well for the next gen i think it might still make sense for them to have sc with two engines. it's just like you have slk, clk, and also the sl.

you want to have variety once you are big

 

yup, with facelift this yr, i think 08 and 09 sounds right. though lexus did say before that they are going to have ALL new lineup by 2007, i am not sure how they are going to plan that out though.

 

When will the '06 SC430 come out? July-ish?

I wonder if there's a chance that it will receive the new 4.6L V8? Lexus has a habit of updating powertrains at a refresh rather than putting them into a new model.

-Michael-

 

i doubt, i think it will just be the same 430. jsut like the LS, i don't think it will get the 460

the new sc430 it will come in july to aug time frame i believe. that's about the same every yr

 

that sounds about right, it should be out before the launch of the brand in Japan. I hope they offer a couple of more colors like the ones on the new GS

 

As already mentioned before, if you go to www.lexus.jp
and click on models, they now have the new GS and IS, but the SC is greyed out.

I think they might have a redesigned SC???

I doubt it would just be a refresh, because they do not have the LS, ES, RX, GX, LX on there.
Any comments?

 

can't be, otherwise i woul wanna kill myself a facelift is in place, maybe some cosmetic stuff and that's why they are not showing it yet?

 

I think so too, even with a just a facelift it will look a little different from the current one.

Henry, the Lexus Japan website actually show they'll have both the GS350 & the GS430 available concurrently, I wonder how the specs. of the GS350 looks like relative to the GS430. Doesn't look like it's in there yet. Anybody can read Japanese ?

 

my wife reads japanese, maybe not 100% but i can try to ask her tonight

what are you looking for, andrew? seems like it's just giving a very general overview?

 

If they have LED taillights in the '06, I wonder if they'll be the same shape as now. I would love to ditch the current taillights and replace them (I think the current ones make the rear end look blah).

 

yeah no one know if they are similar yet. even if they look similar, the harness inside is the next question

i guess if it's all plug and play, we will have one hell of a GB going on here

 

Don't you think that Lexus wants to keep the SC430 fairly exclusive (with an over $60K pricetag)? If they start offering a V6 and that brings the price down, then there will be so many on the road that it will lose some of its cachet.
People will criticize the SC430 as being a dressed-up Toyota Solara, just as they criticized the older ES300s as being dressed-up Toyota Camrys.
When the SC430 first came out, I remember that they said that they would limit the production to just 12,500 per year, to make the car "exclusive." Does anybody else remember that?

 

i think i read something like that before

but then lexus also talked about having sc300 in the beginning too. it's the tremendouse sales and demand on the sc430 that kept lexus away from considering the sc300

 

Hmmm, re: Tremendous sales and Lexus limiting SC430 to just 12,500 per year...

Reading the 2004 Sales press release (on Lexus site, 1/4/05), they carefully did NOT state any sales figures for SC430, but did for just about everything else:

Total = 287,927
RX330 = 106,531
GX470 = 35,420
LX470 = 9,846
LS430 = 32,272
ES330 = 75,916
GS = 8,262

Left over = 19,680

The 19,680 is the sales of the 3 undeclared models, IS300 Sedan, IS300 Sportcross and SC430. The IS are about 1/2 the price of SC430.

Using a typical demand elasticity to price percentage, I would GUESS (just my personal guess), about 30% for the SC430. However it could be 50%.

That would be between 6000 and 10,000 units versus original stated capacity of 12, 500.

Someone please correct me, if my math is off (I know you will )

 

that's very interesting. i am not sure about the sales of the is3 in 04, i heard it's down a bit?

in any case, from what i noticed, sc430 never stays, they constantly sell and usually you at 2 or 3 waiting at the dealership.

i know that recently they haev reduced the number of sc coming in though, due to the coming of new gs