[car fanatics]

Source
Photo credit: Lexus
May 8, 2012
By: CF staff

An effort by Lexus to separate itself from parent Toyota Motors Corp. (7203)’s stable -- at least a little -- and come up with a global strategy that gives BMW and Mercedes-Benz owners a reason to switch.

“To conquer BMW and Mercedes drivers, we can’t just be looked at as an upgraded version of Toyota,” said Kiyotaka Ise, who took the helm of Lexus in 2007. “We want our brand to be chosen for its character and handling.”

It’s also larger than Lexus itself. Toyota is stressing bolder style and what it calls “emotional designs” under a companywide revamp to foster creativity, streamline decision- making and get cars faster to market. The success of the Lexus strategy will signal whether Toyota can revive sales growth marred by output disruptions from natural disasters, a stronger yen and laggard introductions of new cars.

[LovemyPathfinder]

Good for them.

[Speed Devil]

To quote many wise people, "Fuck Yeah!"

Lexus is really stepping up lately, figure the separation will be the last step towards being fully competitive, maybe they'll replace the camry with something more proper, maybe they'll drop the anchor (2.5 V6) from the IS and offer a much more competitive package. Just got a good feeling, we know they already got the.cojoneses, so this'll definitely kick ass!

[REVolution]

About time. I'm curious to see how they are going to go about this. I still have quite a few doubts based on their products but we'll see how it goes.

[Speed Devil]

Just curious, was it toyota or lexus who decided to build the -F series

[CTS-Vluvr]

I never have and never will take Toyota and therefore Lexus seriously. Benign cars for sheepish people, that is a fact. There are just far too many better choices in the auto market for me to ever give a Toyota of any kind a second, or even a first thought. Fuck Toyota. Even their stupid name gets on my nerves.