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High End Luxury Cars

24723 messages,  Last post on Jan 28, 2013 at 6:55 PM

You are in the Sedans Forum.

What is this discussion about? Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ-Series, Lexus LS 460, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Volkswagen Phaeton, Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, Sedan



Let's try to define this forum as being limited to luxury performance vehicles where the mainstream version in a typical configuration has an MSRP of at least $60k.

A luxury vehicle with a base price of $59k qualifies because it would typically be bought with some additional equipment, bringing the MSRP over $60k.

Vehicles like the E, 5, A6, M, or GS, even if available in certain versions over $60k, don't qualify because they are cars from companies that have higher end cars in their lineups.

Messages Page 1447 of 2473

#14453 of 24723 Re: 2007 Availability [hpowders] by esf

Apr 02, 2006 (10:30 am)

Replying to: hpowders (Apr 01, 2006 6:44 pm)
That wouldn't make sense in the least- the 7 Series was updated just last year!
 
Are you talking about another update, a new model, or just a complete redesign?
 
Also, it's only been out since 2002. BMW isn't known for four-year life cycles.
 
I hope that the new A8 is released in one to two years- I can't wait to see it with D'Silva's sexy new design language. (Think Nuvolari concept, LeMans, Pikes Peak)

#14454 of 24723 Re: Merc1 [lexusguy] by esf

Apr 02, 2006 (10:35 am)

Replying to: lexusguy (Mar 31, 2006 6:09 am)
While the articles are interesting, the posts are hardly the kind of quality found around here.
 
I completely agree with you! I'm happy to say that autospies does not accept my password, so I can't post there. I scan what those people are saying, and it's just bias, after bias, after bias.
 
I think that, although awkward looking, the SC430's design ages well. I see a couple here and there, and every time I see it it still looks fresh. However, with the new "L-Finesse" designs, Lexus should be able to make it look edgier (and better), like the new IS and GS.
 
(New ES350 is a major disappointment- for some reason I think the interior is the most boring Lexus interior to date)
 
At least it's cheap (relatively).
 
 

#14455 of 24723 Re: 2007 Availability [esf] by hpowders

Apr 02, 2006 (1:02 pm)

Replying to: esf (Apr 02, 2006 10:30 am)
I never said it was a re-design.
I'm saying from people I have talked to at BMW, the 2007 750 Li may be released in June.
(As I was writing this, someone informed me that orders will be taken in September for October delivery, but who knows? It wouldn't be the first time a dealer may be misinforming a potential buyer.)
Perhaps my use of the word "incredible" to describe the 7 series led you to this assumption.
You'll have to excuse me, because speaking as a man of truth, I must wax ecstatic about BMW vehicles. It just comes naturally to me.
 
As for the Lexus SC430, I saw it for a fraction of a second as I was passing by my neighbor's house.
It turned my head.
I'm sure if I looked at it long enough, I would find things to criticize.
I have yet to find any vehicle that I am 100% in agreement with, style-wise, not even my sleek, aggressive, sexy 545 (although my 1969 Cougar with those sequentially-blinking tail-lights came close).

#14456 of 24723 Re: Merc1 [esf] by lexusguy

Apr 03, 2006 (6:01 am)

Replying to: esf (Apr 02, 2006 10:35 am)
"(New ES350 is a major disappointment- for some reason I think the interior is the most boring Lexus interior to date)"
 
Now thats interesting, because the ES350 follows the same L-Finesse interior design theme that started with the GS, IS, and now the LS and ES. While there's significantly less wood trim in the car compared to the previous ES300\330, I think the overall design is much more modern and generally more attractive.
 
Also, the way Lexus integrated the audio\NAV controls in the previous car seemed like a last-minute hack job (its basically a big hole in the middle of the dash), very unlike their usually expertly done center stack layouts. The new car is 1000% superior in that regard.
 
