In the late '80s when news of Toyota's ambition to launch a new line of products to challenge the established hierarchy dominated by German luxury brands was announced, BMW and Mercedes-Benz didn't expect the new upstart from Japan would pose any serious competition. Back then the concept of a Japanese luxury car was considered an oxymoron.
By the end of 1991, just two year after its launch, the LS 400 had outsold every competing model from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and also Jaguar, a leading luxury brand at that time in the US, which was the world's largest luxury car market and ground zero of the luxury car wars.
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