Lexus Holds Off BMW, Mercedes to Retain Top U.S. Luxury Spot
Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-04/lexus-holds-off-bmw-mercedes-to-retain-no-1-u-s-luxury-spot.html?cmpid=yhoo)
By Tim Higgins -
Jan 4, 2011 3:28 PM ET

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3623/lexuslogo.jpg

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus outsold Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s BMW and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz last month in the U.S., as the Japanese brand secured the top spot in U.S. luxury auto sales for the 11th straight year.

Lexus sold 27,560 cars and sport-utility vehicles in December in the U.S. and 229,329 for 2010, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker said today in a statement. The brand’s sales fell 3.5 percent in December compared to a year ago while rising 6.2 percent for the total year.

The results left Lexus with a 9,216 sales lead for the year over Munich-based BMW’s namesake brand, less than half the 19,473 gap in 2009. Mercedes’s U.S. sales rose 14 percent in 2010, leaving the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker’s brand in the third position.

“It was a bit of a roller coaster” for Lexus last year, said Jesse Toprak, an industry analyst with TrueCar.com, a website that tracks auto sales. “They certainly got impacted negatively by the lingering recall news for Toyota and we’ve also seen BMW and Benz being more aggressive when it came to incentive spending and marketing.”


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Ok.
Lexus: 229000 vehicles in 2010
Lincoln: 85000 vehicles in 2010

2011 , new year, all the Mercury resources derivates to Lincoln ( engineeringn, design, advertising, customer services). Lincoln must sell more than 100000 vehicles in 2011, and i think, the goal must be 200000. That's my personal perception.

If i had the Lincoln product planner job, i had been planning a new design direction for the marke from 2 years ago.... new name scheme for the entire line, new RWD platform for , at least, 2 sedans and 1 coupe..... without those things, Linconl will die soon.

Ok.
Lexus: 229000 vehicles in 2010
Lincoln: 85000 vehicles in 2010

2011 , new year, all the Mercury resources derivates to Lincoln ( engineeringn, design, advertising, customer services). Lincoln must sell more than 100000 vehicles in 2011, and i think, the goal must be 200000. That's my personal perception.

If i had the Lincoln product planner job, i had been planning a new design direction for the marke from 2 years ago.... new name scheme for the entire line, new RWD platform for , at least, 2 sedans and 1 coupe..... without those things, Linconl will die soon.

They won't reach 200k this year, 110k or 120k...ok, that can be done. Things take time. It took Audi 20 years to become the biggest luxury brand in the world after taking it seriously.

With Toyota offering bland Camry, Avalons, and Highlanders, customers have moved up to similar lexus vehicles.

Ok.
Lexus: 229000 vehicles in 2010
Lincoln: 85000 vehicles in 2010

2011 , new year, all the Mercury resources derivates to Lincoln ( engineeringn, design, advertising, customer services). Lincoln must sell more than 100000 vehicles in 2011, and i think, the goal must be 200000. That's my personal perception.

If i had the Lincoln product planner job, i had been planning a new design direction for the marke from 2 years ago.... new name scheme for the entire line, new RWD platform for , at least, 2 sedans and 1 coupe..... without those things, Linconl will die soon.

RWD will not increase sales, it will increase image

Lexus best selling vehicles are FWD being the ES and the RX

Lincoln needs to work on the MKZ and MKX to compete with the ES and RX.

BUT.. they should have RWD offerings as well to increase image