Re: How are these Japanese luxury brands doing these days?

Lexus has the highest sales in the US, higher than any other luxury
car maker, but in Europe people don't tend to like Lexus. It's hard to
know why, but in Europe automotive tastes seem to differ
significantly. E.g. virtually everyone in Continental Europe drives
with manual transmission and if you don't people look down on you. In
America most drive automatics. Lexuses tend to be more reliable and
refined than other luxury cars, so perhaps the difference in sales
reflect American consumers' utilitarianism and individualism versus
the European consumers' snobbery.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus