Lexus = Copycats

wont disagree with some of their models

(japanese accent) NO NO NO NO Copy... RE Engineer!!

you sir next time use FACT on title

Last time I checked, no one I know thought Lexus were crappy or looked bad. The reason Mercedes hasn't destroyed them is simple. They can't.

Either way, Acura over both brands

Dumbest post I have ever read. Seriously, you have issues, Son.

and who are you lol?

Every fucking make and model of every auto manufacturer has cars that look the same. OMG, this post is dripping with idiocy.

I'm the guy who thinks you have no common sense what so ever.

I have owned several Lexus among many other high end cars I have owned. The quality of the car and service is the best of any brand I have owned, including Ferrari, BMW, Benz.

I forgive you your idiocy

Lexus looks way better IMO. It just needs some better wheels. I'm nots ure how many of you have been in one before, but those Lexus 430's are very nice inside. Looks kind of akward with the hardtop up, but hey. It was like the first major hardtop convertible.

Based soely off those images, the Lexus looks better

Using mercedes' design, yes.

I wouldn't compare those two models
I think that lexus' front is such a lame copy of the old slk
compare those two and youll see what i mean

but there are better examples than that one... ;)

So? Looks like they made an improvment. I could care less if my car looks kind of like someone elses. If my car was a copy off another car but better looking, who cares? Better is better.

we are judging design here, not quality which I can not judge on even though I somehow doubt it.
and I am sure you can see the obvious as well

LOL LOL i was about to post the same

actually its the first pic(s) when ytou google for both brands.

And it IS a shitty comparison to some other rips Lexus has..specially the coupe series. couldnt find it tho.

Bro, I'm going to have to SPANK YOU for making this stupid statement



I'm driving the LS430 and the reason is simply because it KILLS the MBZ S430 in every way. I picked it up this past December. At the time I researched and test drove every car in it's class including the BMW, MBZ, Jaguar, Cadillac etc,

From the standpoint of comfort the LS430 blew them all away. From the standpoint of value for the $$$ same thing. Customer satisfaction same thing!



FYI, at the time I made the purchase - Car and Driver Magazine put the Mercedes Benz at #6 on thir top list with the above mentioned competitive cars in it's class AHEAD OF IT and ultimately THE LEXUS LS430 was #1 in the class and Mercedes was LAST!!!!

#1 SUCKA!

LOL

Why would I pay 20K more for a Mercedes when I have a better car made by Lexus? For the "status" of having a Mercedes? FUCK THAT SHIT!!!

I've never owned a Lexus ..but i would .. Ray has had both a Lexus and a Benz and the maintenance bills were higher on the SL .. from what I've seen the Lexus is a great ... all cars are moving to similar designs and i do wish someone would come out with something that looks like nothing else ..

You have to admit though that so many cars look similar for a reason. They sell. Regardless if the styles are similar, they both look good.

For all you know, the same designer could design cars for each. Maybe the same guy is designing for both companies or atleast he did one and then the other.

I have to say that i saw $tyle's car at the SD show and it's really nice ... big pimpin for sure .... I can't see spending the extra $20k for the M either ... the car was hot ..

hehe i know im right about the design part so do you

05 RX330 w00t! Best Midsized SUV 2004. The is ML is an armo car.

Why not pay 40k less for the toyota. Same shit.

the new lexus suv's are tight

Mercedes did not destroy Lexus, because they can not beat their quality and service

well DUUUUUUUUU - it's japaneese! -but the japs KNOW how to do a knockoff - lexus rocks - quality cars

it's not the same thing ... Lexus is built by them but is a better quality product .. better leather and better features ... I thought the same thing when my wife needed a car .. i looked at the Accord and i looked at the Acura .. I ended up buying a TL S type because it had more of what i was looking for .. all standard ... By the time i added all the features to the Honda i was looking at the same price with less horse power and less style ... i love the TL ...I drive it a lot

I don't think you are right, bro - sorry.

And to say that's like wearing a fake Rolex is plain retarded.

It's driving a BETTER 70K + car as opposed to a WORSE 90K+ car ... that's not at all like the difference between wearing a 10k Rolex and a shitty $40 knockoff from Canal Street!



It's ok though - because regardless of "design" - the LEXUS LS430 rocks the socks off the Benz!

I think the lexus's are pretty nice actually

DH

The point of it just being a toyota has no validity.

Lexus cars are built to even higher standards then those of the already high quality Toyotas out there. The LS430 handles better then S430.

I have been in both cars and the specs tell it all. The S430 maybe one of europes best luxury cars but it is not the worlds best. Proven by the countless quality and dependability awards the Lexus LS430 has won time and time again.

You must realize that the LS is far superior to the S430 any way you put it. After all this was the car that put shivers down the spines of german engineers in munich and stuttgart.

