The remaining 2009 Lexus model updates & US price changes are small, so let’s just put them all together:

• ES 350: Unchanged for 2009, the ES 350 will see a fractional price increase of $200, bringing the base MSRP to $34,320.
• GS 350/460: All versions of the gas engine GS will have a $300 price increase, bringing the base price of the GS 350 RWD to $44,850, the GS 350 AWD to $46,800, and the GS 460 up to $53,320.
• GS 450h: This made me raise my eyebrows — the GS hybrid is getting a 40+% increase in trunk space, making the 1.1% price increase of $600 seem entirely justified.
• LS 460/L: The LS 460/L will now have front-passenger seat memory installed, with the LS 460 price increasing $775 to $63,675 and the LS 460L jumping to $73,585.
• LS 460/L AWD: The new AWD versions of the LS 460s will cost an additional $3525 over RWD. This brings the LS 460 AWD to $67,200 and the LS 460L to $77,110, respectively.
• LS 600hL: The LS 600hL also gets front-passenger seat memory, and gets a bump of $985, bringing the base MSRP to $105,885

Very interested in how the 40% increase in trunk space was achieved with the GS, and even more curious why it wasn’t applied to the LS 600hL as well.

[Source: Lexus]

J.D. Power’s has released a first quarter report on Customer Loyalty, a study that determines what percentage of car buyers stick with the same manufacturer when purchasing a new vehicle. In the study, Lexus lead the way at 48%, four points higher than BMW and nearly four points over Mercedes.

[Source: Next Autos]

A funny story from Singapore has surfaced on Club Lexus — Lionel Lim won the opportunity to compete for the Mercedes Benz golf trophy only to be disqualified because he was a Lexus salesman:

He works for Lexus, but this golfer won the Singapore Country Final of the Mercedes trophy. This has led to a court case as well as an awkward situation. The golfer is suing the Mercedes-Benz distributor - his firm’s rival - for refusing to send him to represent Singapore at its Asian Final to be held in Australia next week.

Daimler’s defence is that the Mercedes Trophy is a marketing effort aimed at its high net worth customers and potential customers, and having a senior sales executive of its rival there will ’cause a great amount of awkwardness’.

“It is unfortunate that the defendant should introduce the concept of accusations of spying and awkwardness. All keen golfers participate because of the thrill of competition, not industrial espionage,” he said.

Mr Lim also noted that notwithstanding his job, he is also a potential Mercedes-Benz customer. As for getting a first-hand insight into Daimler’s marketing style and management methods, Lexus has its own highly successful methods and does not need to imitate anybody else’s, he said. In addition, he has never been involved in marketing.

This was eventually resolved with some sort of compensation, but I still had to laugh at Mr. Lim’s jab about Lexus not having to crib notes from Mercedes’ sales events.

Automotive News has published a report detailing what seems to be Lexus’ entire future manufacturing plans, though it’s unclear as to the source of this information. Regardless, allow me to summarize:

• The LF-A, or the “LF-1″ as its referred to in the article, has been pushed back yet again due to the performance-to-cost ratio and the slumping global economy. The supercar is now looking at a 2010 release, which means there will be a need for significant restyling on top of the performance reworking.
• The rumored GS-F has been put on hold due to the economy and rising concern about oil prices. The GS is expected to be redesigned in 2011.
• The non-hybrid LS 460 will be getting AWD as an option in 2010, with a redesign following in 2013.
• The dedicated hybrid getting so much press will indeed be different from the Toyota Prius, though it will be a small 4-cylinder sedan. It’s expected to be released in early 2010.
• The ES will be redesigned for 2011, and will be offered with the hybrid engine currently in the RX 400h.
• There will be a RAV4-sized Lexus offered in Europe & Japan, and will be brought to North America in 2013.
• Next year will see the introduction of the new RX, and with RX 430h, RX 440h and RX 450h recently trademarked by Lexus, it looks as though the hybrid version will be getting more power. No third row will be offered.
• The 4Runner-based GX may be replaced by seven-seat crossover built on the GS platform, depending on consumer SUV demand.

If that seems like a lot of information to process, that’s because it is. It’ll take some time to process, but it really seems like Lexus is slowing down the pace. It’s possible there’s a wait-and-see position as the company watches how the new RX and coupe/convertible IS are received. There’s obviously some fairly extensive re-evaluating happening…

[Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)] (Thanks Jarrett!)

For the 14th year straight, Lexus has topped the J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study, and they did it in style. Take a look at this chart:

This study measures the consumer problems on three-year-old vehicles. The substantial gap between Lexus and their next closest competitor illustrates an impressive 25 problem drop over 2007, when Lexus tied with Buick with 145 problems per 100 vehicles.

What’s more, six Lexus’ managed to lead their respective categories — the ES 330, GX 470, IS 300, LS 430, LX 470 and SC 430 all won best-of-class, and the GS 300/430 and RX 350 both placed second behind the ES 330 & GX 470 respectively. For those counting, that’s every vehicle in the Lexus line-up. Very impressive.

[Source: J.D. Power]

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Note: I will be away until Monday getting married. Enjoy your weekend!

Updated to include the RX 350 placing second behind the GX 470. (Thanks Pond!)

800 temporary workers at a Toyota plant in Japan were laid off yesterday:

Japanese automaker Toyota has laid off 800 people at a plant in southwestern Japan, or about 10 percent of the plant’s work force, in response to declining sales in North America, a company official said Tuesday.

All the job cuts — carried out in June and August at Toyota Motor Corp.’s wholly owned subsidiary Toyota Motor Kyushu — applied to workers sent by job-referral agencies. Japanese companies are increasingly relying on such agencies for temporary workers called “haken” to be flexible to market demand.

Prior to the layoffs, Toyota Motor Kyushu, which makes Lexus luxury models, had employed 8,200 workers — 1,950 of them haken — an official said on condition of anonymity, citing company policy.

The official said the job cuts were temporary and 500 haken workers will be brought back later this year. He declined to comment on why they would be needed back, saying product plans can’t be released.

Just looking at the first six months of Lexus sales, it’s not surprising that a workforce adjustment was necessary. (The article also talks about the concept of Haken workers in Japan, which I found very interesting.)

[Source: Manufacturing.net]