God, Guts, Heartbreak & Headaches: The Start of Lexus

  Toyota in Japan was concerned that the Lexus LS400s in the U.S. were being sent back to Japan and re-sold at much higher prices. This sometimes happens when a car is not available in a certain market, and the LS400 was not yet being sold in Japan. The industry...

  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...

  Lexus was beginning to hit its stride. July sales were the best ever at 5,558, of which 1,979 were ES250s. We were tracking to hit our objectives for the first time. I was feeling good about achieving our goals—before Saddam Hussein ruined everything.  ...

  In an article headlined, “Crowded Market Befuddles Buyers,” Melinda Grenier Guiles of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “The product proliferation—and rising prices—render the term ‘luxury car’ almost meaningless.” Adding more confusion, Mazda was rumored to be...

  Toshihiro Okada was the chief engineer for the new SC400 coupe. He was a sports car enthusiast who owned a Porsche. There were several directions to consider with the new coupe. One option was to go with a two-door version of the LS400. The second was to create...

  “Sometimes I wonder how it happened,” Dick Landgraff, a Ford Taurus engineer, was quoted saying to Mary Walton in her book Car. “Did Toyoda—the guy who runs the company’s name is Toyoda—did he suddenly have an idea one day? Did it bubble up from the bottom?...

  The demolition of the Berlin Wall had begun, and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Nelson Mandella was released from prison after 27 years and became leader of the African National Congress. Michael Jordan led the Chicago...

  The year of 1991 got off to an ugly start. On January 16, the Gulf War hostilities began with an extensive air campaign that lasted 42 consecutive days and nights with more than 100,000 sorties flown. In response, Iraq fired 88 Scud missiles at Israel, trying...

  The chief engineer for the LS400, Ichiro Suzuki, was pushing to build a “stretch” LS400 with added backseat legroom. The car was not intended to be chauffeur-driven like the Toyota Century in Japan. The market for the car in the U.S. was small, but it would...

  Lexus had not only survived, but thrived through the trials and tribulations of launching a new franchise, a safety recall, and an economic recession. How long could our winning streak continue? The new SC400 Coupe and the new ES300 would be great additions to...

  The political atmosphere was anti-Japanese. Faced with a continuing loss of sales, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler filed an anti-dumping petition with the U.S. Government concerning Toyota vans. “Dumping” is the sales of a product from another country in the...

  The 1990 customer satisfaction scores for Lexus that were used for the “Little Engine That Could” incentive were all internal surveys done by Lexus.   J.D. Power and Associates is a third-party research company started in 1968. It surveys all car owners...