Word: bmw
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...driver in the street is no surprise to European auto manufacturers: they planned it that way. German car companies, in particular, have cashed in on the new opportunity, grabbing nearly two-thirds of the business. Volkswagen-Audi leads with expected sales of 60,000 cars this year, followed by BMW, which should hit 40,000. Mercedes, which sold 31,500 last year, will be close behind. For these companies, Japan is rapidly approaching the importance of the U.S. market. In fourth place in the Japanese market is a dark horse: Britain's lackluster Rover Group, with sales of more than...
...years ago, a fact the company is just beginning to tout in its advertisements. Some of GM's car lines actually beat the Japanese. Buick, for example, ranked fifth in the most recent J.D. Power survey of initial quality, placing the GM division ahead of Honda, Nissan, Acura and BMW, among others. The Buick LeSabre model placed ahead of the Acura Legend, Honda Accord and Nissan Maxima on the Power list of the most trouble-free models...
...capital, as they have since the New Deal, not because they want to make money but because they want to act on their political beliefs. They enter government; they master a specialty; they amass a Rolodex. Then maybe their party loses power or they find themselves lusting after a BMW on a bureaucrat's salary. Suddenly the former idealists are in the private sector, bartering what they learned in government in their new roles as lawyers, lobbyists, public relations consultants or (to use an old-fashioned term) influence peddlers...
...next marketplace ripe for Japan's "luxmobiles" is Europe. The Lexus went on sale in Switzerland and Britain earlier this year, and in 1991 will hit Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. In an interview early this year, BMW chairman Eberhard von Kuenheim accused Toyota of "dumping" Lexus in the U.S. market at below-market prices, and declared, "Europe is not willing to destroy its own industry" by giving Japan free access. Toyota calls that charge "groundless and meaningless," but spokesman Yoshiharu Tateishi says, "We are fully aware of the trade friction, and our approach will be modest...
...both BMW and Daimler-Benz, the maker of Mercedes, are flush with profits, thanks in part to the booming German economy. BMW aims to produce a record 520,000 cars this year, up 1.6% from 1989. Both companies proclaim their readiness to take on the Japanese luxury cars, but their fear is showing. "The Lexus is not a Mercedes, but as a portent of what they are able to do, it is more worrying," says John Evans, a British spokesman for Mercedes. "You ignore the Japanese at your peril...