Forbes.Com: Foreign luxury-car makers ran wild in the U.S. in the past decade
Two foreign luxury makers haven't gained the reputation of their prestigious rivals. One is Acura , which is owned by Honda , the first of the Japanese to try the U.S. luxury market. Acura sells plenty of vehicles: 170,000 last year--trailing Cadillac by only a couple of thousand units and ahead of Lincoln. Honda's second U.S. division makes good performance coupes and sedans but has yet to offer a V-8 in its flagship products. In America it's hard to think of luxury without a V-8.
The other near-contender is Infiniti , owned by Nissan .
I was in Japan when Nissan introduced Infiniti. My impression was that it was part of Nissan's competitive obsession with Toyota . Nissan's much larger rival was starting a luxury division, Lexus, and by golly, anything Toyota did, Nissan could do. Thus came Infiniti.
Nissan had very little capacity for its flagship model, a luxury car called the Q45, which competed against Lexus' top dog, the LS 400.
In addition, Nissan's initial advertising for Infiniti was some of the strangest ever created. The ads said nothing about the car; they were all about nature.
The first Infiniti Q45 was a darn good car, but from day one, Lexus outsold it 3-to-1.
As the years went by, Lexus refined and added successful models. It now has the ES 300 at the low end of the price range ($30,000 and up); the RX 300, the market's most successful "crossover," with available four-wheel drive; the sporty IS 300 models; and others.
Though Infiniti added some models, too, it was no match for the deluge from Lexus. Read what trade publication Automotive News wrote just last week:
"Equipped until now at the bottom of the range with gussied-up, front-drive Nissan hand-me-downs, the division has never come close to breaking that [100,000-car] barrier."
Take a look at Infiniti sales from the beginning:
| Year | Number Of Cars Sold |
| 1989 | 1,723 |
| 1990 | 23,960 |
| 1991 | 34,890 |
| 1992 | 44,387 |
| 1993 | 50,547 |
| 1994 | 51,449 |
| 1995 | 58,616 |
| 1996 | 55,469 |
| 1997 | 65,552 |
| 1998 | 63,649 |
| 1999 | 72,637 |
| 2000 | 78,351 |
| 2001 | 71,365 |
Last year, Lexus, which has a better distribution of high-end vehicles, sold 224,000 units. Those lower Infiniti sales average out to less than 500 units for each of the 157 exclusive Infiniti dealers, which is apparently enough to keep them going. But they need help.
Now Infiniti is making another move to get off the ground. Its third-generation Q45, introduced last year, is a big improvement over the second-generation Q, but isn't showing much improvement in sales.
A new model goes on sale next month, the G35, probably the best Infiniti since the original Q45. This is a hot sports sedan and the company hopes it will push Infiniti sales to the 100,000 mark. Come fall there will be a G35 coupe and next year a new crossover. An Infiniti derivative of the new Nissan Z sports car is another possibility.
The new G35 carries a powerful 260-horsepower, 3.5-liter, six-cylinder engine, making it more powerful--and bigger, too--than the Mercedes-Benz C320, the BMW 330i and the Lexus IS300. Price: the low $30,000s for a typical G35, which is well below the cost of most of those cars.
It remains to be seen whether the G35 will hurt sales of Infiniti's I35, which overlaps the G35's price range. They are different cars--the front-wheel-drive I35 is just a fancy version of the Nissan Maxima. The I35 was Infiniti's best seller last year, with 35,000 deliveries. For whatever it's worth, Lexus is doing fine with its IS 300 and ES 300 sedans that overlap in price but not in handling and performance.
Nissan products are getting better and the Infiniti division is going to be a tougher competitor, whether it meets its goal or not.
On another note, I'm compelled to make a few more comments about Mercury . A couple of weeks ago, I suggested that Mercury dealers get a version of Ford Motor 's small SUV, the Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute.
Ford now says that it will do just that but take about two years to get a model ready. Two years! This should be a six-month job. Why does Ford need 24 months to make some interior and exterior tweaks to turn the Escape into a Mercury?
One suggestion: If they want to make the little Mercury SUV stand out from the crowd, why not go with exterior wood trim or, to be more exact, simulated wood trim. Such wood-trimmed wagons were pretty common a while back.
If Ford doesn't like my fake-wood idea, it should come up with something else. But the company is in crisis--Chairman William Ford says so. Taking two years to jazz up the Escape is business as usual. Wake up, Ford!