» Get the best price from a Lexus dealer Not content in beating its sales targets by around 15 per cent this year, Lexus Australia is planning to boost its dealer network by around 20 per cent in the next 18 months.
Talking at last week's Tokyo Motor Show, Lexus Australia boss, John Roca, revealed the prestige brand has plans to increase its dealer network to 27 locations in the next 18 months. The increase is the first step on the way to a 2015 target of up to 48 dealers.
"This year we wanted to deliver 7000 new cars and we'll deliver 8000 but we've got a plan out to 2015 that's quite aggressive," Roca told the Carsales Network.
"It's an aggressive plan that's driven off product, but we don't necessarily need product [straight away]. We've focused on representation and how we treat that customer when they bought a car and that's our unique point of difference...
"Our [current] throughputs on our 22 dealers are industry high. [But] We've gotten to a point where we have grown at a faster rate than we anticipated but now we're choking.
"You can't continue to deliver that high level of customer service if your dealer network is at full capacity. We're at full capacity.
"We've got the highest customer satisfaction [ratings] in the industry and we're going to keep that. It goes a long way to achieving market leadership," he said.
According to Roca, Lexus is set to roll out a new dealership 'experience'. Just revealed in Japan, the first Australia dealership to unveil the new theme will be opened at Lexus of Perth in January 2008.
In terms of product, Roca says a "huge opportunity" exists in the sub-IS segment but admits that such a car is some time away (see here). Meantime Lexus will launch its LS600Lh hybrid limo Down Under next month and LX570 full-size SUV in March 2008.
According to Roca, Lexus' LF-X Tokyo concept SUV (more here) is a hint of what's to come when the current LX350/400h is superseded. Both petrol and hybrid models will be offered, the latter stepping up to a 450h designation during 2009. Don't believe overseas reports that the car is a seven-seater, however, says Roca.
The high performance IS-F sedan will take on the likes of BMW's M3 and Mercedes' C 63 AMG -- but not until it arrives this time next year. Roca says the four-seater sedan will be a hugely important car for the brand -- if only from the performance image boost it will deliver. He is at pains to point out the car is "not an IS500" and says he is not concerned about the gap between the current IS250 and the circa $150K IS-F.
"The [new] car is aimed at the M3 and will be priced accordingly... It's our first stab at luxury performance, so getting the message out there is very important. It's completely different car [from the standard IS]."
Roca says the maker could consider adding the IS350 to its local line-up, to bridge the gap between IS and IS-F. Such a move is yet to be confirmed but is now easier with the car recently certified for the European market.
In addition to the sedans, a four-seat folding hardtop coupe-cabriolet variant of the IS250/350 is a definite for the Australian market. "Not far away for us… [Here] In two to three years," says Roca.
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