IS/CT/RC Discontinued in UK (and Europe?)

[bpsorrel]

I must admit I'm tempted to get a final IS 300h F Sport (I did this with the Merc SLC, the Final Edition was a great value car and the last metal top roadster ever from MB) and run it until something else from Lexus comes up in the future.  I also love the RC, but it's not that practical...

When we had a few weeks of "freedom" I tried an NX300h but was not that impressed with it and actually confirmed to me why I don't want to replace the IS with a crossover etc (Porsche Macan excluded, but I don't find tham dynamically exceiting...  might as well by a Land Cruiser and have the real thing!  LOL!

 

[Linas.P]

I found RC more practical thank IS due to folding seats, but yes - if you mean rear seats then they are not for comfort.

However, I would argue that does not hurt car's practicality for me - first of all, because I don't sit in the back and secondly because 99% of the time I am in the car alone and at least 90% of the time it is two of us. So rear passenger space is non-issue. 

Just a little problem.... Lexus discontinuing RC as well!

[bpsorrel]

My IS has 60/40 folding seats which have been useful on occasion :)    Now and then I need to carry two extra people in the car and I think RC would be hard for them.  A big shame as I love the styling!

[Linas.P]

Interesting... I am sure hybrids didn't have folding seat in the beginning. Was it option in later models?

I guess min being non-hybrid, the only additional bonus is full size spare wheel and little bit deeper boot floor and more even floor when seats are open. 

[bpsorrel]

I'm not sure about other models of IS, but the Advance definately came with folding rear seats as standard.  The F Sport probably does too.

Would love a spare wheel though!

[Vince Donald]

I think its just the base model of IS which doesn't have folding rear seats, I know mine does.

 

Vince

[Mincey]

If it's of any interest, I was sent a survey following my recent service. In the "Is there anything which Lexus can do to improve your experience?" section (the wording may have been different), I wrote, in capitals, "Bring the fourth generation IS to the UK". I am sure that this will change minds back at HQ in Japan.

[royoftherovers]

8 minutes ago, Mincey said:

If it's of any interest, I was sent a survey following my recent service. In the "Is there anything which Lexus can do to improve your experience?" section (the wording may have been different), I wrote, in capitals, "Bring the fourth generation IS to the UK". I am sure that this will change minds back at HQ in Japan.

Well said Sir !

And if you had written it in Japanese..............

[Overland]

18 minutes ago, Mincey said:

If it's of any interest, I was sent a survey following my recent service. In the "Is there anything which Lexus can do to improve your experience?" section (the wording may have been different), I wrote, in capitals, "Bring the fourth generation IS to the UK". I am sure that this will change minds back at HQ in Japan.

Well done!

I do the same too, writing to the Italian Lexus branch.

I have reported the answers they give me in this topic, some pages ago.

In my opinion their answer was almost clear: there's not interest in customers, like us, that would like to drive the IS or the RC (or just a sedan on that category) as in EU and in the UK they sell almost only SUV, people want SUV, people like SUV, sedans are for old fashioned people.

The answer they give to this market is: more SUV, less sedan!

A wrong policy in my opinion, but it seems they don't care.

Very sad.

[Mincey]

19 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

Well said Sir !

And if you had written it in Japanese..............

I missed a trick there didn't I John....

[royoftherovers]

44 minutes ago, Mincey said:

I missed a trick there didn't I John....

But you and others will know from now on won`t you.?

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, Mincey said:

If it's of any interest, I was sent a survey following my recent service. In the "Is there anything which Lexus can do to improve your experience?" section (the wording may have been different), I wrote, in capitals, "Bring the fourth generation IS to the UK". I am sure that this will change minds back at HQ in Japan.

Should have said mk 3.5 there... they may get confused as true 4th gen is not yet in the making  😄 

But, I did that in every communication to Lexus for at least a year (and I had quite a few communications). Previously, I as well said that they should bring 350 into UK market. Whenever they bothered to reply is basically along the lines of what Cris said, maybe different words but saying the same: "we aim to offer the competitive selection of models which our clients wants"... inferring that nobody wants outdated things like cars with engines which actually has some power or saloons... Everyone nowadays wants some some model-fluid hybrid cross-dress-over SUV "thing"... I blame liberals for that 😄

[Mincey]

22 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

But you and others will know from now on won`t you.?

I certainly will - once bitten and all that :-)

[royoftherovers]

15 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Should have said mk 3.5 there... they may get confused as true 4th gen is not yet in the making  😄 

But, I did that in every communication to Lexus for at least a year (and I had quite a few communications). Previously, I as well said that they should bring 350 into UK market. Whenever they bothered to reply is basically along the lines of what Cris said, maybe different words but saying the same: "we aim to offer the competitive selection of models which our clients wants"... inferring that nobody wants outdated things like cars with engines which actually has some power or saloons... Everyone nowadays wants some some model-fluid hybrid cross-dress-over SUV "thing"... I blame liberals for that 😄

As I have said previously to Mincey,Linas. Try asking them in Japanese. The Brits in H.O. won`t understand so they will be obliged to forward it to Japan. Japan will respond I am sure...but probably in Japanese!

