S55inPA

hi everyone,

i found a really interesting web page on how lexus copies other carmakers design. take a look !http://www.angelfire.com/rock2/fnm/lexus.html

bmms8

yea, alot of the designs were the same

lex400sc

That website is such a long shot it's ridiculous. Now for truth time, which one of you just compiled that cheesy 6th grade level website on their lunch break? I find those claims so ludicrous, first of all the release of the ML-class and RX were so close, there's no way Lexus just copied their premier model in a last minute attempt to create some competition. The RX300 is sooo much sexier than the ML320 anyway, it's not even funny. Just compare sales volume of the two. As good indicator of appeal more or less. On the other hand, compare these two SUVs to the Grand Cherokee, X5, MDX, and the billion other SUVs in this class. They ALL have similarities. ALL of them. Every car in existance today has borrow styling cues from another car, all of them. Comparing wheelspokes and door handles? How fuccking dumb is this guy? Wheels can only have so many spokes and most manufacturers are stuck between odd-numbers five and seven because they look the best. Door handles, I've only seen about four unique designs and most follow two traditional styles. Guess the idiot that wrote that site was too obsessed and fascinated with Lexus to notice that fact . Also the Audi TT and SC430 both debuted around the same time, and I know for a fact the SC430 was on the drawing board around 1997. Plus the SC430 is sooo much sexier and has much more road presense than the slow POS TT which isn't even twin turboed . The S-class, LS, Q45, 7-series and RL have all had similarities between eachother over the years, it really is no big deal guys. Wipe your tears. Above all, this moron missed the biggest arguement you fanatics whine about, the E-class vs the GS. Oh well, continue to be convinced that everyone jocks Mercedes, but in truth every car manufacturer jocks eachother.

fvellani

this guys comparing door handles? so every other car manufacturer who has these type of handles copied them off mb too right?

and imo, the rx300 and ml look absolutely nothing alike, the ml is chunky, whereas the rx is very sleek

then the guy is comparing the # of spokes on the wheels? ok there...ok, flipping thru my r & t buyers guide, i see at the very least, 10 cars with 7 spoke wheels

so i take it that the the acura rl, caddy deville and eldorado and seville, the wheel covers on the honda civic, jag s type, kia rio, mitsu lancer, vw beetle, and vw passat ALL copied the s-class in that respect? i think not

then to the taillights. the shape is a natural progression from the taillights of the previous s-class. the same thing goes for the turn signal and reverse light thing, its an evolution from the previous ls400

and the is300 looks absolutely nothing like the bmw 3 series, the pictures there just prove that further

and anyways, whoever made that page must feel really really threatened by the ls400/430 to even spend that much time puttin up that crap

lex400sc

No he just has no life, no web design skill, and no money to buy his own webspace . There's a real winning source to formulate your own opinions around. All the whining German car enthusiests in the world and this is the best you can come up with? Some middle school extra credit project made by little Timmy, the hippest magazine racer at his lunch table? Neeeext.....

Accord

Some of the comparison pictures on that website look nothing alike, however some of them are strikingly similar.

The Audi TT Roadster and the Lexus SC430 look almost identical, that's pretty much it though.

The tail lights on the LS430 don't even remotely resemble the W220 S-Class, however they are nearly identical to that of the W210 E-Class.

marauder

Lexus is probably the most guilty of the car manufacturers for "derivative styling." There are many examples that the guy shows that make it very obvious that there are some design elements which very closely resemble other designs. The quality of the arguments vary from very good to marginal at best. While it is true that many cars are starting to look similar these days, the fact that the LS 430 and the W220 are in the same market make it a more pertinent question. The similarities were also visible when I saw the GS 400 for the first time.

First of all, why does it matter if the guy decided to spend $0 on a webpage? Or that he didn't learn to put together some good HTML? It's not exactly the best webpage I've seen, but content is king, right? After all, you have a Hotmail account that you're paying $0 for. No sense in paying money for something you can get for free. People don't get rich spending money.

Secondly, while production dates may be very similar, ruling out an outright copying of the design after the first one came out. But design sketches are available long before production. And corporate espionage does exist. I'm not saying that happened here, but you would be amazed how much information gets stolen from companies. So because cars were released within a year of each other doesn't mean that one wasn't copied from the other.

Thirdly, this guy isn't the only one that thinks that the LS 430 isn't original. If this guy doesn't have any credibility, then maybe Car and Driver does. I knew I had read that somewhere, and it only took a minute to find it.

Lexus did a great job when they started the brand: let's take the designs from Mercedes/BMW/whoever and let's do everything that they do and make it cost less. They're having great success with it and it really made the other manufacturers get on the ball about offering more value for their money. Kudos to them for building a successful line that way.

Accord

This is a direct quote from Car & Driver in regards to the LS430:

Every new car buyer in the population sees Lexus as a cheap Mercedes-Benz or BMW, there is a reason for this, Lexus copied the designs of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Lex400sc, if you want to argue with us, why don't you go argue with Car & Driver aswell?

vraa

i thought car and driver was german playa hater! 'im slow.. lol

u know what we need..

Toyota, BMW, and Benz to somehow merge.. then we would have a thug car.. lol

cost 50K be 600hp and be better then the president's limo!

marauder

Nah, Toyota and MB are way too large for them to ever merge. Honda and BMW are the last two companies that are fiercely independent. Virtually every other auto manufacturer that makes more than a handful of cars a year is at least partially owned by a larger company. If anything, they look better on paper to merge. But the company cultures could be so different that it will probably never happen.