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Lexus Vs Jap Luxury Cars Vs German Perf Beasts


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Carrying on from mine and mannys quick chat on the LS400 vs Q45, and with the rumoured arrival of Infiniti to europe in 2005, what does the future hold for Lexus?

Infiniti (Luxury Nissans) seem to whip Lexus :tsktsk: comparing performance figures on like for like models and so do Acura (Honda).

Why has Lexus carried on so strong when Infiniti and Acura are offering similar but faster machines? And I think Infiniti was around before Lexus.. :blink:

I know lexus will be launching their performance/amg/m-sport/brabus division soon(?) but will the standard 20/30k models improve performance wise?

Would any of you consider going for an alternative Jap luxury car? :whistling:

And are Mazda likely to develop a luxury marquee or do they already have one? :lol:

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After this farce I'm considering ditching the 'luxury brand' altogether... I got better service from a Pug dealer than im getting at the moment!

Trust me, Pug dealers are worse.

Even Audi are pretty bad.

Don't be put of by the brand. I have absoutely no complaints about Nottingham and I'm certain you could use another dealer near you who would offer you the high level of service you should expect from a luxury brand.

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I came to Lexus from a B*W 5 series, overall the Lexus is better but i wish my GS just had that extra bit of power that the equvalent 3.0 B*M had - i wouldnt consider going to Mercedes with all the recent reliability problems (and servicing costs)..... :driving: .....im a total jap convert :P

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Surely the reason that Lexus is so popular is the fact that they are so reliable. Look at the Reliability surveys over the last 10 years!

I've had to 2 nissans previously very reliable, and my family have always had hondas, toyotas or nissans cant really say anything set the toyotas part from the others, so going on this basis shouldnt Infiniti and Acuras be in the same league as Lexus? :unsure:

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Yes, infiniti are prob closer to bmw than Lexus. You see Lexus have always traditionally been pure luxury oriented, whereas infiniti are more luxo-sport orientied. The dash is arranged for the driver in the Infinitis, and the whole car feels less isolated from the road than the equivalent Lexus. In their own way, they are wonderful cars.

Yes, Lexus dominates the luxury market in the US, but that's more down to the conservative US car buying public who lapped up the original LS400. It set a trend that Infiniti find hard to catch up on. Plus, constantly winning the J.D Power survey year after year in the US has really created a perception that these cars are more satisfying to OWN than any other car out there.

Acura also exists in the US, but as story in link shows, a lot of folks buying big cars don't want front wheel drive, which Acura insist on doing.

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forum/index.ph...topic=5058&st=0

Also, seeing as many people buying Lexus/Acura/Infiniti in the US upgrade from the everyday brands linked to them, such as Toyota/Honda/Nissan, that's why Lexus have gone way above the others. The two top selling vehicles for many, many years in the US (apart from pickup trucks), have been the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

And I guess when people trade up from an Accord to a big luxury car, they don't want all that power going through the back wheels, so they go to Lexus instead.

Just my take on events so far...Personally, I think there wouldn't be a market for Infiniti and Acura to launch here, even though Lexus is doing strongly in terms of growth. The majority of folk still seem to view Lexus cars as the middle of the trio, i.e. in between BMWs and Mercs. It's going to take a LONG time to shift cultural perceptions, "that Jap cars are inferior to German products", particulary in the office car park (my office car park is 90% German).

For some people, ignorance is bliss...

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pug - n [obs. pug (hobgoblin, monkey)] 1: a small sturdy compact dog of a breed of Asian origin with a close coat, tightly curled tail, and a broad wrinkled face 2: a less sturdy usually compact car of French origin with rusty coating, wobbly tail and moronic wide-eyed face unfittingly ornated with a lion's figure

;)

RX-men-8

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Also, seeing as many people buying Lexus/Acura/Infiniti in the US upgrade from the everyday brands linked to them, such as Toyota/Honda/Nissan,

going by that theory, I should be driving an infiniti :unsure:

Have been in/driven any infinitis or acuras or going on reviews?

