BrownPride

Massive following for generations, international car meets, motorsport teams, influential products showcased in museums around the globe, etc.

BMW, Porsche, and Ferrari come to mind. BMW is more mainstreams than the latter two but still has a massive following and online community. Many Bimmerpost regulars are salespeople.

AJLex19

Sales and service typically don't know about the forums. I had an issue which I decided to take in for service and I printed the TSB I found on Clublexus as backup. When I got there, of course the technicians couldn't hear or reproduce the problem with the engine whine. As soon as I showed them the TSB, their tune changed. I told my service rep I got it online off the Clublexus forum which he said he never knew about but was glad I brought the printed TSB.

The dealership did the work and the car has been good since. I never expect them to know about the forums because I think part of the forums DIY sections and knowledge sharing actually may take business away from them...a forum with free info would probably not be something they want to promote. My local mechanic always looks on the forums to see if folks have had insight into a similar problem esp if it becomes challenging for him to fix.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Lexus isn't exactly known to cater to enthusiasts which are usually the people that go on these forums. BMW, Porsche and other German cars are designed out of the box for enthusiasts so their forum presence is much better. Most people buy Lexus as a standard daily driver. Just look at their line up, 8/10 of their cars are meant for your mom to drive to the grocery store. No wonder the sales people or most Lexus owners have never been on this forum lol.

Stroock639

lol obviously... i just said that to employ a bit of hyperbole

Johnhav430

Seriously, even though BMW has gone mainstream, they still have a heritage. It's not feasible to simply buy a M car, deconstruct it, and copy it. Then, it has that Apple type of can't do anything wrong image, the badge means everything aspect.

All one has to do is to attend events to know. BMW knows how to run car events, they have the experience, they have the know how, they have the cars. Sorry, but the Lexus event at Citi Field was pathetic. A clear plastic bag with a $1000 coupon was the gift for all that attended? lol

That's why I decided to skip Cadillac, it sounded pretty bad also anyway.

That Chevy thing last weekend, I am appreciative that I could drive a manual Corvette. But the event was poorly organized.

It's like throwing a party, it's not simple, there are things to think about. The auto Corvette disappeared with a line of about 8 people, it s**** to be them. How would you like it to be waiting, and then be told sorry we have to rope it off, the car needs gas? Don't know when it will be back.

I've attended the launches of the 991, the previous Boxster/Cayman, the 7 series (sail around liberty island?), the Komen drives where we got the Alpina B7, the e90 BMW sedans, the ultimate drive with prof. instructors, etc. Lexus doesn't have the resources nor the know how to pull all of those off. Look at the way the new LS500 was launched, sandwiches at a dealership? lol And again no instruction at all driving the LC500 and RC F sports, you're just on your own.

coolsaber

Just because the badge reads as enthusiast grade doesnt necessarily translate to enthusiast level CAs. I have folks fresh outta college (dramatic affect statement of course) at Bimmer dealerships and they know nothing about what their selling, besides selling buzzwords, hence why alot of dealerships have IT specialists that do know their product moreso then regular sales staff (not saying alot) .

Forums specificially bimmerfest aka Jon Schafer (at a time Santa Barbara BMWs sales manager) and their quest to assist buyers even when the sales are not from their side. The ease of finding information about problems, invoice price lists (ah the good ole days when dealership pricing books were available as a pdf including EOP and SOP build codes etc), talking to dealership sales managers directly in posts, european delivery questions, PCD questions. Pretty much everything was transparent attracts alot of folks. Havent seen anythign similar with any other brand.

In regards to their lineup vs Lexus. true and not true. The bread and butter mobiles of BMW, aka the Lexus ES and RX of BMWland usually tend to be basic models of their lineups, aka lease specials. The higher end of course exists but its not like they sell 50,000 M5s each month.