The old:
http://www.autospies.com/images/uploads/medium/2005_ES330_21.jpg?undefined
 
The new:
http://shows.autospies.com/gallery/AS/es350-interior-vegas-lg/ee.jpg?undefined

#14457 of 24723 Re: Merc1 [lexusguy] by ljflx

Apr 03, 2006 (6:28 am)

Replying to: lexusguy (Apr 03, 2006 6:01 am)
I've never been an ES fan but I also find the new ES to be a bolder and a much better looking design from any of the past cars. The wood trim on the old car was too much LS-like and almost seemed out of place. Agree with Lexusguy that the nav is now a seamless fit as oposed to an awkward looking postage stamp paste on in the past model. Overall to me the car is a big improvement from the old design.

#14458 of 24723 Sorry to come in at the tail end of the SC topic, by drfill

Apr 03, 2006 (2:09 pm)


  
    But Merc nails a Lexus accessment (For once )! Good Job!
 
    It is a LS 2-door, with a trick top, and some extra bling inside.
 
    A clear success, in selling over 35000 in less than 3 years, and is still around while the XLR, quietly, quickly, is carried into Retirement Village, on a stretcher of GM incentives.
 
    Can't drive as poorly as everyone says, or else it wouldn't sell so much. People who jump on it's ride haven't driven it, period.
 
    I'm pretty sure it's against Corporate Policy for Lexus to produce a car without a
silken ride on the majority of US roads.
 
    I'm expecting a more chiseled face when it is redesigned for '09. Sport pkg., por favor?
 
    The IS is better looking (by a margin) than the 3, but is still behind as a sports sedan (by a margin).
 
    The ES face doesn't work for me, but the design language is much crisper, and more masculine, if nothing else.
 
    And the LS takes a nice step forward, ahead of My Humps S-Class (eyesore the new commercial, they look like saddlebags in Silver!).
 
    Maybe it's like a Wild West motif? No?
 
    DrFill

#14459 of 24723 March sales numbers are out! by drfill

Apr 03, 2006 (2:20 pm)

    
   Lexus IS passes 5k units a month for the first time., but still well behind the 3, which runs around 9k a month, model for model.
 
   Rav4 and Sienna are outselling CR-V and Odyssey, YTD.
  
   DrFill

#14460 of 24723 low margin lexus, contentment and acid reflux by stevekilburn

Apr 03, 2006 (2:53 pm)

Replying to: drfill (Apr 03, 2006 2:20 pm)
I dont think Lexus should celebrate just yet. They might be excited at 5K/month, but these are low margin models.
 
Lexus does not have product with 70K+ MSRP which can provide high margin bliss.
 
Lexus is content to be a high volume, low margin luxury player. May be they find happiness and deep satisfaction with low margins and hate high-margin as it might result in too much happiness and uncontrollable emotional surge leading to acid reflux and heart attack.

#14461 of 24723 Re: low margin lexus, contentment and acid reflux [stevekilburn] by rayng

Apr 03, 2006 (4:24 pm)

Replying to: stevekilburn (Apr 03, 2006 2:53 pm)
IMHO, Toyota's pricing strategy is appropriate for the Lexus brand. As a much younger marque without much pedigree or tradition, a high-margin, low-volume pricing structure would simply not work. What does work is building a great car for a reasonable price. Overcharging for the sake of doing so only works on occassion for established marques with a great deal of racing pedigree producing very low volume automobiles.
 
BTW, Lexus just set a new monthly sales record.
http://autospies.com/article/index.asp?articleId=6945&categoryId=9
 
So I think Lexus is doing pretty well--quite "content to be a high volume, low margin luxury player."

#14462 of 24723 With TPS, their margins are probably quite a bit higher than you think! by drfill

Apr 03, 2006 (4:34 pm)

    Unless you have some new information, they have the highest volume in the US, and have more operating income than the Big 3 combined, so these stones you hold are, at best, miscast.
 
    And with the LS600h, they won't have any problems selling them, for sticker! And a V10 sportscar is coming.
 
    Toyota could buy, and sell, any maker, probably twice.
 
    Why don't you pick a genuine target, like the French, Paula Abdul, or Les Moonves?
    
    DrFill

Messages Page 1447 of 2473

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