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LEXUS

Wholly owned by Toyota, Lexus is a luxury car and truck maker based in Nagoya, Japan. After successfully entering the U.S. market in 1989, Lexus has gone on to achieve impressive sales figures and worldwide repute for the quality of their vehicles.

Shortly after the introduction of the Lexus brand, the company launched a variety of makes, models and designs to appeal to a wide customer base. Sedans, sports cars, sport utility vehicles and convertibles were introduced, to critical and commercial success. Lexus vehicles are typically manufactured in Chubu and Kyushu, Japan, however some models have been built in Canada.

The team that brought the first Lexus vehicle to market consisted of thousands of engineers, technicians and designers, who collectively built more than 400 prototypes before reaching a final, market-ready model. That car, the LS 400, made its debut in the U.S. on the heels of a massive, multi-channel marketing campaign that introduced the Lexus brand to American consumers. The LS 400 was well-received by critics and received several awards for its driving performance, fuel efficiency and overall quality of design and manufacture. Within two years of the launch of the LS 400, Lexus became the best-selling luxury import car brand in the United States.

During the 1990s, Lexus pioneered the concept of a used car certification program, allowing Lexus owners who wanted to sell their vehicles an official channel by which they could determine the condition and value of their Lexus, obtain a certification to that effect from the original manufacturer, and access a sales platform.
The 2000s saw Lexus continue to expand into what are considered emerging markets for high-end vehicles, notably Taiwan and South Korea, where the company achieved the designation of best-selling imported vehicle in both countries in 2005. Further expansion brought Lexus cars and SUV’s into the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile and other countries in the late 2000s.

During the economic crisis of 2008, sales of Lexus vehicles in the United States fell by more than 20 percent. In the years that followed the company noted that sales of hybrid model Lexus cars were outpacing sales of their conventional gas powered vehicles, a discovery that prompted a shift in strategy and led to Lexus to declare that they would only produce hybrid vehicles for the European markets.