So, what do you do when you already have a super successful car brand but you want to add a premium model to it? Good question Sally! First of all, let’s pretend that the original car brand is one of the largest and best carmakers in the world – like Toyota, for instance. Let’s also imagine that it is 1983 and the head of Toyota makes the suggestion that Toyota should have a premium car in its ranks and he also strongly suggests to his designers that it be the best car in the world.
Well, if that doesn’t scare someone, then nothing ever will. What kind of pressure must that designer have been under when the likes of Eiji Toyoda himself, looked him in the eyes and told him to build the best car in the world? We just can’t imagine that – too much pressure for us. However, the designer must have took that suggestion very seriously because he rounded up some very talented people and got the job done.
It took six grueling years and 450 prototypes but arguably, he built the best car in the world that can compete with any other high quality automobile on the planet. The Lexus is a world-class car, not just a Japanese import. It does compete in every market that Mercedes Benz competes in and it is considered the equal of that great German work of mechanical precision. Of course, all Lexus owners and even people who have driven a Lexus, consider the Toyota premium model to be of the highest quality available.
Now imagine what that designer had to go through each day when trying to sculpt a work of art out of steel. All told, the chief designer had a lot of creative talent working under him There were 60 designers, 1,400 engineers, 24 engineering teams, 2,300 technicians and 220 support people. The project took six years to complete – or rather, to perfect, and the cost was well over one billion dollars.
The Lexus is so popular and was instantly a hit when it launched in 1989 that it is still floating on clouds of success from almost thirty years ago. Okay, imagination time is over for now, so you can go down and see the famous Lexus at Atlantic Lexus and take it for a test drive. Get behind the wheel and see what a Billion dollars feels like.