Quote:
Originally posted by yellowline
As the market moves towards a point where nearly every car is well built, what does Lexus have to offer that distinguishes itself? Not the driving dynamics of the BMW, the Old World luxury of Jag or MB, the safety of Volvo, the AWD and technical skill of the Audi, nor the brashness of a Cadillac. Just a soulless lump of metal that promises to go for a long time. Maybe the IS is sporty and disproves that, but nothing else from Lexus really goes against what I just said.
Nevertheless the "red and black circles describe everything about a car" crowd will continue to snatch them up.
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The Volvo cars are no safer than any other luxo-car in it's given class. It's just
marketed as the safest car. Don't believe the hype!
Another note: now basically all cars, including the low-end econo-boxes come with stuff like ABS, airbags, even Navi systems, the luxo carmakers are in a bit of a bind -- like yellowline says, what distinguishes a luxo car from a regular run-of-the-mill commuter car? So far, I believe the luxo car makers have only done the following:
1. More gadgets. Stuff like BMW's i-drive, Cadillac's night vision, Benz's distronic (radar controlled cruise control) are 'invented' in order to keep the luxo car buyer happy knowing his car has someting the 'lowly masses' cannot afford (yet.). The problem is that these electro-gadgets add complexity, and this complexity adds to reliability issues.
2. More power. These days, it is not unusual to see 500+ hp coming out of 'sedate' 4-door luxo sedans. (ref: BMW M5, Benz E55, Cadillac STS V, Audi S4). And stump pulling torque. Granted, there are some cheap, high-hp cars (Mustang, STI, EVO & Vette come to mind) but it seems the 'high roller' isn't satisfied with a 240-hp luxo car - he needs that power as an extension of his own power.
Just my $0.42. Good discussion here,
-Z.