[Linas.P]

22 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

As I have said previously to Mincey,Linas. Try asking them in Japanese. The Brits in H.O. won`t understand so they will be obliged to forward it to Japan. Japan will respond I am sure...but probably in Japanese!

Probably... but I doubt the substance will change...

Will be along the lines "we sell our cars in key markets which are US and middle east... you second class pesky europeans with your stupid european needs and competitive german cars are at the bottom of the list of our superior japanese issues.... yours sincerely Imperator Toyoda"

[Mincey]

5 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

As I have said previously to Mincey,Linas. Try asking them in Japanese. The Brits in H.O. won`t understand so they will be obliged to forward it to Japan. Japan will respond I am sure...but probably in Japanese!

第4世代のISを英国に持参してください。あなたはそれが理にかなっていることを知っています。

Dai 4 sedai no IS o Igirisu ni jisan ******* kudasai. Anata wa sore ga rinikanatteiru koto o ****te imasu.

 

Wh

[Mincey]

Just now, Mincey said:

第4世代のISを英国に持参してください。あなたはそれが理にかなっていることを知っています。

Dai 4 sedai no IS o Igirisu ni jisan ******* kudasai. Anata wa sore ga rinikanatteiru koto o ****te imasu.

 

Wh

Which loosely translates as:

Please bring the fourth generation IS to the UK. You know it makes sense.

[LenT]

On 1/12/2021 at 2:25 PM, Mincey said:

If it's of any interest, I was sent a survey following my recent service. In the "Is there anything which Lexus can do to improve your experience?" section (the wording may have been different), I wrote, in capitals, "Bring the fourth generation IS to the UK". I am sure that this will change minds back at HQ in Japan.

Clearly we have different priorities.

I have a feeling that when I got such a survey it was more like: what else can Lexus offer to improve your experience?

Because it gave me the opportunity to reply: Lunch.

 

[Mincey]

19 minutes ago, LenT said:

Clearly we have different priorities.

I have a feeling that when I got such a survey it was more like: what else can Lexus offer to improve your experience?

Because it gave me the opportunity to reply: Lunch.

 

I'm sure when I took my IS250 to Leicester for a service, they always offered me a lunch voucher for the sports club thing behind the dealership but for one reason or another I could never accept it.

[Overland]

28 minutes ago, LenT said:

 

Because it gave me the opportunity to reply: Lunch.

 

In Italy they give it.

Every time the aperitif, some time the lunch.

The experience in the show room was amazing in the early 2000's.

When you enter the showroom, somebody welcome and smile at you with kindness, you receive a glass of Prosecco or a soft drink (same of the Omotesando dealer that I visite for ten years during my trip in Tokyo, even if I go there just to see the car, they always offer me drink, gifts and a person at my side explaining all the detail of every single car I stand in the front).

The driving test in my hometown, I remember, ending in a small restaurant to eat together the owner (she was a Lady) and the sales guy.

But not only, it was all the experience that was totally different from any other car I have bought.

The car price offer was made talking relaxed in the front of a screen with a spreadsheet when other brads offer was compared, number by number, with the Lexus you choose... it always ended up that if you wanted to have the same stuff of your IS on a BMW you had to spend 20/30% more.

I still remember the two column:

BMW 320   -    LEXUS IS200

Dealer: "do you want the leather seat?"
Customer: "yes"
Dealer: OK, let's input

BMW column: 2000€ LEXUS COLUM: included

And so on.

This was I still remember of my first IS200 Sport Back purchase experience.

This system last about until 2005, when they start to quit all the exclusive dealers, ceased all the "Lexus experience" and include Lexus into the existing Toyota dealership

Now in the major of Italian dealers: you enter a confused showroom when Lexus car often are mixed up with Toyota commercial van, a bored Toyota employee receive you, without a smile.
You have to wait stand up, until someone take care of you.
The mechanics, generally know very well the Yaris, so when you see them put their hand on your IS you start to sweat.
Lunch? No more. Maybe a coffe from the vending machine.

And so on.

So now if they send me a survey, I classified as spam.

[LenT]

41 minutes ago, Overland said:

In Italy they give it.

Every time the aperitif, some time the lunch.

...spam.

I would probably even appreciate some spam, battered of course, with some chips.  

But I guess the profit margins on car sales are not what they used to be.  Still, keeping waiting customers entertained used to be a common problem for all dealers.  At least Covid-19 has solved that one!

