Lexus Opens First Dealership in Turkey

[krew]

krew

Lexus officially started sales in Turkey last week with the opening of a showroom in the neighbourhood of Maslak in Istanbul.

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[mmcartalk]

Interesting post.

I hope it works out well for Lexus in that country. There's been a lot of political turmoil there recently, along with some terrorist attacks. I suspect they will sell a number of SUVs there, as that type of vehicle seems to be quite popular in the Middle East.

 

[Gecko]

Turkey is one of the coolest countries I've ever been to... and I can see lots of potential for Lexus. Exciting stuff!

 

[DDas]

What a beautiful dealership...Lexus needs to update their dealerships in the States because they are stuck in the 90s.

 

[Andyl]

What a beautiful dealership...Lexus needs to update their dealerships in the States because they are stuck in the 90s.

Same for some Canadian dealerships. It is refreshing to see the Turkey dealership and the Lexus Guildford in UK.

 

[spwolf]

What a beautiful dealership...Lexus needs to update their dealerships in the States because they are stuck in the 90s.

It needs to be said that this Lexus dealership is owned by Toyota Europe, so it is factory dealership. They have quite few of those across the Europe. They are made to be flagship stores to popularize the brand. There is no way someone will invest this kind of money for Lexus dealership in Turkey, sales are not there at 250 units... same goes for any other brand thats not top 5 best selling in Istanbul.

And as reminder, Istanbul has little to do with Middle East. It is a divider between Eastern Europe and Western Asia and was European capital of culture by EU in 2010. As such, Turkish people also have buying habits similar to Eastern Europeans... their best selling cars are in Yaris and Corolla class, a not some large SUVs like LX - there are no deserts in Turkey. Toyota has had a local factory doing Coroll, Auris, Corolla Verso for a long time now. They will build C-HR there as well. As such, Corolla is the best selling vehicle in Turkey for 2015.

Luxury brands are still at early stages, but with galloping GDP, they expect big rise in luxury brand sales. Toyota sold over 50,000 vehicles in Turkey in 2015, so those are quite large numbers.