With the excitement of the launch and the recall behind us, things began to settle into a monthly routine. We now had 103 dealers active, and the plan was for another 20 to be active by the end of the year. Car industry sales through June of 1990 were down from 1989 by over 200,000 units, but the luxury segment of the market was up by 50,000. The luxury sedan market, where the LS400 competed, was up by 40,000—and the LS400 accounted for 18,920 of those sales.
The near-luxury sedan market, where the ES250 competed, was down. But ES250 sales steadily improved to average about 1,500 a month for 9,336 sales through June.
However, total Lexus sales of 28,256 through June meant that we were still more than 1,700 sales behind our year-end goal of 60,000.
The New Vehicle Sales and Delivery Satisfaction Index (NVSDS), the Overall Satisfaction Index (OSI), the Lexus Service Survey (LSS), and the customer follow-up contacts were all tracking above the goal of 90%.
“I will praise the Lord for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness.” Isaiah 63:7 (NLT)
Everything was going smoothly and just as planned. It seemed too good to be true. It was.
(To be continued in “Trouble with Hussein”)