You should read your car history.

The Lexus LS was taken as a joke and brushed off by BMW and Mercedes at first but then people starting buying the LS over the S and 7 series. This made german car companies rethink thier entire strategy.

You must face facts, even if you are a brand loyal to mercedes.

DISCLAIMER - this above post is a compilation of what OTHER people have said after googling a comparison between MBZ and LEXUS

Last I knew, Bill Gates drove a burgundy Lexus.

Do you think he can drive any car he wants?

Don't hate on Lexus. Ever.

Lexus' are actually very well built and drive GREAT.

From a drivers stand point you cannot compare a Toyota to any German car, you just can't.

If you like the bells and whistles that Toyota adds to their Lexus line then they may be for you.

But the Lexus are built at the Toyota plant, with Toyota's parts and with Toyota's employees.

You have to hand it to Toyota their marketing is pure genius, charge double for a Lexus brand and the Americans will line up and buy them.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you've NEVER owned a Lexus, let alone rode in one.

Lexus is Toyata and alot of us laugh when you peeps drive by.. Just remember it. ;)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/...ness/lexus.php

Made in Japan - but will Lexus sell there?
By Martin Fackler The New York Times

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005


TOKYO A network of 143 plush new dealerships, gleaming with marble floors and Italian sofas, is ready for business. An army of 2,000 salesmen, mechanics and managers has completed training on how to pamper demanding clients.

Three car models have been redesigned with roomier interiors, brawnier motors and advanced sound and navigation systems. All the preparations were aimed at Tuesday, when Toyota Motor introduced its Lexus brand to a new market: Japan.

It will not need to bring the cars, though - they are already here.

All the models sold in the United States under the Lexus logo have been available in Japan under blander Toyota names. The Toyota versions came with simpler interiors and options and, in some cases, lower prices.

Before it was taken off the market in Japan in December in anticipation of the Lexus introduction, the Lexus GS series of sedans was sold here as the Toyota Aristo. The Lexus IS sedans, which are priced at more than $30,000 - sometimes well above that - in the United States, were sold in Japan as the Toyota Altezza, with a list price around $25,000. The SC430, a two-seat sports car, was called the Toyota Soarer.

Success here will hinge on whether Toyota can create an identity for Lexus and give it the sort of luxury cachet for which consumers are willing to pay a premium. To do this, Toyota must convince Japanese drivers that the cars are more than just Toyotas with new name plates and fatter price tags.

Why it took the company so long to bring Lexus to Japan, a feverishly brand-conscious nation, is a bit of a puzzle. One answer may be that Toyota, the world's most profitable carmaker, has never had trouble selling its cars in this country as Toyotas. Company officials also say the Japanese car market is just now reaching the point where it can sustain a large luxury segment.

"We want to raise the level of our cars," Toyota's president, Katsuaki Watanabe, said last month. "If we make a luxury brand, there will now be a market for it. In this sense, Japan is becoming like the rest of the world."

But delaying Lexus may also have been a mistake, given the success that German producers of luxury cars like Mercedes-Benz and BMW have had here. Toyota, however, is not alone in hanging back from the high-end market. Neither Nissan Motor nor Honda Motor has brought high-end U.S. models to Japan.

Analysts offer another explanation: The Japanese carmakers may have wanted to wait until the luxury brands were established in the United States and other countries before making the huge investment needed to market them in Japan. Toyota has spent more than two years and, by some estimates, almost $2 billion getting ready for this introduction. It refuses to disclose the figures. But despite the resounding success of Lexus in the United States and about 40 other countries, the concept may face its toughest sales job at home.

"Will they displace Mercedes and BMW?" said Kurt Sanger of Macquarie Securities in Tokyo. "The reality is, it may be hard. They're just taking Toyotas and selling them somewhere else."

When Toyota introduced Lexus in the United States 16 years ago, it won over luxury car buyers with sumptuous showrooms, meticulous service and products consistently at the top of quality rankings. So effective were Toyota's efforts to create a distinct identity by using a separate sales network and marketing campaigns that some Americans were unaware that Lexus was made by Toyota, or even that it was Japanese.

Analysts say Lexus will have a much harder time accomplishing that in Japan, where its high-end Toyota models will be sold with their Lexus names, similar options and at about the same prices as in the United States. What is more, the cars have been familiar in Japan as Toyotas, and attentive service is already common in Toyota's Japanese showrooms and those of other carmakers.

Then there is Toyota's enormous presence here - the company dominates Japan's 3.96-million-vehicle market for passenger cars and trucks with a 45 percent share. Analysts say it will be hard for Lexus to set itself apart from such a well-known brand and present itself as something distinct and upper-tier.

