Marble flooring, orchids and bowing receptionists reportedly welcomed customers at the Lexus car dealerships that opened on Tuesday in Japan, marking the introduction of Toyota’s luxury brand in its home market 16 years after it was launched first in the United States.
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An Associated Press report said sales staff received training much like they would get at a five-star hotel to cater to picky Japanese drivers, according to Toyota.
AP said buyers receive their new Lexus in a special “presentation room” with a wall-to-wall mirror that allows the proud drivers to admire themselves, and the dealer may give buyers a bouquet of flowers or golf balls for a personal touch.
“We want our customers to be moved by the whole experience,” said general manager Yukihiro Fujimori, a former Toyota dealer who acknowledged to the news agency that shifting from his past aggressive sales push took some adjusting.
AP said Fujimori’s showroom, one of more than 140 Lexus dealers opening nationwide, is in an upper-class Tokyo suburb, where import brands such as BMW and Mercedes Benz are popular.
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By GlobalDataThe report noted that the challenge for Toyota is stealing some market share from that luxury import market, where annual sales have stayed flat at about 270,000 cars, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association.
The Associated Press added that, in what might seem a surprise to Americans, Lexus still lacks brand-name recognition in Japan, though, through travel, more people are aware of its overseas reputation.
Conformist Japan, which used to shun flashy cars, is slowly becoming more individualistic, AP added.
The report said that Japan’s top automaker has previously sold Lexus models in Japan under the Toyota brand [Lexus LS = Celsior; RX330 = Harrier, etc.], although the cars are slightly different from the new Lexus models, but this is the first time the company is offering them under the Lexus name – and its accompanying luxury image, with prices to match.
According to AP, the SC430 convertible costs as much as $US61,000 in Japan – and that’s excluding all the options.
For comparison, the equivalent 2006 model costs just over $67,000, without options, in the US delivered to a dealer within 20 miles’ drive of Lexus headquarter in Torrance, California, according to Lexus.com.
“This feels more like a cultural centre than a car dealer. It looks like a museum,” 50-year-old Tetsuyuki Hirano, who runs an architectural design company and is thinking about buying a Lexus GS430 for his wife, told the Associated Press as he visited one of the new dealerships in Japan.
Koichi Sugimoto, auto analyst at Nomura Securities Co., told the news agency Toyota is making a smart move with the Lexus in wooing buyers and streamlining dealerships in a saturated and sophisticated car market like Japan.
“Toyota is able to increase profitability by cultivating buyers in the high-end market,” he said.
AP said Toyota is targeting sales of 3,000 Lexus vehicles a month initially in Japan, but is hoping that will climb to 50,000 to 60,000 a year next year – about 10% of 500,000 worldwide Lexus sales. Since 1989, Lexus global sales have exceeded 2.7 million.
The news agency noted that other Japanese automakers such as Nissan Motor, which has the Infiniti luxury brand abroad, and Honda, with its Acura, don’t have luxury dealerships in Japan, and have said they have no immediate plans to follow Toyota’s example.
Toyota, which already controls more than 40% of the Japanese auto market, is banking on the Lexus to further strengthen its image and sales there, the Associated Press added.
