If You Were In Charge Of Lexus, How Would You Save Them From An Aging Demographic?

No, old people have money. If anything I would make the designs more conservative and boring. Who else is going to focus on just old people?

GET CHRIS BANGLE HE WORKED WONDERS FOR BMW.....AND BEFORE ALL OF YOU HATERS START YOUR TRASH TALKING TELL ME HOW MANY 7 SERIES (2002-2008) and 6 SERIES(2004-2009)do you see on the road today and then talk.

Look, Mercedes pulling in a large demographic because they have great design and safety. Focus on designs and stop chasing the Ben Gay crowd. Lexus has done this to themselves, they can break out.

I'm not sure if they intentionally focused on that demographic, however that is what they ended up with. Similar to the Scion being marketed to a younger buyer, and the actual buyer demographic is much much older. Sometimes what you plan on doesn't happen.

Everyone who says that Scion's demo skews older should be required to provide the stats to back up that completely anecdotal charge.

Here's one to counteract it.
http://goodcarbadcar.blogspot.com/2007/10/youth-maturity-different-cars.html

Then there's this...
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/01/down-economy-mo.html

poor kid

What is there not to get? Both brands, Lexus and Buick builds cars for old people. Got it?

You still dont get it. Even though old people buy vettes that doesn't mean that the vette's main demographic are old folks. Lexus and Buick's main demographic are indeed old folks. cant say that about the vette.

You can say that about the "vette" actually, seeing as over %50 of people who purchase Corvettes are 40+. The Corvette is for old people, whether they intended it to be or not.

Just using your own logic.

There's a big difference between 40yo and 56yo. And i'm willing to bet the farm that the average age of a vette buyer isn't 56 years old like the Lexuses. No matter how you slice it, The Lexus vehicles cater to a much older Audience than vette buyers. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Lexus should stick to what they do best, Building soft non-dynamic cars for folks age 56 or above. They would have to completely re-invent themselves in order for young people to pay attention to them. The only young folks that are attracted to lexus are the few out-of-touch fanboys that you see posting complete garbage on the internet. The other %99.999 percent of young people view lexus as car for old folks. A japanese buick if you will.

It's true, lexus trying to be sporty is akin to swapping in stiff springs and slapping on a $200 ground effects kit. The people who buy lexus's won't buy such a car, and enthusiasts will see it as pre-fried rice.

"If You Were In Charge Of Lexus, How Would You Save Them From An Aging Demographic?"

I would focus on added more pin stripes, gold badges, and stacked fake exhausts. I would also rebadge the rest of the toyota fleet from the yaris and corolla to the sewing maching and forklift. It isn't dilution since there really isn't a core brand to start with. The whole company is a successfull exercise in marketing and perception manipulation.

First they need to suseed from Toyota.

I would stop styling them for old people. The new IS line is going the right direction to lower buyer age though.

But in the end one has to face facts that the older buyer is where the money is at.

It's a little difficult to gage at what will be a successful formula versus who will actually reep the success. I wouldn't change much outside of more agressive styling. The current styling isnt't that bad, if I may say so, but needs to be slightly solidified....more direct. ll in all you cannot overlook their stance at #1 in America....they build good products....

I'd put whoever designed the GS in charge of my design team. I'm joking,but seriously if they can design cars as classy and elegant as the GS,than Lexus would be so ahead of the competition in terms of design. On a side note I think thanks to Autospies I now hate Lexus. Dozens and dozens of Lexus articles for no reason. If there is news to report on Lexus by all means I want to see it. But things like this make no sense. I think this is the third or fourth "if you were in charge of Lexus" article. Come on guys,seriously you must get paid for this. For a while everything was BMW,now its been Lexus for the longest.I rather have a slow day with no news than see pointless articles on things like "IF you could change the sound of Lexus' horns,what would you change it to?"

Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar have higher buyer median ages than Lexus. Perhaps 009 should ask how to save them first.

Both Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar are losing money at moment. Your point?
http://www.easycarblog.com/2009/04/mercedes-benz-announce-a-e1426-million-loss-for-q1-of-2009.html/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/31/jaguar-post-62m-loss

at the moment*

So won't Toyota/Lexus. Your point?

I don't know, I feel like with a few small changes lexus could have a great spread going. The IS is a great youth car and I see them all the time with teenage drivers. The LS is a great executive car, that is much more easily attainable to up and coming young business men etc than an S-class or 7. The ES is really the only old fart car, I always see grandmas driving that car. The RX is a soccer mom car. I know plenty of young people who swear by lexus, even 20 year olds. One of which has a lexus for every member of the family.
If they want more youthful buyers, build a small suv that's sportier than the RX. Also, redesign the GS to a younger demographic. That would give a little more option to young buyers while still preserving the middle age bracket with the LS, RX, GX, and LX. Drop the ES, the next GS can be enough to cover that segment.

I dont completely agree with the fact that older age is where the money is - look at 3-series sales and G37 sales.. they are as expensive and more expensive that the competing cars from Lexus.. but they still sell more.. reason - they clearly define what their cars are .. what class they are in! as some one in the comments said make IS and GS - sporty look wise and performance wise and reserve ES and GS for the gray-haired!
They might wanna mimic BMW a bit on that(though not really with the number of models/options - which they would mess up if at all Lexus tries to do that) .. segregate the competing class, making them driver's cars - than backseat comfort cars..

"look at 3-series sales and G37 sales.. they are as expensive and more expensive that the competing cars from Lexus"

Wrong. The Lexus is more expensive than the vast majority of 3-series and g37s out there on the road.
Lexus does not have to do anything. If anybody has to worry about an aging demographic it is BMW. That is why they are gearing many of their newer models to the older crowd. Also, People that shop for Buicks are much more likely to cross shop with Caddy not Lexus.

