RE: Lexus Has A Dig At The Germans
Tuesday 27th July 2010
It's not often one has cause to pity German car makers - especially the ones at the upper end of the car market - but the premium Germans have been coming in for a fair bit of flak from their rivals recently.
It might be a little childish, but it was enough to elicit a small titter in this office.
Lexus Has A Dig At The Germans
South African Lexus ad rips into option prices of premium rivals
Hot on the heels of Nissan GB's advertising attack on Porsche, Audi and BMW, Lexus is using the South African market to tear into is prestige German rivals.
In an online campaign that highlights the steep prices of the optional-extra gadgets and gizmos on Audi, BMW and Mercedes cars, Lexus uses a combination of pie charts and Venn diagrams to explain its points. Look closely (or not so closely) and you might see a certain familiarity to the shapes of the graphs...
And we might forgive Lexus a little cheekiness - it's having a hard time in the US at the moment, where the 'runaway throttle' debacle means it is on the verge of losing its number one slot in the luxury segment to Mercedes-Benz.
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Discussion
Good effort, Lexus. But, you ain't going to be taking many sales away from the German manufacturers. People who are into German cars, will continue to buy them, despite them over-charging on the optional extras.
And, I doubt they will lower prices, either. They don't need to. Their cars will sell either way.....
And, I doubt they will lower prices, either. They don't need to. Their cars will sell either way.....
Devil2575 said:
This is good news for the big german car makers. It shows that their rivals see them as the market leaders. If Lexus didn't think it had ground to make up on BMW, Merc and Audi it wouldn't be running adverts like this.
It will, of course, help Lexus too. But, like Rolex, being able to afford the thing in the first place is part of the allure for many buyers. The people who buy poverty spec BMW's over Fords havent all done so out of a love of RWD.Escort Si-130 said:
I remember about a year or Peugeot or Citroen had ads targetted at the german manufactures. Who's next? Hyundai, Kia lol
You mean this ridiculous hunk-o-junk?
Those adverts where they pretended to be german, and at the end.. shock! Its a french car!!!
Yay I've got a C5.. now I can pretend to be a cock and not use my indicators too.
Devil2575 said:
This is good news for the big german car makers. It shows that their rivals see them as the market leaders. If Lexus didn't think it had ground to make up on BMW, Merc and Audi it wouldn't be running adverts like this.
Ummmm in no way is this true only Volkswagon compete with the automotive Giants on a global scale, the figures below are from 2009 numbers of vehicles sold world wide:Top:
Toyota 7,234,439
G.M. 6,459,053
Volkswagen 6,067,208
Ford 4,685,394
Hyundai 4,645,776
PSA 3,042,311
Honda 3,012,637
Nissan 2,744,562
Fiat 2,460,222
Suzuki 2,387,537
Renault 2,296,009
Daimler AG 1,447,953
Chana Automobile 1,425,777
B.M.W. 1,258,417
Mazda 984,520
Chrysler 959,070
Mitsubishi 802,463
Beijing Automotive 684,534
Tata 672,045
Dongfeng Motor 663,262
FAW 650,275
Chery 508,567
Fuji 491,352
BYD 427,732
SAIC 347,598
Anhui Jianghuai 336,979
Geely 330,275
Isuzu 316,335
Brilliance 314,189
AvtoVAZ 294,737
Great Wall 226,560
Mahindra 223,065
Shangdong Kaima 169,023
Proton 152,965
China National 120,930
Volvo 105,873
Chongqing Lifan 104,434
Fujian 103,171
Kuozui 93,303
Shannxi Auto 79,026
Porsche 75,637
Ziyang Nanjun 72,470
GAZ 69,591
Navistar 65,364
Guangzhou Auto 62,990
Paccar 58,918
Chenzhou Ji'ao 51,008
Qingling Motor 50,120
Hebei Zhongxing 48,173
Ashok Leyland 47,694
sootyrumble said:
Ummm anyone know why all my numbers have shifted as they were neatly lined up
Because the post editor uses a font which has the same width for each letter regardless, whereas your actual posts are formatted in a font which has a width dependant on the letter used. For example... "l" doesn't have the same width as "m" whereas it does when you are composing your post.Edited by t84 on Tuesday 27th July 14:48
t84 said:
sootyrumble said:
Ummm anyone know why all my numbers have shifted as they were neatly lined up
Because the post editor uses a font which has the same width for each letter regardless, whereas your actual posts are formatted in a font which has a width dependant on the letter used. For example... "l" doesn't have the same width as "m" whereas it does when you are composing your post.Edited by t84 on Tuesday 27th July 14:48
Thanks for that
Top:
Toyota 7,234,439
G.M. 6,459,053
Volkswagen 6,067,208
Ford 4,685,394
Hyundai 4,645,776
PSA 3,042,311
Honda 3,012,637
Nissan 2,744,562
Fiat 2,460,222
Suzuki 2,387,537
Renault 2,296,009
Daimler AG 1,447,953
Chana Automobile 1,425,777
B.M.W. 1,258,417
Mazda 984,520
Chrysler 959,070
Mitsubishi 802,463
Beijing Auto. 684,534
Tata 672,045
Dongfeng Motor 663,262
FAW 650,275
Chery 508,567
Fuji 491,352
BYD 427,732
SAIC 347,598
Anhui Jianghuai 336,979
Geely 330,275
Isuzu 316,335
Brilliance 314,189
AvtoVAZ 294,737
Great Wall 226,560
Mahindra 223,065
Shangdong Kaima 169,023
Proton 152,965
China National 120,930
Volvo 105,873
Chongqing Lifan 104,434
Fujian 103,171
Kuozui 93,303
Shannxi Auto 79,026
Porsche 75,637
Ziyang Nanjun 72,470
GAZ 69,591
Navistar 65,364
Guangzhou Auto 62,990
Paccar 58,918
Chenzhou Ji'ao 51,008
Qingling Motor 50,120
Hebei Zhongxing 48,173
Ashok Leyland 47,694
Edited by t84 on Tuesday 27th July 14:57
Personally, I don't think these adverts are compelling at all. "look, they're more expensive" yell Lexus and Mazda. "True, but you have given us no reason to want you" think the buying public.