One step Toyota has taken to address these problems is a full redesign of the three models that will appear in Lexus showrooms. The IS series will have wider bodies, bigger engines and hard disk drives that can hold maps for the navigation system and 20,000 songs for the sound system. The exterior is to have more aerodynamic styling.

Toyota says it is not trying to challenge Mercedes and BMW, which have dominated Japan's 200,000-vehicle-a-year luxury market. Rather, company officials say, they are looking to position themselves in what they call a gray zone between the German makers and the top of their own current line.

Finding such markets is important for Toyota, whose sales in Japan's saturated market have hit a plateau in the past five years at around 1.75 million a year. Toyota hopes to sell as many as 60,000 Lexuses a year within three years and to eventually raise that to 100,000 a year.

The company says there is an untapped pool of Japanese who want luxury cars but do not feel comfortable buying foreign vehicles. Masanori Suzuki, 28, the president of an aluminum-foil maker in Shizuoka, may be such a customer. Suzuki drives a Toyota Celsior, a high-end sedan sold in the United States as a Lexus GS. Suzuki said he was glad that Lexus was finally coming to Japan. He said that he had wanted to buy a luxury car but that Mercedes and other European brands had gauges, green instrument lights and wood interiors that did not appeal to Japanese tastes.

"My next car will probably be a Lexus," Suzuki said by phone. "But a Lexus is really just a Toyota. There are probably a lot of Japanese who wouldn't want to pay a lot of money for a Toyota."

TOKYO A network of 143 plush new dealerships, gleaming with marble floors and Italian sofas, is ready for business. An army of 2,000 salesmen, mechanics and managers has completed training on how to pamper demanding clients.

Three car models have been redesigned with roomier interiors, brawnier motors and advanced sound and navigation systems. All the preparations were aimed at Tuesday, when Toyota Motor introduced its Lexus brand to a new market: Japan.

It will not need to bring the cars, though - they are already here.

All the models sold in the United States under the Lexus logo have been available in Japan under blander Toyota names. The Toyota versions came with simpler interiors and options and, in some cases, lower prices.

Before it was taken off the market in Japan in December in anticipation of the Lexus introduction, the Lexus GS series of sedans was sold here as the Toyota Aristo. The Lexus IS sedans, which are priced at more than $30,000 - sometimes well above that - in the United States, were sold in Japan as the Toyota Altezza, with a list price around $25,000. The SC430, a two-seat sports car, was called the TOKYO A network of 143 plush new dealerships, gleaming with marble floors and Italian sofas, is ready for business. An army of 2,000 salesmen, mechanics and managers has completed training on how to pamper demanding clients.

Three car models have been redesigned with roomier interiors, brawnier motors and advanced sound and navigation systems. All the preparations were aimed at Tuesday, when Toyota Motor introduced its Lexus brand to a new market: Japan.

It will not need to bring the cars, though - they are already here.

All the models sold in the United States under the Lexus logo have been available in Japan under blander Toyota names. The Toyota versions came with simpler interiors and options and, in some cases, lower prices.

Before it was taken off the market in Japan in December in anticipation of the Lexus introduction, the Lexus GS series of sedans was sold here as the Toyota Aristo. The Lexus IS sedans, which are priced at more than $30,000 - sometimes well above that - in the United States, were sold in Japan as the Toyota Altezza, with a list price around $25,000. The SC430, a two-seat sports car, was called the Toyota Soarer.

The same could be said about Mercedes unless you live in germany that is. The cars in the US are built in the Chrysler plants by Chrysler employees ;)

You're curious about why Mercedes hasn't killed them yet? Lexus has the biggest share of the luxury market in the US. They sell more cars than BMW or Mercedes or Cadillac.

WORD UP! Because of value, serice, driving, and comfort!

Let the haters hate, meanwhile I'll be driving my overrated Toyota INSTEAD of the overrated and overpriced Chrysler

Fuck all you Lexus haters! I've had 3 Mercedes including 2 E classes and 1 S class and I love my lexus.

I did the same comparing too. For the 40k you are saving you can have the options added to be exactly the same. In the end you are just paying the extra for name.

But if you can afford the extra money, by all means go for the lexus.

wow! very nice car...cool ride

I have both the LX and the RX and I LOVE them both. Great cars and great service. My next car will not be a Lexus only because I don't like the new body style as much as some of the other models out now. But I have been 110% happy with both of mine.

LOL

ahahahahhahaha

That's just absurd ...

So, you're saying buy a based price CAMRY and add ALL the LS430's interior appointments, Mark Levinson sound system, engine, etc?

NOT THE SAME RIDE ... NOT THE SAME HANDLING ... waste of time and money!

The notion of doing so is absolutely rediculous, Alex .... really, it is.

BTW - That's not an insult to you, but a rational observation about what you're saying.

Lexus is cheaper and is more likely to give loans to consumers that real luxury brands would not.. The only reason it could outsell.