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Originally posted by Banzai
I agree.
"Less refined"? I though Lexus cars are the most refined cars in the world, seeing that their silky smooth V-8's are the quietest and most flexible on the market.
Having said that, Honda is suffering in Europe because they do not have a seprate badge to differentiate from their upmarket cars to their normal cars. Sure, Honda had the Type-R badge, but they were very rare and sold only in discreet numbers or privately.
Toyota, Nissan and Honda created differante brands to bridge a gap between their upmarket and normal cars. Although Lexus may be seen as a bland marque because of its Toyota roots, at least the badge generates strong appeal simply because it isn't seen as a Toy-oda.
Honda has the Mugen in Japan and Acura in America and has nothing in Europe. I suspect Honda doesn't see the European market as important as the Japanese and American market and that's why Honda isn't pampering Europeans with luxuries like the Acura and Mugen which generate strong appeal. In Europe, everything from the Logo to the NSX is just a Honda. That's why Europeans are more favourable towards Lexus' than the Nissan Maxima or Honda Legend because they are badge prejudice. People respect Lexus for their engineering excellence, technological superiority and unrivalled build quality/reliabilty/refinement. Honda is a mass manufacturer and as a result, the NSX is seen as a "mass coupe" even though it costs a dear $90000. That's why the Japanese created luxury marques. Its all about profit and market share.
BMW has a sports-luxury image. It is not seen as a maker of utes. And I agree that they must create another brand to differentiate between their luxury models and others.
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I'm going to have to disagree with Lexus being the "most refined cars in the world" Personally I think that BMWs and MBs are more refined but even they are no where near the "most refined".
Honda does have a seperate badge to differentiate their upper market cars that badge is called Acura, their Type-R is equal to Ford's SVT, or Toyota's TRD. Do you mean to say that you can't buy a Acura anywhere other than America?