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Lexii, Lexii, Lexii

I took my wife's Lexus to service and had an opportunity to read through the brochures in their lobby. It was... educational. Three notes (about cars only; I know that J. drives an oblong Lexus CUV, which is different):

1. Lexus sells big cars. My better half had a sense to buy a Lexus that is about as big as the previous Camry. Same class as Civic really. I knew they sold bigger cars with tacky gold accents. But actually their line-up extends into vehicles as big as Town Car, and some of them are designed for livery: reclining rear seats with built-in massage.

2. Lexus product line is a confusing mess. For the life of me I cannot remember which is which. I heard that it was so that consumers "thought of Lexus brand rather than models" (it was the rationale for Acura to kills Legend too). Guys, screw you. I hate your marketing bullshit.

3. RWD, RWD everywhere. All these numerous car models (except the souped-up Camryvalon and mega-Prius with sedan body) have their own unique platforms with RWD. I had no idea. I imagined them having one hot RWD platform for enthusiasts (they actually have two of such: the one my wife has (think of a 4-door Lexus Miata — for the lack of a better comparison) and a cutesy V-8 monster that only comes with ragtop (think of Lexus Mustang)), but it's not the case. They actually have their own version of Chrysler 300 and their own version of BMW 700 and god knows what else. Bet it costs Toyota a pretty penny to build all of them.

The contrast of the whole operation versus my (blissful!) ignorance of it makes one imagine Toyota execs wondering how they spend so much effort on developing these cars and then so few people buying them.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:35 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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