In four years, Lexus has gone from the hunter to the hunted.
"If we stand still, we're going to get hit," said George Borst, the new general manager of the Lexus Division.Borst, who has been on the job for about a month, doesn't intend to let Lexus get hit. His plans include constant improvement of the company's always-on-target products and its best-in-the-business customer service. "I don't want to be the guy who takes it down a notch," he said at a press introduction here last month.
When Lexus arrived in America in 1989, it found American carmakers building land yachts for geriatric buyers and European automakers that had grown fat and lazy from the lack of competition.
In four years, Lexus has sold 250,000 cars. In 1992, it outsold both Mercedes-Benz and BMW. In 1993, the company expects to sell 100,000 cars "and never look back," Borst said.
One of the reasons he's so confident is this month's arrival of the GS 300. Billed as a luxury-performance sedan, the $37,500 GS 300 fits squarely between the near-luxury ES 300 sedan and the LS 400 sedan, the flagship model that often goes out the showroom door for $50,000-plus.
The new model will give Lexus its first entry in the midluxury segment. Last year, about 400,000 of the 870,000 luxury-car sales were midluxury models including the Cadillac DeVille, Lincoln Town Car, Acura Legend, Infiniti J30 and BMW 5-Series.
"In almost half the market, we didn't have a real entry," Borst said. "This takes us in another different direction."
Still, even with the arrival of the GS 300, Borst remains wary of Lexus' rivals. "Everyone frightens me as a competitor," he said.
Domestic makers such as Cadillac and Lincoln have introduced new models recently that are targeted at younger, affluent buyers who probably would have bought an import.
Borst praised such developments as the Cadillac Northstar V-8 engine and the styling of its Seville as "very good product changes." But, he noted, sales of the new models haven't been as strong as Cadillac expected. Lincoln's new Mark VIII is a "nice vehicle," Borst said, "but I think they're going after a different buyer."
BMW and Mercedes finally seem to be responding to inroads made by Acura, Infiniti and Lexus, Borst said. New models, aggressive pricing and leasing offers and decisions to build plants outside of Europe all show the "Europeans are really going to fight. They're not going to give up any more market share without a major battle," he said.
Infiniti never has had the success that Lexus has enjoyed. It sold 44,000 cars last year to Lexus' 93,000.
"Had Lexus never been on the market, people would have looked at Infiniti as a real success," Borst said. And, he hears that the new Infiniti Q45, due within the year, will be "pretty exciting."
Still, that Nissan division never fully recovered from its quirky early marketing campaign, he said.
Acura, which started the Japanese luxury trend in 1986, has fallen on hard times.
"They had a very clear mission when they came out, but I think when Infiniti and Lexus joined the arena, Acura got a little confused," he said. They didn't know if they were an Integra company or a Legend company, Borst said. They were slow to adjust product and overbuilt their dealer network, he said.
"I think they're going to get tougher, but I think they're very vulnerable right now," Borst said. "I think the GS 300 is going to hurt the Legend."
Borst predicted that Lexus would sell 25,000 units of the GS 300, which probably would be enough to outsell the Legend sedan.
Mazda, which had announced plans to open a luxury channel called Amati, took a second look at the crowded battlefield and folded its tent.