In 1983, Toyota Chairman Eiji Toyoda called a secret meeting of company executives asking them a question that would change the luxury segment as we know it today. “Can we create a luxury vehicle to challenge the world’s best?”
“Back when it started, there were a lot of questions whether Lexus would work or not,” Dave Illingworth, a senior vice president at Toyota who was in charge of Lexus in its first stages, told The Detroit News.
Now, within 11 years, Lexus’ has become the best-selling luxury nameplate in the United States. Toyota now hopes to continue that success around the world and transform the premium brand conceived for the U.S. market into a global luxury nameplate to rival Mercedes and BMW. Currently BMW’s and Mercedes-Benz’s sales are twice that of Lexus'...
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