As a frequenter to AutoSpies, it's easy to get quickly tired of many members discrediting Lexus based on the myth that "Lexus does poorly in their homeland", "Japanese people are smarter than buying a premium Toyota", etc., only because the actual sales numbers in Japan are not readily available to them.
Well, here it is, people. The official vehicle sales numbers in Japan, broken down by month and complete with year-to-date numbers. Click on the month and year to read. It's that easy. Lexus (????) is on the 5th row, while the German big three are spelled out in English. The four columns that matter the most are on the right, which are, respectively:
1. sales of the month
2. sales of the same month last year
3. sales year-to-date
4. sales year-to-date last year
For the record, here are the total sales volume of Lexus and the German big three in 2007:
1. Mercedes-Benz 49,713
2. BMW 49,014
3. Lexus 31,097
4. Audi 15,018
And here are the YTD sales for the 2008 so far:
1. Mercedes-Benz 5,560
2. Lexus 5,552
3. BMW 4,568
4. Audi 1,840
As you can see, Lexus is hardly a failure in Japan and is in fact gaining more momentum by the month. So now that we have this information readily available, we can put the "myth" to rest, shall we?
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