 

 

 

[Linas.P]

3 hours ago, Overland said:

you enter a confused showroom when Lexus car often are mixed up with Toyota commercial van, a bored Toyota employee receive you, without a smile.

That is pretty much my experience from the begging. Obviously, I am too young to remember good old days, but it never felt exceptional from the first time I used them ~2012. And I bought brand new IS250 for the company... so I wasn't the sort of frugal, shrewd and nasty negotiator as I am now.

Times and times again I was unimpressed with level of service and despite me telling them exactly what to check on the car, they still left impression of generic and rather clueless service centre.

Maybe just the dealership I use, but they never impressed me... in neither knowledge of their own cars, nor personalised service at all.

As I have mentioned somewhere else - around Jan last year I got invitation, to "invitation only special sales event". I have just bought RC200t so I wasn't looking to buy anything, but I though some canapes and few glasses of free champagne could not make my Saturday worse in any way. They asked me what cars I would be interested in and I said maybe RC-F or LC, they assured both will be ready for test drive... all sounded very nice. 

When I arrived to dealership, not only they didn't have any refreshments, except of the standard instant coffee and biscuits, but they didn't even knew who I am and what I want. After like 30 minutes of waiting, they just got random sales person to advise me and asked all the basic question - like what I am interested in etc. Needless to day, they did not have RC-F for test drive, but to their credit they found dealership MD's LC500. So it wasn't complete loss. But what happened to "invitation only personalised experience and cars ready to test?!"

And finally, I want to be clear - Lexus dealership experience is not bad, but it is in no way better than standard generic corporate experience you would get at MB, BMW or Audi. The are generally polite and nice, but they don't go extra inch, never mind a mile to make it feel even a little bit personalised.

[bpsorrel]

I agree.  The Lexus dealership experience is no better than any other, in fact I got better service from my local BMW dealer when I had a 125d, because they are a small (3 dealership) group they actually were friendly and helpful.

The worst however is Mercedes.  My local MB dealer is appaling.  Bunch of snowflakes who only know how to show the "cool ambient lighting" in the car!  Patheitc.

[Linas.P]

...and I don't know if I have unreasonable expectation. Lexus dealerships do their job just fine, nothing exceptional and nothing bad either. I guess my point is that, there are people who say "yes... but the experience is Lexus dealerships is on different level"... and he I can say - No, that is not something I have experienced!

Again... I appreciate that some small dealership chains, family run.. or whatever... could do better job then others. But then it is not Lexus achievement, it would be the same for any make. And when somebody says Lexus dealership experience is exceptional, then I expect there is some bar set by the manufacturer which elevates their network above the rest.

And the final thing, maybe Lexus tries harder... in US, maybe in Japan, but in UK I see no evidence of that.

[Overland]

In the end, I think the long history of changing my car ended well.

Since yesterday I am the owner of a 2019 RC300H F-SPORT with sunroof and Mark Levinson sound system, in Sonic Titanium color.

After several evaluations, I did not feel like buying an ES, although it was a new car (while this car is a DEMO car with 7500 km. That the dealer offered me) the size and the type have withheld me: it's true, I love sedans, and this was a fact that I have always expressed, but I felt "old" behind the wheel of the ES.

Let me be clear I am not young and in a few years I will reach 60 years!

But when I sat inside the RC300H, I felt at home.

I've never had a coupe car, I never thought I'd like the RC300H's more dynamic approach than the IS300H I owned (mind you: I kinda regretted leaving it at the dealer, it was a car I really loved) and I liked the fact that it was technically a little more up to date.

At the moment the feedback is very positive, I feel good in there.

I have always dreamed and loved the LFA and the LF-CC which remind me a little of the design of this coupe, I think,  as a design enthusiast that the current cars (NX, UX, and ES) have lost some of the L-Finesse philosophy.

I collect old brochures and pictures about the LFA and the LF-CC and really, I think that design (although very dated!) Was phenomenal and still is today, I also believe that the interiors of the IS300H and RC300H are among the most beautiful.

Only note, at the moment, I find that the multimedia system is very good and with more functions than that of my 2017 IS, but I find it very senseless that the size of the map has been reduced, adding a frame of 1 cm. all around, just to insert some rather useless writing.
However, the screen has a better resolution and the system has more features, I'll get used to it, the same with the touchpad: I was worried, but in the end, I immediately start to use it easily.

I have always felt a bit far from the F-Sport concept, and I chose this version over the Business version because it offered many more options, but I must say that in this RC300H the F-Sport version is very classic and very minimalist despite its sporty look.

Also, here this model was very are to be seen, I think in many years I never saw one (while every day I saw many NX and UX), and to be honest, I think a Lexus customer is also seeking some exclusivity.

I will keep you updated on other feedback.

Thank you for all the topic posts.