Scans 25 years after the Japanese onslaught, ( Car&Driver )

[GTA45E]

 

[ZicZachZo]

"Lexus churns out the same basic ES and RX for the same aging baby-boom buyer year after year"

^ Love that quote. I love reading the truth!

Looking back on this, I'd argue that the true losers to the Japanese onslaught were actually Cadillac, Buick and Lincoln.

 

[Kilcrohane]

Looking back on this, I'd argue that the true losers to the Japanese onslaught were actually Cadillac, Buick and Lincoln.

isn't Buick going gangbusters in China, off the back of pretty good GM Opel platforms? Cadillac's ATS and CTS are not bad at all - proper RWD, and Lincoln's SUVs could easily save that brand too.

The Japanese 'onslaught' is a relic of the 1980s, when arrogant management consultants told European car companies their days were numbered, and the very best they could do was slavishly copy Toyota's 'Machine that Changed the World'.

The Japs are hanging on merely through the massive devaluation of the yen, giving them windfall sales and profits currently. It's the Koreans at the moment - Hyundai-Kia - that if anyone gives Winterkorn and Piech sleepless nights.

The Germans will see off the Koreans too, just like the Japs. The Japs had the advantage of a Germany going through the reunification of the 1990s and the intro. of the euro in the 2000s, and all the commotion and huge costs that all caused. Now the Germans are back to the strong position they had in the 1950s through to the oil crises of the early 1970s; that is, pretty much unchallenged for domination of the global auto industry.

 

[ZicZachZo]

Buick likely is doing well in China but I was speaking form a US market perspective where Buick and Lincoln have seen massive brand devaluation over the last 20-30 years.

btw, you may want to consider your use of the word "jap" as many, myself included, consider it to be offensive.