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One thing interesting is that when Lexus and Infiniti were created, the cars were all models that were already being sold in Japan under regular non-alphanumeri
by amyjess 10y ago
One thing interesting is that when Lexus and Infiniti were created, the cars were all models that were already being sold in Japan under regular non-alphanumeric names.
For example, the Lexus LS400 was sold in Japan as the Toyota Celsior, and the Infiniti Q45 was sold in Japan as the Nissan President.
Toyota didn't introduce the Lexus name and alphanumeric naming to Japan until 2006.
Nissan still hasn't introduced the Infiniti name to Japan. In fact, the Infiniti G and M are still sold in Japan as the Nissan Skyline and Fuga, respectively.
Edit: And while Honda made Acura switch to alphanumeric names in the mid-90s, they never applied that to Japan, where the models are still sold as Hondas with regular names. For example, the car that's called the Acura RLX in the US is called the Honda Legend in Japan.
- fragmede 10y agoWhat's in a name? The Japanese invented a new brand name, slapped it on the same car, and suddenly American consumers think it's luxury car. It's a textbook case of brand engineering and American consumers don't look any smarter for needing to be tricked like that.
- amyjess 10y agoEh, they were luxury cars. It just wasn't in Japanese culture to use separate marques for luxury and non-luxury cars (though I guess it's changing, with Toyota bringing the Lexus name to Japan about a decade ago). The Toyota Crown is probably Japan's most historically significant luxury car, and it's always been sold as a Toyota alongside cheaper cars like the Corolla and Yaris (fun fact: a huge chunk of Toyota's cars are named after the Crown, including both the Corolla and the Camry, plus cars that aren't too well known outside of Japan like the Corona and Carina). Another interesting tidbit about the Japanese market: you know how American car companies used to practice badge engineering? That is, they would sell the same car under several different marques, each with its own dealer network; an example of this would be the GM's W-body cars from the 1990s where the Chevrolet Lumina, Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and Buick Regal were all pretty much the same car, but different dealer networks would sell them (though Pontiac and Buick eventually merged dealer networks). Well, Japanese manufactures did that too in Japan, except they put all the badge-engineered versions under the same marque while selling them through different dealer networks! For example, Toyota has something like four different dealer networks in Japan, each one gets to sell about 1/4 of their cars, all their cars at all their dealer networks are badged as Toyotas (or at least they were until they introduced Lexus in 2006), and it's not uncommon for two different dealer networks to each get a car that's identical to the other in all but name and minor styling differences. A classic example of this is the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Sprinter. They're pretty much the same car, but they have slightly different styling, and they go to different dealer networks (fun fact: the Sprinter styling was available in the US during the '90s, badged as the Geo Prizm). With that said, Toyota has been cutting down on this lately, just like how GM has also been cutting down on their badge engineering (mostly by killing Oldsmobile and Pontiac).
- glandium 10y ago> Nissan still hasn't introduced the Infiniti name to Japan. They haven't introduced the name, but they do use the logo. See, for example, what the front of the Skyline looks like: http://www2.nissan.co.jp/SKYLINE/exterior.html http://www2.nissan.co.jp/SKYLINE/exterior.html