It doesn't matter how expensive the rivals picked on are, Lexus just don't make as desirable a car as they think. The badge snobs are less attracted to Lexus over Audi and whatnot, and drivers would prefer the 3 series over Lexus' utterly gutless IS220/250 offerings.
Equally, an RX8 is a lovely thing, but is not nearly as desirable as a Merc, Boxster or whatever - despite being faster in a straight line. Pointing out that they are slower does not make me want an RX8 more, it just makes Mazda seem slightly desperate.
It doesn't matter how expensive the rivals picked on are, Lexus just don't make as desirable a car as they think. The badge snobs are less attracted to Lexus over Audi and whatnot, and drivers would prefer the 3 series over Lexus' utterly gutless IS220/250 offerings.
Equally, an RX8 is a lovely thing, but is not nearly as desirable as a Merc, Boxster or whatever - despite being faster in a straight line. Pointing out that they are slower does not make me want an RX8 more, it just makes Mazda seem slightly desperate.
sootyrumble said:
Devil2575 said:
This is good news for the big german car makers. It shows that their rivals see them as the market leaders. If Lexus didn't think it had ground to make up on BMW, Merc and Audi it wouldn't be running adverts like this.
Ummmm in no way is this true only Volkswagon compete with the automotive Giants on a global scale, the figures below are from 2009 numbers of vehicles sold world wide:And VW ARE an automotive giant, almost the largest one.
Lexus must be pretty insecure about themselves to feel they have to take cheap pot-shots at the Germans. Then again, if all they have to offer is rebadged Toyotas then I guess they shoule be feeling pretty insecure.
Still, this ad campaign does smack of desperation.
Cheers,
Madman of the People
Still, this ad campaign does smack of desperation.
Cheers,
Madman of the People
Edited by MadmanO/T People on Tuesday 27th July 15:42
MadmanO/T People said:
Lexus must be pretty insecure about themselves to feel they have to take cheap pot-shots at the Germans. Then again, if all they have to offer is rebadges Toyotas then I guess they shoule be feeling pretty insecure.
Still, this ad campaign does smack of desperation.
They rebadge Toyotas? You're a fool if you think that.Still, this ad campaign does smack of desperation.
Atomic Gibbon said:
Personally, I don't think these adverts are compelling at all. "look, they're more expensive" yell Lexus and Mazda. "True, but you have given us no reason to want you" think the buying public.
It doesn't matter how expensive the rivals picked on are, Lexus just don't make as desirable a car as they think. The badge snobs are less attracted to Lexus over Audi and whatnot, and drivers would prefer the 3 series over Lexus' utterly gutless IS220/250 offerings.
Equally, an RX8 is a lovely thing, but is not nearly as desirable as a Merc, Boxster or whatever - despite being faster in a straight line. Pointing out that they are slower does not make me want an RX8 more, it just makes Mazda seem slightly desperate.
I note that you have chosen to ignore the Lexus IS-F which is extremely fast and a good alternative to the C63 AMG or M3, as reported by many test drivers.It doesn't matter how expensive the rivals picked on are, Lexus just don't make as desirable a car as they think. The badge snobs are less attracted to Lexus over Audi and whatnot, and drivers would prefer the 3 series over Lexus' utterly gutless IS220/250 offerings.
Equally, an RX8 is a lovely thing, but is not nearly as desirable as a Merc, Boxster or whatever - despite being faster in a straight line. Pointing out that they are slower does not make me want an RX8 more, it just makes Mazda seem slightly desperate.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/05/review-2009-lex...
England is about the largest importer of German cars we love them here but in the grand scheme of things the German companies do far worse in other markets, we tend to have terrible badge snobbery and so refuse to look at other cars for instance Skoda is currently the world car company of the year but how many want a Skoda.
I remember a test (I think it was run by What Car) where they got ten saloons and debadged them all and then got 12 members of the public to drive them and choose their favourites, i think it was 11 of 12 panelists chose the then new Skoda VRS over BMW's, Mercs and Audi's not one person said then would buy it once they knew it was a Skoda even though they thought it was the best.
Frimley111R said:
sootyrumble said:
Devil2575 said:
This is good news for the big german car makers. It shows that their rivals see them as the market leaders. If Lexus didn't think it had ground to make up on BMW, Merc and Audi it wouldn't be running adverts like this.
Ummmm in no way is this true only Volkswagon compete with the automotive Giants on a global scale, the figures below are from 2009 numbers of vehicles sold world wide:And VW ARE an automotive giant, almost the largest one.
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