Most Lexus owners will agree that their cars have seldom been favoured by European reviewers in borderline
comparisons with German ones. And yet we have still chosen to drive a Lexus, in most cases with few or no
regrets, and this implies that while we may find specialist reviews interesting or enjoyable to read, we have
ultimately ignored the opinions offered. As for myself, the 300h I am currently driving my fifth Lexus and still
fail to understand why reviewers tend to emphasise negatives even when their overall impressions may be
broadly favourable, though I have noticed that the opinion gap has narrowed with recent models.
Mostly, comparative reviews are informative enough as regards quantitative data whereas final verdicts and
how they are arrived at and presented are to a large extent subjective and therefore prone to bias. Since it is
common knowledge that magazines and other media are largely financed by advertising income and that some
advertisers are more important than others, it follows that any reliance we place on the good faith of reviewers,
assuming we care, depends on how cynical or mistrustful we personally are. And even when the magazines
do not carry advertising and trade on a reputation for fairness, the thought must still occur that journalists,
editors and publishers can be influenced by other means and that vested interests are not always easy to
identify. In short, it is a fact that car reviewers rarely find it in their interest to favour David over Goliath. In
this connection it would be interesting to know if the ability of the big Japanese car manufacturers, with the
Toyota Corporation at the helm, to influence media coverage and opinion in Asia and Australasia might not
equal that of the Germans in Europe and with comparable results. European imports in the luxury sedan
segment in these areas appear to sell largely on the basis of exclusivity (and maybe a bit of snobbery) in
much the same way as low numbers on the road are an attractive selling point to many Lexus customers
in Europe (myself included), the technical excellence of the brands concerned being universally acknowledged
irrespective of their origin.