[krew]

With GS sales up nearly 20%, can't help but feel like Lexus is trolling us.

 

[spwolf]

With GS sales up nearly 20%, can't help but feel like Lexus is trolling us.

This is trolling:

Lexus race fans will now experience amazing as the County of Monterey announced today the addition of Lexus as its official luxury vehicle at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (WRLS).

As part of the partnership, the Lexus GS F will serve as the official pace car

http://pressroom.toyota.com/release...y+vehicle+weathertech+raceway+laguna+seca.htm

I am thinking GS might not be going anywhere.

 

[mikeavelli]

999 LS's... okay who didn't close that one deal 😀

 

[Tragic Bronson]

LUXURY: Mercedes maintains luxe lead over BMW, Lexus

Mercedes-Benz USA, propelled by strong demand for SUVs, topped the luxury U.S. sales race in April and continues to outpace its nearest rivals, No. 2 BMW and No. 3 Lexus, year to date.

Mercedes' U.S. sales inched 1 percent higher in April to 27,207, excluding the brand's commercial van sales. U.S. sales at Mercedes for January through April dipped 0.4 percent to 105,681 from a year ago. BMW sales rose 3.8 percent in April to 23,482, while Lexus volume dipped 2.1 percent to 21,642.

Rounding out the luxury segment's top five brands in April U.S. sales were Audi, with sales of 19,104, up 2.1 percent; and Acura, with deliveries of 11,888, down 16 percent.

Even with a dip in volume, Mercedes remains in first place among luxury brands year to date, followed by BMW (97,317) and Lexus (85,853).

Mercedes-Benz' volume leaders in April were the GLC, C class and GLE. The GLC took the lead in April with U.S. sales of 5,853, followed by C class deliveries of 5,148. The GLE rounded out the top three with 4,110 units sold.

"April sales are leading us into a solid second quarter," Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dietmar Exler said in a statement. "We continue to see strong demand for our SUVs, and our increasingly diverse product lineup will continue this momentum as we enter into the summer months."

Porsche Cars North America Inc. reported April U.S. sales of 5,570 -- a monthly retail record -- and a 0.7 percent gain over April 2017. Retail sales for January through April rose 7 percent to 19,524 vehicles.

"The Porsche mix of two- and four-door sports cars is getting a broad welcome from customers," Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said in a statement. "We see this in the strong April demand that crosses model lines."

April growth leaders were the 718 Cayman, up 67 percent year-over-year, and the Macan, which gained 33 percent from April 2017.

Total U.S. luxury sales dipped 2.2 percent in April, excluding Cadillac's results. And for the year, deliveries of luxury brands are up 1.3 percent, excluding Cadillac. General Motors is now releasing quarterly U.S. sales results, rather than monthly, for Cadillac and its other core brands, Chevrolet, GMC and Buick.

Overall, the luxury market is outperforming the total U.S. light-vehicle market, which slipped an estimated 4.8 percent in April but is up 0.2 percent year to date.

 

[Ray99]

LS and ES are the only two models that can boost Lexus throughout 2018. Mercedes E Class and S Class are hard to beat in terms of sales volume.

 

[Lexus Cohen]

I'm not surprised the GLC did so well, it's way nicer than the NX.

 

[maiaramdan]

So GS &, GX are up and those are the most 2 whom can be dead !!!

 

[mikeavelli]

Lexus sold a bit over 21,000 units. Audi was right behind at 19,000 plus. This was unheard of a decade ago.

 

[Lexus Cohen]

Lexus sold a bit over 21,000 units. Audi was right behind at 19,000 plus. This was unheard of a decade ago.

Not sure what's going on either, but I don't like it!

 

[Lexus Cohen]

LS and ES are the only two models that can boost Lexus throughout 2018. Mercedes E Class and S Class are hard to beat in terms of sales volume.

I'm even eyeing an E class coupe

 

[ssun30]

Does anyone find it disturbing the LC is already losing momentum after just 12 months? Remember they targeted 4,000 sales in 2017 alone? They achieved about 60% of that.

 

[spwolf]

Does anyone find it disturbing the LC is already losing momentum after just 12 months? Remember they targeted 4,000 sales in 2017 alone? They achieved about 60% of that.

Partially long winter, partially expensive. In any case, goal with LC is that it elevates the brand.

 

[Gecko]

I know UX will be later in the year, but I expect RX L to add decent extra volume in it's first full year on sale.

Problem for Lexus is that their SUV lineup is starting to really lack the appeal of others. North of $60k, everything is a decade old. We need new GX and LX pretty badly, as well as LF-1.

Technically, RX should be refreshed later this year too for 2019MY.

 

[spwolf]

I know UX will be later in the year, but I expect RX L to add decent extra volume in it's first full year on sale.

Problem for Lexus is that their SUV lineup is starting to really lack the appeal of others. North of $60k, everything is a decade old. We need new GX and LX pretty badly, as well as LF-1.

Technically, RX should be refreshed later this year too for 2019MY.

It is not really a problem since they sell really well.

What they need is new models, like UX and FT-1 in the future, in order to further increase the sales. For instance stopping sales of CT deduced 10k of sales from their yearly tally.

