For any luxury car brand, one indicator of success is whether customers know the mainstream brand to which it is related.
It's better if they don't.
Audi has gone to great lengths -- even foregoing the cost savings that come with sharing parts -- to erect a firewall between itself and parent Volkswagen.
All 228 Lexus dealerships in the U.S. are exclusive and physically separated from Toyota. The purpose is to keep the two brands distinct in the minds and experience of buyers.
Ford studied Audi and Lexus closely as it prepared to reinvent Lincoln.
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