That is going to change overnight for sure. The more Buick targets Lexus with their new products, the more Cadillac will fade.

And the thought of people shopping Cadillac not Lexus that shop Buick is stupid. Do Avalon customers shop Lexus ES models? Do Land Cruiser customers shop LX? Think outside your bias and you will see reality.

Dude.. are you kiddin me?

"Wrong. The Lexus is more expensive than the vast majority of 3-series and g37s out there on the road." - try configuring IS line and compare it with C-class, 3 series, G37

Compare GS with 5 series, E-class or M ..

Compare LS with 7 series, S-class

Compare RX with X3, Q5 ..

Lexus beats them price wise hands-down..

david999:

really? lexus is more expensive? when you build an IS350--which bases at $36,755--with every available option it's $42,725.

build a 335i sedan which bases at $40,300 and then option it up to...$60,045.

please help me understand how $60,045 is less than $42,755.

dear david999:

try this exercise with every other model...5-series vs. GS, 7-series vs. LS, 3-series convertible vs. IS convertible. built each on lexus.com and bmwusa.com.

what are the results?

Hire the Audi AG Board of Directors as consultants.

This is like having an article asking how to keep BMWs from being purchased by arrogant pricks.

A customer is a customer. Yeah, the majority of current Lexus owners might be older, but who cares? Twenty years from now they'll be gone, but twenty years from now you can't guess what Lexus (or the automotive industry) will be doing at the time.

Oh, and this is a "problem" shared by Ferrari as well.

http://www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk/happenings/2004/january/ft_2/text.asp

Firstly, make the LS range even more refined and distinctive in the model layout. Disregarding costs, it should share minimal parts with other Toyota vehicles. The cabin design should be less rigid and more organic in execution, with an integration of brushed metals and exotic woods as surfacing materials.

Is there really a need for a Camry-based ES at this point? Introduce a new, HIGH-QUALITY entry-level platform to give new customers a 'taste' of the Lexus automotive philosophy. This platform would support an ES replacement, a future entry-level crossover and possible entry-level coupe.

The GS platform will support a more nimble series of GS sedans and future GS crossover. A radically different performance coupe will round out the GS range.

Retain the HS sedan, but make its future generations substantially higher-end and higher quality, especially for their price points.

Refine the L-finesse design language. Imagine sedans and crossovers conceptualized with the same passion as the LF-A!

you are incorrect.

mercedes, audi and bmw have the highest income buyers (in that order). lexus is a distant second to those three.

"enthusiastx11" Do you really believe the crap that comes out of your mouth? You make blanket statements consistently against Lexus and they have no real basis. So let me get this straight, Bill Gates, the richest man alive which can skew your statistical BS off the chart alone, owns an LS. Hmmmm You really have no idea WTF you are saying do you. If you have any proof, indulge me.......

baby:

you're totally right. because bill gates--one man--bought the LS that makes lexus the brand with the richest demographic. totally logical.

oh...and the income/wealth data are accurate. two close friends of mine work in automotive: one at bmw in nj, the other at lexus in la. they both do tons of research and it's the same from both sources. mercedes and audi buyers top the list of income/wealth, followed closely by bmw and then lexus a distance behind.

How many young people are flocking to the Genesis sedan? I haven't seen the garish Genesis Coupe being accepted by the designer t-shirt crowd.

There are many things they could do, if that was their goal...
- Add new innovative tech (night vision overlay on windshield, nav app integration, etc.)
- Fix their nav to work while the car is moving
- Make a sporty hybrid for under $40k
- etc.

At the end of the day, though, their goal is to appeal to people with money who will buy their cars, and they do that just fine.

HyundaiSmoke, do any other brand exist in your world? Dude, please. There are about 128 brands and to think you focus on just Hyundai is beyond mind bending to me. In the color spectrum, you focus on one strand out of a million.

Lexus will always be known as a slow as crap handling car.

That's just the way it is.

:-'

I can tell you first hand that Lexus is not slow. They may not be the best handlers but they are definitely not slow.

Lexii need fatter tires.

I would make an amphibious 4x4.

I'm 34. Bought a Acura TL over a Lexus ES350, IS350, Audi A4 last year due to the ES350 being the most boring drive every. The IS350 because you couldn't even fit a 2 year old in the back seat, and the A4 being too damn stiff driving.

Lexus simply needs to add some *excitment* into their products. I don't know if they can do that like they used to with the Celica, Supra, original Lexus SC, etc. Nowadays they make not one fun to drive car! Hell, they don't even make a 2 door sports coupe outside of the Scion TC.

I WOULD KILL KILL KILLL...KILL THAT UNDERSTEAR!

The understeer is an important supplement to the torque steer. It's all part of the signature lexus driver-feedback experience. They can't upset their core customer base with an abrupt addition of driving dynamics and driver involvement.

Realistically if you combined the practicality of affordible symmetrical AWD of a subaru WRX with lexus IS350 styling in a car that's between the IS350 and GS350's size and the price of the (IS250AWD/joke of a crap engine) you will have one bad assed entry level car with the IS350 engine evolved into 3.7 litters and about 325-330HP. Add in an optional torque vectoring electromagnetic rear diff and make the Nav system standard to get more economies of scale all for 40 grand!

I would make all the cars available in yellow and lime green. Racing stripes should also come standard across the board. /sarcasm

that RX in the photo is sex on wheels!

Slogging thru autospies was worth it just for the laugh! Thanks!