Quote:
Just as importantly, Lexus helped wake Mercedes from a fairyland slumber, in which spellbound Americans would continue paying exorbitant prices for cars that weren’t appreciably better than the new competition. In other words, paying for the badge, not the car underneath.
What happened?
Mercedes was forced to fight back, getting its styling and fabled innovation back on track. Fast forward to 2008, and the Mercedes’ lineup is filled with sleek, modern luxury cars it always knew how to build. Everyone won.
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Mercedes had styling and innovation long before Lexus came along. Their cars were unquestionably the best products you could buy from a quality and innovation standpoint so this is a bit misleading IMO. What Lexus did was force Mercedes to get their prices under control and get them to design a good car to a price. Lexus did absolutely nothing to affect Mercedes' styling, that is BS. A 1990 Mercedes looked better than a 1990 Lexus as does a 2008 Benz vs a 2008 Lexus. This article implies that Mercedes' 80's lineup wasn't filled with sleek, modern luxury cars. Uh...Mercedes' lineup most certainly was filled with modern luxury cars during that time, for their day.
Americans paid those prices for Mercedes-Benzes before Lexus came along because Mercedes was the best luxury car you could buy. What the hell else was as good? A Cadillac? Junk. A Lincoln, a Jaguar, all pretty but junk at the time. Only BMW was a decent alternative, but not quite playing the same game (i.e. much sportier). Audi sad to say wasn't a player in the U.S. then either.
Anyway, with that said I don't doubt Hyundai will sell a lot of these, but the real test will be how many loaded V8 versions they sell, not the base V6 models. I can't see many E/5-Series/A6 buyers buying one. Things are different from 1989 when you only had a few real choices, now the market is filled with them. There is nothing shoddy about a Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac or even mid-level Jaguar nowadays to make them oh so vunerable as this article tries to imply. You can cram all the luxury features and have the proper layout (RWD, V8) yet miss the mark. This Hyundai is going to have drive like something other than a RWD Sonata and the dealer is also going to have to be also up to handling this type of customer.
The cars that will take the hit in reality will be the Passat, Avalon, Maxima, 300, G8 and other similarly sized/priced cars some with RWD and some without, ditto for a V8. Also entry-level luxury cars like the C-Class luxury models, ES350, Acura TL and the like might lose a few sales initially. I can't see a true G35s or 335i buyer going for a plain-jane, all but invisible car like this Hyundai.
Sure you'll get some posers saying they were going to buy a 5-Series or E-Class, but then found the Hyundai to be a better car because of its price. I suggest that such a person was never, ever going to spend the money to buy a Benz or BMW in the first place.
M