You know, I've been seeing commercials for the new GS, and I've thought "yeah, ok...looks nice, but..."
But when I see they're going to hybridize the car (is that a word ? LOL), I go from muted interest to... "wow...I really *like* this car". Why is it that the only cars that really excite me now, are hybrids ?
The only thing I wap my forehead about after reading the article, is... "WHY are they only doing RWD and not AWD for the hybrid". And then I just realized as I wrote this - that would be more R&D to fashion a front transaxle where the car didn't have one before - at least the RX was available with 4WD (though most people buy the 2WD). Still - in this class of car, these days, AWD is becoming a prerequsite for admission into the lux sedan party. It's not like Toy couldn't afford the R&D - and they *had* to be considering hybrid for the GS since the beginning of this design cycle. So I'm thinking.... "oops"
I'll be waiting to see pricing for this one... I'll guess 'only' an $8-9 K premium, vs $10 for the RX400h . And if so, then we know Toy's strategy - have the luxury division subsidize the non-luxury. Because they'll never sell Highlanders for $46 (top end ones are about $36 (?) now, if I remember the window sticker I saw correctly), or Camry's for $40K
(Wayne - I just went and priced out an XLE V6 w/ Navi, Sat Radio, Spoiler & Maple Dash at $30K, when I saw your note... they may be discounting now in the non-hybrid form, but you *know* they won't be when they start making them (unlike Honda had to...sadly). And it's not a $18K Standard that's going to be hybridized, it'll be the V6 version (likely the XLE) to improve CAFE and preserve margin.
As far as why I picked the model / trim / options I did,
I tried to get similar to Honda's EXV6 trim (or mine, but mine has the IMA, of course). You did say "all the toys"...I tried to make it equal to Honda's 'toys' where possible
You're right on the differential, though...at $2K a car (even if on the Toy side), everyone else *is* toast. That's about $30 added to the monthly payment for a lot of folks - at that point, they're thinking.... "I'll save that much in gas a *month*", and buying one pronto.
Oh, well...at least they'll all drive *safer*, trying to max their FE...
Toyota has to be *very* careful in their price differential between Toyota and Lexus Hybrids, however, especially if the technology becomes as big as a lot of people are thinking it's going to get. Because if it gets *big*, and Toy's selling it in most of the comparable lines (ES / Camry, RX / Highlander, etc), the consumer mindset for the most part will be "I want a hybrid, but at the cheapest price - I'm not going to pay 2.x times as much to get hybrid Lexus - I'll have 90% of the Lexus at 70% of the cost". That's exactly why I keep buying Accords over TLs (no hybrid TL this time, either).