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Around 1990, it became a major automotive trend, most notably in Japan, for manufacturers to divide and branch off their corporations into the lower-tier "regular cars," and the top-of-the-line luxury cars, here in North America. This year marked the rise of Toyota's Lexus line of automobiles, Nissan's (recently changed over from Datsun) introduction of their Infiniti line, and Mazda's failed but proposed Amati luxury line (the sole remaining production automobile of this line became the Mazda Millenia). Honda had preceded this trend by four years, having introduced their Acura line of automobiles in 1986.
I often wonder why this move was made in North America, but not in the rest of the world (at least not for Honda). Are Americans perceived as being that superficial, that all that matters for us is a premium name, which is directly linked to a premium price? Case in point, the relative values, dollar for dollar of a Honda Civic versus an Acura Integra. The Civic wins hand over fist in this comparison. Yet for the sake of a more sophisticated image, we are attracted to the swankier name of the Acura over the humbler persona accompanying the Honda namesake.
This gives rise to personal fear for me. What kind of light does this shed upon the nature of the American people, and more importantly, how we are perceived by citizens of the rest of the world?
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