money. Noise isolation, powertrain smoothness, paint finish, warm interiors, slick refinement.....nothing could beat a Lexus in its class for luxury, except for some Jaguar interiors.

But, recently, Lexus marketers seem to have decided to toss much of that out the window and to try and produce what are essentially Japanese BMWs......ever-lower profile tires, stiffer suspensions, less and less wood inside, more and more power under the hood, firmly-padded sport seats, etc..... And the former high-quality materials inside are being replaced more and more with cheaper plastic underneath and a surface layer of glitz and polish on top. Doors are getting thinner and close with a tinniness instead of a solid thunk.....thinner doors are especially noticeable in the new LX570, compared to the old one.

In short, Lexus products are rapidly getting to the point where they are no longer really Lexus products any more. The company clearly has forgotten what makes a Lexus a Lexus, and is worshipping at the altar of cost-cutting and sporty-oriented performance.