I've been reading these forums for a while now and what the German car fans can't get over is that Lexus doesn't have the "heritage" of its Germanic competitors.
Many of you have already acknowledged that Lexus can and is very capable of making a very good car, yet there are always remarks that they copied this and that from other manufactors.
A good car is a good car, there is no denying that. If we all played the who copied who game, then we can pretty much blame every automaker in the world for copying Mercedes since they invented the car.
Yet Lexus is trying to be innovative. Guess what happens when they try? They get put down. When we bring up that they were the first to offer:
8 Speed auto/ (German fan reply) "copied"
Dual Chamber airbag/ (German fan reply) "copied"
There is no end to this. Do Mercedes buyers not buy Audi and BMW because they didn't invent the airbag? No. Do they not buy Lexus for the same reason? No. Nowadays I feel that people that spend under 50k for a Mercedes only buy Mercedes because of the name.
It's good to have heritage, but when that becomes the only or main reason in purchasing a car heritage quickly becomes snob appeal. Here lies the German fanbase.