And they still have problems producing enough of all these SUVs, they need more RX-Ls, more NXs and they will likely need a lot more UXs than what they get alloted.

 

[ssun30]

It is not really a problem since they sell really well.

It is a HUGE problem like I've said in a different post. Not having a healthy line-up in the "above RX" segment ready before 2017 is the single biggest business failure in all their history, period. They are bleeding at least $2 billion a year (partially offset by strong GX sales in US) due to a late LF-1 which is 10% of their annual revenue, and the loss of market share is even worse than the loss of potential sales.

Partially long winter, partially expensive. In any case, goal with LC is that it elevates the brand.

The disturbing part is that the prospect of the LC-F becomes grim. It will be harder to seel than the LFA...

 

[spwolf]

It is a HUGE problem like I've said in a different post. Not having a healthy line-up in the "above RX" segment ready before 2017 is the single biggest business failure in all their history, period. They are bleeding at least $2 billion a year (partially offset by strong GX sales in US) due to a late LF-1 which is 10% of their annual revenue, and the loss of market share is even worse than the loss of potential sales.

But LX does sell well... they sold over 30k LX's last year worldwide.

Sure FT-1 is going to be awesome, but they are selling LX really well for what it is. And GX also sells really well in the USA.

Combined they sell 8% of Lexus sales worldwide.

FT-1 is going to fit well in specific markets, but not all markets. Strongest markets for LX will not touch LF-1.

 

[mikeavelli]

I know UX will be later in the year, but I expect RX L to add decent extra volume in it's first full year on sale.

Problem for Lexus is that their SUV lineup is starting to really lack the appeal of others. North of $60k, everything is a decade old. We need new GX and LX pretty badly, as well as LF-1.

Technically, RX should be refreshed later this year too for 2019MY.

Another issue is they are going to look really stale soon when you can get a S Audi or AMG Benz everything or M/M-Sport with more power... I'm still stunned the GLC 43 AND 63 exist.

I am PRAYING for aggressive F expansion including SUV's.

 

[maiaramdan]

@mikeavelli

Your plan may work well but maybe with the next NX & RX generations

They need to be built with F variant in mind, the current NX & RX chassis can't handle things fine

UX with the TNGA I think it can handle well up to 300hp as to go with GLA / X1 - X2 / Q3 with theirs respective sport variant, next NX with its TNGA need to up it's limits to catch the GLC / X3 - X4 / Q5 / Macan / Stelvio / F pace / etc though

 

[ssun30]

GA-K is capable of handling at least 302hp, that part is clear. No excuse for Lexus to not build at least a NX350. I can imagine that thing selling like hot cakes in the U.S.

 

[Gecko]

But LX does sell well... they sold over 30k LX's last year worldwide.

Sure FT-1 is going to be awesome, but they are selling LX really well for what it is. And GX also sells really well in the USA.

Combined they sell 8% of Lexus sales worldwide.

FT-1 is going to fit well in specific markets, but not all markets. Strongest markets for LX will not touch LF-1.

It is not just models, but also options, as @mikeavelli, @ssun30 and @maiaramdan mention. I have known several people who have crossed RX and NX off the shopping list because there are no higher performance models offered. There is a big market for a higher horsepower RX. It looks so aggressive that there are a number of people expecting performance credentials to back it up. NX appeals to a younger demographic, and those with money want more power, quad exhaust, more lavish interior, responsive handling, etc.

I think this is the fault of two things: old hardware and platforms that probably can't support higher performance applications, and Lexus being typically slow to respond. Also, quite frankly, Lexus may have no idea what they're doing or how to do it when it comes to high performance FWD or AWD applications. Myself and others were hoping for an AWD ES to give us details on a potential higher performance AWD system, but that didn't happen. I want to hope that TNGA can support a few 350-450hp applications, and being so rigid, it should be able to. However, the missing ingredient is an active, performance-oriented AWD system.

Next gen NX 300 should have something like ~275hp 2.0T, 215hp hybrid option and then a ~375hp V6 NX F.

Next gen RX should have 275hp 2.0T, ~300hp hybrid option, ~340hp V6 and then a 400-425hp V6 RX F.

Those numbers are really far below what competitors offer, but I also don't personally think much more performance than that is necessary in an SUV, and I believe Lexus probably knows that.

Also, Lexus is lucky that GX sells so well here but it truly is a niche product now. X5, GLE and GLS are all very old. Jag has no flagship SUV, Q7 is fairly bland and boring, Cadillac has nothing, Infiniti has nothing. If Lexus produced LF-1 and it could be on the road within ~12 months, they would be incredibly successful. The only credible, desirable vehicle in this segment is the Cayenne, and maybe the Levante.

Gas prices are starting to go up again also - how much and for how long, no idea. But I am hoping Lexus doesn't miss the window of opportunity for the LF-1 because they sit on their hands for too long.

Also, what has taken so long with LX? We are now approaching the 11th model year for this generation. Lexus has done a good job at updating it, but we are really out of updates at this point with new G Class, Bentayga, X7, etc.