Faceoff? Lexus Plans To Fight The 1-Series And The A3 With New Model

go lexus!.. cars that are compact but still has lexus luxurious feel and quality!

go BMW!.. 1 series is the ultimate BMW! Much better quality and reliability over lexus.

Come on lexury, be realistic here.

OH BOY.... over priced corollas for all...

I wouldn't say overpriced Corollas but definitely this car will be made from the parts bins of Toyota. I personally would avoid buying a car of this grade and just buy a fully loaded Toyota Avalon/Camry but that's just me.

hey, if Audi can charge all the way up to almost 50 grand what is essentially a Rabbit with audi styling and interior, a lexus corolla is no different. I doubt they will take the Vw groups approach, and instead take BMW's and base it on a "premium car" not one of their economy cars that starts what 16 or 17 grand which was Audis approach

Lexus is THE frontrunner in the beige car category. They are the car manufacturer that sells the most beige cars in the world, and by far !

Toyota is actually the leader in beige paint, plastics,leather and cloth. They're even filing patents for new shades of beige, spending a lot of money in beige-engineering.

— MSP6

LOL

The ES and RX lead their respective classes. The LS is the most-technologically-loaded car in the world (still). And you already mentioned the hybrids.

How is a front-wheel drive hybrid be a competitor of the BMW, twin-turbo petrol 1-series. I'm getting really sick of these misleading titles.

The title is not misleading. If they choose to bring this model to market then they are competing against the 1-Series and the A3 by default.

nobody needs a re badged yaris

Guess we were a little ahead of the competition on this one ;)

9/25/2007

http://www.autospies.com/news/Lexus-already-developing-BMW-1-Series-competitor-20900/

We also told you almost two years ago that EVERYONE in the premium segment will have to have an answer for the 1-Series.

Read re-hashed press releases elsewhere, see the future here.

001

Rumor has been around for a while. They at one time, I kid you not. intended to call it the Lexus BS. The they use the moniker, or just its orignal title was just prescient is yet to be seen

http://www.autoblog.com/2005/12/04/lexus-developing-bs-hatchback-for-europe/

@MSP6
That was quite funny! Indeed they are the undisputed leader in that category.
Good one!

I guess the 1 series must be doing something right.

The 1 series is not reeeeally doing something right- the MINI is. That being said with gas being cheaper than last summer (thank god)small cars are not that much in demand as they were(at least here in the U.S.) so..........A Lexus 1 series fighter may do well in Europe but here in the U.S. is another story....
If MINI was smart they would make a MINI hybrid.........

it's still 1989 at lexus.
watch and copy.
watch and copy.

That's what Lexus does best.

lol

There's no LF-A to compete with yet. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Monkey see, monkey do

That what ToyLex do...

Yeah, and look who's building hybrids now?

From the looks of it, this new model will wreak havoc on the segment. The Eurofans here can't even bare the announcement of the debut without going into defense mode.

If executed right, this car will be a real winner for Lexus. Lexus as a brand, seems to listen to the chatter of the real world more than any other automaker. People practically begged Lexus to produce a convertible in the 3-Series/CLK cabrio segment and they did. More-affluent Prius customers asked Lexus to produce a dedicated hybrid and they did. People asked Lexus to produce performance cars and now they are. This is what you call a will to please.

Don't kid yourself. Lexus is offering a convertible because they see profit in that niche. The HS250h was also conceived because Lexus thought they could sell a CHEAPER wannabe premium car (oh look, Lexus leads sales again, wow they must be so good!) with the magical hybrid badge to silly Americans. Let's face it, we're so gullible as a nation and Lexus is totally taking advantage of this.

If Lexus really listened to their customers they'd offer smaller engines with more focus towards fuel economy in other markets, dump that hideously ugly and outdated SC430 instead of offering us Pebble Beach Edition Nr. 12 and so forth etc. etc. etc.

The LF-A? Lexus wants to be associated with the big boys. That's the only reason this thing exist. They think they can cheat their way into having a "motorsport heritage" or "heritage" in general with this thing.

Clearly you're a skeptic, and a conspiracy theorist. "America is dumb because they buy Lexus" is perhaps the most pathetic excuse I have ever come across regarding the brand.

I don't disagree that Lexus could benefit from smaller engines, but the same can be said for all the premium brands in North America. Why wont Mercedes give us 6-cylinder S-, CL-, and SL-Classes? Why wont they give us the A-, and B-Classes? Why wont Audi give us the A1? Lexus is a North-America-centric brand. But what do you know? Here they are giving other markets an economy car. I guess they do listen.

The LF-A and IS-F both exist because enthusiasts within the Toyota/Lexus corporation wanted to do something special and break the norm for their brand.

It amazes me how many people actually want to see the brand fail. You're worse than the radio talk show host that wants the President to fail for pure politics. Which begs the question why I am even debating you in the first place. Clearly this is no website for the rational and unbiased.

willis--

"... because Lexus thought they could sell a CHEAPER wannabe premium car"


LMAO!!! proof that wee willie has NO BRAIN!

consider the whole lineup of audi, bmw, lexus, and mb. which brand has NO vehicles priced under $30,000? 'nuff said.

WOW!!! a Lexus Matrix! lame...
people will buy it because they feel like they are buying luxury because of the badge and it will be a cheap price point. silly americans fall for the dumbest things...

To some extent, everybody laughed at BMW for developing the 1-series & their seriousness about expanding the MINI brand. Those same people also laughed when M-B started to further develop the A & B-class cars and continued to push their Smart brand.

I'm sure Lexus has seen the benefits of growing the brand with smaller vehicles by using the Corolla and Matrix as bases. Toyota would probably use their existing assembly lines to make the Lexus-brand vehicles.

bmwdrvr, I'll take an Audi over BMW any day, I would even take a Passat over the puny little BMW 3 series. A friend recently bought a 5 series which looks great but and my less costly Passat has better seats and more interior room in terms of width and rear leg room. BMW's are notorious for lack of protective side strips that prevent lo-lifes from creating door dings in crowded shopping centre parking lots. I had a leased A6 before buying the Passat off the lot when the lease ran out. I am totally happy with VW's frugal 2.0 litre 200 h.p. turbo 4-banger. Audi cars have the best interiors.