Word: lexus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Such a deadline was little more than half a day away when Hashimoto and Kantor reached their agreement. Had they not done so by midnight Wednesday, the U.S. was poised to impose 100% tariffs on 13 makes of Japanese luxury cars, including Lexus and Infiniti, raising their prices enough to make them virtually unmarketable in the U.S. and costing the Japanese automakers nearly $6 billion a year in lost sales. Japan could have retaliated by limiting imports from the U.S., perhaps of aircraft and farm products such as beef. That might have spurred another U.S. retaliation and started a spiral...
...last week as if that ultimate stage might never be reached when the Clinton Administration slapped 100% tariffs on 13 Japanese luxury cars in the toughest trade showdown between the two countries in two decades. In unveiling the sanctions, which would double the sticker price of such models as Lexus and Acura when they take effect on June 28, Trade Representative Mickey Kantor declared that the U.S. would no longer "stand by and watch its workers and its products unfairly treated" by Japanese trade barriers to American autos and auto parts...
...President Clinton, the get-tough sanctions promised to shore up his support in crucial industrial states such as Michigan and Ohio. "No U.S. politician ever lost at the polls by bashing Japan," says trade expert Jagdish Bhagwati, a Columbia University economist. And the political price? "So we lose the Lexus and Infiniti vote," shrugs a senior Administration official. "It's a risk we're prepared to take...
...annoying for honest taxpayers-4,500 IRS auditors have undergone 32 hours of training in new "economic reality" techniques for intruding deeply into the life-styles of those audited to find evidence of unreported income: for example, questioning where they go on vacation and how they can afford that Lexus in the driveway...
That vanity trick has paid off for auto manufacturers, who are finding that these sports-utility vehicles, which typically cost between $20,000 and $30,000 and can come loaded with leather upholstery, cup holders and cellular phones, have replaced luxury cars like the Lexus as the baby boomer's favorite way to tool around the neighborhood. Detroit is rushing out increasingly pricey models, and foreign luxury-car makers are jumping in too. Just last week Chrysler confirmed plans for a large upscale sports vehicle that may sell for as much as $40,000 when the first one arrives...