New Ls Meant To Polarize

[midwesterner]

The reference to ubiquitous, Paul, was for Europe, where M-B has a much broader position in the marketplace than most Americans would perceive (and where Lexus is apparently 4th in sales behind Audi, BMW, and M-B). M-B vehicles cover everybody from the equivalent of Chevy and Buick drivers here to Bentley and Rolls-Royce crowd -- plus sports cars, people carriers, and delivery trucks. And that picture goes way back. I think you made a reference to M-B going down-market here with the CLA introduction, chasing sales volume at $30K.

My point is that M-B looks different globally and that the increased range offerings in the U.S. are consistent with M-B global sales strategy. And I don't think M-B is sacrificing unit profit for volume.

In fact, I think one could make a good case that Lexus is following similar strategy, with the cars already priced lower than most similarly equipped European competitors.

I think this story is yet to be played out, and will take a few years yet to see whose business model is the more successful, or if there is much difference in the net result.

With respect to your question about incentive for discussion on the site, I don't know. That was my question in one of my earlier posts when I addressed the lack of ferment here. At least we've gotten a little bit of it going ^_^ .

[midwesterner]

Oops! Thought this post had been lost, and I re-did it. Just found it and realized the above is redundant; sorry. Please disregard.

[pj8708]

Hi everyone,

I think this string has been terrific. The remarks made herein regarding the placement of the threads here vs. in the LS forummake good sense.I'm going to start another topic in the General Chat forum in hopes of bringing some more "thinker's" to the party.

Our traffic has been making a steady climb upward since spring and it feels like the customer has become more confident in the economy.