all good stuff. assume gs refresh will take cues from the gs-f shown.
es will be like the shanghai one i assume.
new rx is known and will be somewhat polarizing but it will sell well.

 

The RC is off to a good start with only the RC 350 and RC F. Hopefully very soon we'll get the RC 200t and sales will really take off not just in the U.S. but worldwide.

April 2015
RC 1,226
A5 1,300
G37 coupe 379

YTD 2015 (Jan - Apr)
RC 4,258
A5 4,277
G37 coupe 1,559

Since Inception
RC 6,180
A5 105,302

RC 200t (coming soon)
RC 300h (outside U.S.)
RC 350
RC 350C (hopefully coming soon to replace IS 250C/350C)
RC F

Lexus bring the RC 300h to the U.S.

BMW does not separate the 4 Series from the 3 Series and lumps them together. I'd love to know how many 4 Series sell...428i, 435i and M4...

For the BMW 3/4 Series, April sales were 10,374 which is crazy...

If you total the ES, IS and RC, 4,701+4,008+1,226=9,935. Comes close to the 3/4 Series...

Audi has the A5, S5 and RS5. I'm sure most sales are of the A5 base model...

 

if you're going to throw in the ES then you might as well throw in low end 5 series, E class and A6 as well.

 

And high-end 2-series as well. Net, definitely not fair to lump the ES in there.

 

I wonder how many units the NX and RC are taking for their direct competitors?

 

Not quite. The GS competes with the 5 Series, E Class, A6 and CTS.

 

Likewise the ES in no way competes with 3/4.

 

You make a fear point about customer preferences in that not many cross shop the ES with the 3, however, "in no way" isn't acurate. Technically, these two are indeed in the same segment, entry level luxury, with the 3 focusing more on sport.

Lexus decided to build two cars in the same segment, one luxury and one sport/luxury. BMW builds one.

One could argue that nothing competes with the Jeep Wrangler as it is completely unique in the market. But surely other vehicles do compete for buyers. Not every Wrangler buyer blindly bought a Wrangler without considering something else.

 

I think you both are right. The ES and 3 series is in the same general category, "entry level luxury", but they also don't compete with each other and have totally different buyers and are very different. It is one of those oddities in the market like the Buick Lacrosse being in entry level luxury with 3 series, A4, ATS, etc when people simply don't cross shop those cars with a Lacrosse and they are very different. Unless they break down entry level into entry level sport/performance and entry level luxury there will continue to be that oddity that they are all in the same category even though they are very different with different buyers.

 

I even hesitate to make a broad statement regarding what cars are never/seldom cross shopped as I have seen many real life examples of people cross shopping cars that are night and day different in character and class ...... yes magazines will never even dream to compare them, nor would many posters here, but that doesn't mean other people will not when they shop for a car ......

 

That is true in some cases where someone is just shopping entry level lux cars on price alone, just what they like, and maybe similar features they may cross shop a ES and 3 series just based on a similar price or some similar features. I am sure some have also cross shopped a loaded civic and 3 series too, I would say these instances are pretty rare thought still in the market, the 3 series buyer and ES buyer usually have different priorities not to mention ages of avg buyers are normally pretty different.

I was cross shopping a Supra Turbo, NSX, GS, SC, 5 series, Acura TL-S/RL, before I got my GS because I liked all those cars even though they were pretty different.

 

Agree with your points, but the one thing you guys don't bring up is the point of view from a non enthusiast. To a non enthusiast, a Lexus ES and a 3 Series are indeed competitors because they have 4 doors and the prices are similar. But to us on this board who know about the performance and handling differences would not lump the two together.

 

To look at it another way, brand loyalists (and they are substantial), will only cross shop vehicles under their favorite brand. I, for example, would be highly unlikely to buy anything other than a Toyota because they consistently accomplish my priorities best overall.

In a scenario for my next purchase, right now I'm locked on the Highlander. But instead of cross shopping other midsize crossovers/SUVs, my second choice would be the Avalon. A night and day decision. Perhaps a 3rd choice would come down to a 4Runner but unlikely to get to that as I prefer a unibody CUV.

I bet a majority of Lexus owners on this forum would say the same in that they would cross shop 2-4 Lexus models before considering another brand.

 

I look forward to May 2015 sales. With the Memorial sales promotion towards the end of May sales should be good but we'll wait and see...