Lexus Set to Boost Sales in 2012

2012 is tipped to be the year of the luxury car, with competition intensifying between big automakers. Lexus announced last week that it plans to increase its domestic sales by 6.5 per cent – an increase of nearly 40 per cent from 2011. Despite a sales decline following the financial crisis and earthquake off the coast of Tōhoku last year, Lexus plans to bring itself back to pre-depression levels and regain its place as the leading luxury automotive maker in the USA.

Of interest to body-kit enthusiasts, Lexus has adopted a new look across all future models to support sales this year. New Lexus front grilles resemble a “spindle” (inverted trapezoid), which has evolved alongside the headlamp design through successive models and generations of Lexus cars. The result is a balancing of the upper and lower grilles, with brake-cooling ducts on both sides.

A spokesman from the company said that the reasoning behind the design was to make the Lexus instantly recognisable on the road, to rival compact executive car competitors such as BMW and Audi. In fact, BMW overtook Lexus’s vehicle sales at the close of 2011 to cinch the top spot in North America for the first time in 12 years.

It is hoped the new-look Lexus will bolster the automotive maker’s image in Europe and Japan, where competition is stiffest, and despite 8.58 million vehicle sales (according to Reuters), Lexus expects to compete with well-established companies in these markets; particularly Nissan/Infiniti, which expects 8.78 million sales and Honda, which forecasts around 4.7 million sales.