2007 Lexus Sc430 Sc 430 Convertible Navigation Upgraded Wheels Heated Seats 80k on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Satisfaction with dealer service rises, Lexus and GMC are tops

During the economic downturn, many car dealerships counteracted their slowing income by focusing on things that would set them apart from competition - things like the quality of customer service they provide. When the economy picked up and more sales and service followed, many also first invested those funds back into the business, improving their dealership facilities and service centers.
It looks like those investments are paying off, as J.D. Power and Associates' latest Customer Service Index Study shows that overall consumer satisfaction with dealer service has increased to 797 (on a 1,000-point scale), up from 787 in 2012 and 29 points higher than the score in 2011. The study also finds that people are more satisfied with the service they get at dealerships compared to independent service providers, despite the much higher average out-of-pocket cost per visit ($118 vs. $44).
Note, however, that this study only looks at how people are treated by a dealer's service department during the first three years of ownership (the survey is based on responses from 91,000 owners and lessees of 2008 to 2012 model year vehicles), so we're talking about the experience had when bringing a car in for repair or maintenance work, most likely under warranty. In fact, maintenance work is increasing in share and accounted for 77 percent of service visits (up from 72 percent in 2012 and 63 percent in 2011). This helps explain why customer satisfaction has also risen, since a properly maintained car is one that's less likely to require a dealer visit for an unexpected repair.

Production Lexus NX leaked in Jim Lentz presentation?

Before kicking off the Detroit Auto Show, the Society of Automotive Analysts had Toyota CEO Jim Lentz come on stage to say some words about the future of the auto industry, as well as what's coming for Toyota. While this type of information would normally stay off our radar, a video of his speech likely gives us our first look - albeit low-res - at the production version of the Lexus NX compact crossover.
In the video recorded by AmericaJR, Lentz refers to the turbocharged LF-NX Concept that was on display at the Tokyo Motor Show, but comparing this image to our gallery from Tokyo, there are clear differences between the two vehicles. These include the toned-down shape of the spindle grille, lower fascia crease and door mirrors as well as a headlight design that more closely resembles that of the 2014 IS sedan and the newly introduced RC coupe. From what we can see of the rest of this image, the NX should retain some of the LF-NX's angular side body creases. The vehicle you see above basically looks ready for production.
If this is in fact the NX, then reports of a Geneva debut for the luxury crossover seem even more accurate. The entire video is posted below, but the NX comes on screen around the 10:40 mark.

Lexus in no hurry to be a big player in China

For a while now, China's spiraling wealth, population and development has had the world's luxury automakers in an expansionist fervor, with many executives exhibiting the sort of gleefully maniacal behavior historically reserved for gold-rush prospectors. Yet Toyota, of all companies, is exercising a surprising amount of caution in the Asian nation.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, Toyota's premium brand, Lexus, sold all of 64,000 vehicles in China last year, while BMW cleared its books of 326,000. In fact, it didn't even bother entering the market until 2005, while rival Audi built its first car in the market a decade and a half earlier. Even now, Lexus doesn't build any vehicles in China, and with the country's notoriously high tariffs on imports, that's a major disadvantage. Yet the business daily quotes Lexus executive vice president Mark Templin as saying that the brand is nowhere near ready to start building cars in the market. "We're not having those discussions about when we're going to go to China... We have a lot of work to do before we get to that point."
Part of that work includes establishing a more expansive dealer network - Lexus only had 99 stores as of 2012, while rival Mercedes-Benz had over two-and-a-half times as many, and it's still expanding. Adding a lot of dealers without having a goodly number of competitively priced offerings for them to sell may seem like an odd strategy, but Templin tells the WSJ that the goal is to "cultivate our image for quality and customer service and let the customers that we have go tell that story for us."