"It is impossible to catch the German three, worldwide," stated one top Lexus executive recently. Here's why that's a good thing.
The quote comes from Allain Uyttenhoven, boss of Lexus Europe, in an interview last month with just-auto. Uyttenhoven continued by saying Lexus is adding emotion to its standard of quality and blah blah they're aiming for fourth place at best.
CarScoops pointed out that Lexus' sales deeply trail the Germans.
Numbers, in this occasion, don't lie: in 2013 Lexus shifted 523,000 vehicles worldwide. The Germans just crushed it: BMW delivered 1.66 million units, Audi 1.59 million and Mercedes-Benz 1.47 million.
The idea of Lexus giving up on chasing the Germans is actually pretty good, if you view it in the right context.
Lexus should not be chasing after the German dominance of the market. When you start chasing after volume (at least, when Toyota starts chasing volume), you usually end up cutting quality and identity. You end up with bland cars that aren't exactly reputation-makers.
Lexus should, however, be chasing after German product. You could argue that Lexus' greatest car was its first — the original LS — and that was basically a ripoff of the contemporary Mercedes S-Class. The thing is, the Lexus ripoff was quieter, comfier, and even more reliable.
So Lexus should give up on beating the Germans on volume, as this executive suggests. They just shouldn't lose sight of beating them on quality.
Photo Credit: Lexus (original LS in European trim pictured)