April 2009 sales have been released by Lexus USA, here’s the model-by-model breakdown (plus the year-to-date):
| April | Year to Date | |||||
| 2009 | 2008 | % CHG | 2009 | 2008 | % CHG | |
| IS | 2,324 | 4,550 | -48.9 | 9,303 | 16,516 | -43.1 |
| ES | 3,549 | 5,439 | -34.7 | 12,320 | 20,599 | -39.6 |
| GS | 468 | 1,568 | -70.2 | 2,586 | 6,138 | -57.5 |
| SC | 83 | 217 | -61.8 | 310 | 860 | -63.6 |
| LS | 765 | 1,992 | -61.6 | 3,221 | 7,914 | -58.9 |
| Total Cars | 7,189 | 13,766 | -47.8 | 27,740 | 52,027 | -46.2 |
| RX | 6,237 | 7,160 | -12.9 | 25,152 | 28,608 | -11.2 |
| GX | 505 | 1,625 | -68.9 | 2,210 | 6,510 | -65.7 |
| LX | 264 | 799 | -67.0 | 1,162 | 2,720 | -56.9 |
| Total Trucks | 7,006 | 9,584 | -26.9 | 28,524 | 37,838 | -23.9 |
| Total Sales | 14,195 | 23,350 | -39.2 | 56,264 | 89,865 | -36.8 |
Even with the 12.9% drop under last year, the new RX 350 has experienced a very successful launch, and was April’s best selling luxury vehicle in the USA.
The GS, on the other hand, is taking a beating. I have no idea why sales are so low—a 70.2% decrease is tough to understand and hard to counteract. Think of this—due to poor sales, the next-gen GS release gets bumped up, causing the current sales to drop even further. No way around it, it’s a catch-22.
(After months of negative numbers, I’m looking forward to a positive month.)