It’s almost 25 years to the day that Lexus first came to the UK, with a LS400 being shown at the 1989 London Motor Show in Earls Court. And that very same model went on sale a few weeks later at the start of 1990.
It’s hard to quite recall the impact that car made. In 1983
the then boss of Toyota decided to make the world’s finest luxury car. Some
1400 engineers and millions of dollars later the LS was launched and made
existing rivals from Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, and the like, seem like rough
anachronisms.
It rapidly became the best selling luxury saloon in the US. Which was job done
as far as Toyota was concerned as that was the market it had intended to
conquer, this being years before China emerged as a major consumer of luxury
cars.
More major success followed in the States, not least with the RX that invented
a format US buyers went for in a big way: the luxury crossover. It remains the
company’s global best seller too.
After a quarter of a century though it’s worth reflecting that Lexus has proved
far more difficult in Western Europe for Toyota’s top brass. Maybe it’s the
fact that we aren’t as swayed by ‘new’ brands as the Americans, and latterly
the Chinese. Nor its concentration on dealer service and reliability.
It’s also been true that Lexus hasn’t historically made cars primarily for
Europe. For years there was only that V8-engined large saloon, when European
luxury buyers favoured smaller, diesel-engined cars. Then again, even when the
company turned its attention to those they were ineffective to the extent that
the trick wasn’t repeated.
Even now Lexus doesn’t do diesel. In fact 97 per cent of its European sales are
petrol-electric hybrids. But there are signs that as the company is celebrating
its silver jubilee it’s finally starting to get a foothold in Europe. The new
NX crossover has had record advanced sales, whilst the big cheeses are
promising that its ‘emotional and polarising’ styling will be repeated for all
future models.
They’re also banking on a decline in the appeal of diesel as prices rise, the
tax regime gets tougher and more focus is placed on tailpipe emissions, which
is where petrol hybrids have a clear benefit.
So maybe, just maybe, Toyota’s massive investment on making Lexus a European
success is finally paying off. It’s going to be interesting to watch.
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