I have a friend who is thinking of upgrading from a Toyota to a Lexus.
I have a '92 Toyota Camry station wagon that my mechanic says has a Lexus engine. It has 120,000 miles on it, and it still runs great. I told my friend that she should just buy a Toyota Camry. Isn’t a Lexus just a glorified Toyota? What’s the big difference?
Depends on the model. I believe the Camry originally was designed as a decontented Lexus, so the claim that the Camry has a Lexus engine is true, seeing as all Lexus engines are Toyota engines, and are shared between the two. However, some Lexus models do not have an equivalent Toyota model,such as the 460 models, which are a luxury, rear-drive, v8 powered sedan. No Camry is equipped with a V8.
In any case, if you’re looking for a mid-size sedan, go for a Camry with most options, which will bring you to near Lexus luxury, but without the price tag.
And good luck finding ANY rear drives these days.
-Matt
Charger, magnum, 300, BMWs, Mercedes, trucks/most SUVs, Mustang, Crossfire, Crown Victoria(and probably Grand Marquis), Town Car, Corvette, s2000, Miata, RX-8, Sky/Solstice, do I need to continue?
You can drop the Dodge Magnum from your list. Chrysler is discontinuing that loser.
Chrysler is probably about an inch away from being completely discontinued.
BTW, they are also dumping the “miss-fire.” I assume they will get rid of everything that is based on benz parts, since DB dumped them.
Don’t forget Cadillac CTS.
“Don’t forget Cadillac CTS.”
Do those look like the (new) batmobile to anyone else but me?
As far as I know, Lexus is a brand name only for the North American market. The same models are sold as Toyotas everywhere else. Yes, some Lexus models are just fancied up Camrys, not that that is a bad thing. As another poster said, some Lexus models are not Camrys, but are equivalent to some other Toyota models. Think of it like Ford and Mercury, most Mercury cars are fancy Fords with the same engines and such.
I was trying to forget that model. Now I am going to have nightmares!
“I assume they will get rid of everything that is based on benz parts, since DB dumped them.”
That could wind up being a good thing. Their reliability may actually improve at that point!
Tom & Ray had a question on this subject recently; do you buy a high end cheap car or a low end expensive car. They recommended the high end cheap car as being much less expensive and easier to maintain. The Lexus, except for the top end, is a “super refined Toyota”, just as Acuras are super-refined Hondas. Volkswagen plays the same game with Audis, and a $100 VW part will end up being a $200 Audi part. If you are sensitive about what you drive when going to the racket club, I’m not sure what to advise. A 4 year old Lexus has depreciated enough to be affordable and if you don’t drive much is an affordable staus car!! There is a guy at my club who drives a 20 year old E Class Mercedes, and it still turns heads.
They still have a way to go to compete with GM, they will have to stick about 5 different nameplates on the same car.
Right on, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda all have luxury divisions in North America and a few other regions to compete with Cadillac, Mercedes, BMW, etc. In Europe an Acura Legend was called a Honda Legend, with the Hond badge right on it. A Lexus is called a Toyota Crown or somethoing like that. If these cars were designed from the ground up they would be unaffordable.