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Comment by LeifCarrotson | Hacker News Reader

Alternatively, you can make a Camry with the same quality and cover it with glitzy trim, market it as a luxury car, and sell it at a premium...which we call a Lexus.

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The Lexus LS400 debuted in 1989 with a very high tech v8, with the highest r&d budget of any car engine to date. The 1uz-fe was an outstanding engine however you look at it, and so were its derivatives made well into the 00s. Other auto makers including euro brands like BMW had to play catch up. Lexii weren't just glitzed up cheap cars, nor necessarily high margin. There were some models like that, though. The Lexus GS300 was a Camry, if I remember right. And Scion TCs are Toyota Corollas.

The ES is/was the FWD platform that is said to be related to the Camry. Although I seem to remember that these days the ES is more related to the Avalon, a larger, but also FWD car. The GS is a different, RWD platform.

Also, in many cases, Japanese luxury models under their own nameplate were sold under the parent company name overseas, like in Japan. For instance, the original Acura NSX was the Honda NSX elsewhere.

Thanks for the correction, it was the ES line of front wheel drive cars I was thinking of.

Well in fairness, Toyota tends to have a very good reputation, so this is hardly a scam.

I googled "is a Lexus just a fancy toyota" and found this...

https://www.quora.com/Arent-Lexus-cars-just-Toyotas-with-fan...

My takeaway is that between two similar products, once people discover what is really going on, will they feel misled? And can people become informed in the first place?

In the case of Lexus vs Gotta, I'd guess informed consumers won't feel mislead. In the case of quality Camry vs a junky FauxCamry, it's more about being marketing in the FauxCamry that deceptively over promises is on a car that under delivers.

I think I've stretched this analysis about as much as I can.

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