Agreed Lexus is a pure luxury marque, but the IS and GS sports designs are very sporty looking cars, but I think its a shame that they dont come with serious power to match :angry:

I get allsorts of comments about my car ranging from 'wooooooooooooh, thats a seriously nice car, and I've been in bentleys etc' to 'its no mercedes/bmw' :yack:

'The japanese have have always been better at making superior and more ecomomical products than anyone else and they are getting better at it everyday' that was a quote from my old MD, who was one of the 'big' boys at BMW cowley and Honda.

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Mazda used to have Xedos but they didn't sell too well....

But how about the new Mazda 6 sport? A mates bought one - and I must say, it's a bloomin tidy motor.... and on a par with the IS....

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Whats going on.....are you all thinking of giving up your Lexi?

Lots of negative waves washing around.

BTW Zee........this avitar is yours i think :ph34r:

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Also, seeing as many people buying Lexus/Acura/Infiniti in the US upgrade from the everyday brands linked to them, such as Toyota/Honda/Nissan,

going by that theory, I should be driving an infiniti :unsure:

Have been in/driven any infinitis or acuras or going on reviews?

Agreed Lexus is a pure luxury marque, but the IS and GS sports designs are very sporty looking cars, but I think its a shame that they dont come with serious power to match :angry:

I've been in a friend's Infiniti last Nov. It was really really nice. Interior was not lounge lizard but was extremely cosy. Nice sounding exhaust, it had a deep growl when you wanted it. Suspension felt very tight indeed but not rock hard ride. A very nice compromise. It was the Q30 or Q35. I can't recall. It wasn't the V8 for sure. He has 95k on it in 3 years and still drove great.

Yes, for some reason (does anyone know why?), Lexus are currently lagging way behind in the German horsepower race, audi rs6, m5, e55 amg etc. Think about M3s and how many 316is get sold due to the image of the M3? I suppose we wait for the IS430 to become a reality. There was a rumour of an LS600 one day, using the V12 from the Crown model.

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Whats going on.....are you all thinking of giving up your Lexi?

Lots of negative waves washing around.

BTW Zee........this avitar is yours i think :ph34r:

Nah :P but if lexus dont increase their standard bhp (and ecomony :unsure: )...... then may be, only a may be, I might have to look elsewhere hope not ;) and I dont want no bm or benz :blink: Even if it is a brabus.

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I've been in a friend's Infiniti last Nov. It was really really nice. Interior was not lounge lizard but was extremely cosy. Nice sounding exhaust, it had a deep growl when you wanted it. Suspension felt very tight indeed but not rock hard ride. A very nice compromise. It was the Q30 or Q35. I can't recall. It wasn't the V8 for sure. He has 95k on it in 3 years and still drove great.

Yes, for some reason (does anyone know why?), Lexus are currently lagging way behind in the German horsepower race, audi rs6, m5, e55 amg etc. Think about M3s and how many 316is get sold due to the image of the M3? I suppose we wait for the IS430 to become a reality. There was a rumour of an LS600 one day, using the V12 from the Crown model.

Japanese car manufacturers have traditionally not participated in high performance cars. Probably this is because in Japan they agreed to limited the topspeed of their cars to 180kph and 280bhp.

This means that Japanese manufacturers do not have much opportunity (or much need) to optimize the handling of their cars at very high (autobahn) speeds.

In addition, European cars, like the Mercedes and Benz are regarded as much higher prestige cars in Japan...

Most Japanese cars are still designedvery much with the Japanese customer requirements in mind....

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In addition, European cars, like the Mercedes and Benz are regarded as much higher prestige cars in Japan...

Maybe it's a misconception, but I thought Toyota is extremely highly regarded in Japan (much higher prestige than say UK or US gives Toyota)?

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