Johnhav430

BMW accused Toyota Motor of selling the LS400 below cost. What better compliment could there have been coming out of Munich? It's a shame that the stars are not aligned anymore for this to repeat. Think about the frivolous (imho) law suits regarding floor mats. Toyota gets nailed (retrofits the plastic pins??!), BMW doesn't care. My OE BMW winter mat gets caught in the clutch--they cut it improperly or basically designed it around an automatic, don't care.

p.s. at least when you buy a BMW you get two sets (summer and winter) for free, even if they don't fit lol

arentz07

Correct, Lexus need to step up their technology game. The offering of standard safety was a good move, but they need to advance the capabilities of their systems. They don't have anything remotely like Cadillac's Super Cruise or Tesla's Autopilot, which to me seems like it would force them to update that tech. In addition, it's taken them too long to adopt mainstream smartphone integration.

That said, while Genesis/KIA/Hyundai have been earlier on the smartphone integration front, they also need to look at driver assistance. Auto high beams and lane-departure alert are nice, but they can be had on base-model Toyota Camrys these days. At least the Koreans have 360 camera systems available.

I don't feel that Koreans are outright outclassing Japanese right now, but they are compelling, that's for sure.

tex2670

Do you own stock?

tex2670

And which, if any, of those German companies went on the financial ropes because of it? And which of those German companies are still selling plenty of cars, and are healthy companies, today?

mmarshall

It did not threaten the future of the company itself, but, to compensate for the Lexus competition at lower cost, the quality of Mercedes products dropped off drastically in the 1990s, and it took them years to recover. The tank-like solidness of 80s-vintage Mercedes products, after the 90s, was just a distant memory. You could really tell it (big-time) in the way the doors shut and in how the interior hardware was done. Of course, recently, M-B has recovered.....particularly with the C-class and S-class. The S-class now sets the benchmark for that class.

SW17LS

And in reality, IMHO those German companies are making much better cars today BECAUSE of Lexus.

Toys4RJill

LeX2K

The industry became stronger as a result.

tex2670

Exactly.

OP--no worries. Go about your daily life and enjoy it.

Htony

Nothing can catch up or replace experience gained over long period of time in anything. Also Japanese and Korean are two distinctly different ethnic people. Japanese excels in team work vs. Koreans excel in individual work and creativity. Modern car building is modular in nature, combined work of teams. I am a native Korean who have been residing in North America over half a century. Let's see who holds the most patents in the automotive leading edge technology. Is Korean a leader or follower? How
many patents do they hold? Lately Hyundai and Kia have been hiring may German experts in the automotive field. A guy who was in charge of BMW M-series production for 27 years moved to Kia(who wouldn't when one's remuneration doubles, triples) And comes Genesis.... If reliability is only factor in cars only Lexus/Toyota would be last one standing. They are building cars under different design philosophy. Once we understand the difference reliability is not everything.. At present my family members drive only BMW and Benz. This has not inconvenienced us with issues. Not much different from when we had Lexus, Toyota, Acura.

Yegor12

I'm sorry I did not quite understand what you wanted to tell me?

Fizzboy7

Do not fear. Kias and Hyundais have the highest rate of burned out taillights. Cheap materials and/or defects.

Htony

Seems like Korean manufacturers are sourcing miscellaneous parts from China now.

Yegor12

thank you very much for your support

Mike728

Again, where are you getting this info from? I'm still waiting for your supporting documentation on your last unsubstantiated claim.