Almost everything sells in the D.C. area, Steve, because of its size, affluence, and the sheer amount of money available in this region for new vehicles. Jill may have a point, though, about the market in Toronto, where she lives...reasonably good, but certainly not like D.C. The RX Hybrid costs a good chunk of cash...probably not many in her area can afford one. And, to really emphasize a contrast, just drive 100 to 150 miles west of here, into Appalachia, and see what a lot of people are running around in for daily-drivers.

 

Toronto is a pretty affluent place Mike.

Im sure if you pulled the sales stats you would find that they sell a larger proportion of the hybrids that have a smaller price gap than they do the ones with a huge gap, which was my point.

 

Just did a quick look up of sales figures for the ESh/RXh vs ES/RX. In 2014 there were 28,785 ESh/RXh sold vs 179,998 non ES/RX So one in ever six is a hybrid.

 

You should ideally refer to Toronto as the Greater Toronto Area and not just Toronto, it captures the bigger picture and the context of the area much better.

 

ESh, CTh, and NXh have detuned gas engines compared to what you can find in the Toyota line up. I believe VVT is removed or the dual part or something along those lines.

 

As you well know, the GTA is very rlarge with a population of 6.4 million. That's a lot of people, and a lot of them with money to spend on pricey vehicles.

 

Also I will add, within Toronto (Forrest Hill), and a few other along areas along with Oakville GTA they have some of the highest average incomes in Canada. I think Oakville is the highest in Canada at $165K for household which is 60K higher than average of the province of Ontario. Just going off stats I seen in work place proposals and documents.

 

Yes, Toronto (or the Greater Toronto area, if you call it that) is certainly affluent by Canadian standards....and it's a pretty good-sized area, with over 6 million. But my original point was that (and I'm sorry if I did not make it more clear), for a number of reasons, one cannot expect to see the same number of luxury-class vehicles, including Hybrid RX models, in Canada, a nation with a population less then one tenth that of the U.S, as south of the border. Nor, for that matter, can you even in some parts of the U.S....places like Appalachia, the Ozarks, rural Mississippi, extreme South Texas, etc....where conditions often aren't much better than in the Third World.

 

You actually said the Toronto market. Not the Canadian market.

 

Aaaaand back on topic. Don't care to read back a few pages to see how a thread on the LS500 has turned into a thread about the Greater Toronto entry level luxury hybrid market.

 

OK....fair enough. Instead of several pages, I'll give it to you in one post, then. Here's the Master (Alex Dykes) and his take on the LS500 and 500h:

http://alexonautos.com/2017/09/26/20...-drive-review/

 

you really should do some research instead of just assuming the superiority of the auto market you happen to live in. toronto and dc metro areas each have about 6 million people, and both have a tremendous amount of wealth. one big difference though is dc is wealthy because of lobbying money and the giant federal vacuum cleaner sucking money from everywhere else.

that is beyond ridiculous.

because toronto is so much like appalachia.

downtown toronto has an area that's as vibrant as times square. toronto suburbs are wealthy with very expensive real estate. hard to buy much of anything to live in the toronto city area under $1 million CDN.

anyway, back to the ls500/ls500h... i'm still thinking there's not enough wow factor for it to make much of a dent on the market when it EVENTUALLY ships.

 

I never said it wasn't. It's no secret that government and high-tech industries provide a huge amount of income here. That doesn't take a college degree (or tons of research) to figure out. And, Federal employees (at least the ones who DO work hard) don't get those salaries and retirement for free. I worked 33 years for mine....and am not ashamed of it.



You can disagree with me, that's fine, but what makes YOU a Toronto expert? It may not be as ridiculous as you think.


Depends on how you define "wow". The last time I drove an LS, I definitely enjoyed it. Some of us enjoy comfort, quietness, refinement, and quality....whjch defines the LS to a tee.

 

 

I am coming to that conclusion as well. I don't think it is going to do all that well. There is something missing.