Regular Malaysians won't understand - Nearly 20 orders collected for RM 1.1 mil Lexus LM 350
Hans · Apr 30, 2021 05:18 PM
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Less than one month after the 2021 Lexus LM 350 was launched in Malaysia, Lexus Malaysia has confirmed with WapCar.my that it has collected nearly 20 orders for the luxury minivan, more than half of it has already been delivered to its elite customers.
As you would’ve expected, the Lexus LM 350’s asking price of RM 1,106,513 is hardly a deterrent. Nor is the fact that the Lexus LM costs twice as much as the more plebian Toyota Alphard 3.5L (RM 446,609) but has only half of the latter’s seating capacity.
The fact that the million Ringgit Lexus has garnered double digit orders in such a short time (pre-orders started in December) is commendable.
LM-exclusive chrome lines around the windows and wheels are the defining touch, separating it from cheap converts
Of course, critics will say that the Lexus LM is nothing more than a dressed up Alphard. But that’s like saying that a Mercedes-Maybach is nothing more than a dressed up S-Class, or a Rolls-Royce Ghost is just a fancier 7 Series – technically correct, but that’s completely missing the point for the sake of winning an argument.
This is a market where facts matter less than the privilege of exclusivity. It’s something that peasants wouldn’t understand. If you are like me, you know the state of your bank account, then you are just a regular person who will never understand the saying “Money is just a number.”
Lexus LM is only a 4-seater
Someone once asked me this question – “Do you know how much you have in your bank account?” To which I answered, “Of course I do dumbass, how else would I know if I could afford something.”
To which my friend replied, “And that is exactly why you don’t understand this market, because you know how much you have in your bank account. The top 1 percenters, or 0.1 percenters don’t know how much they have in their accounts, because it’s always changing, depending on the market’s activity. If you owe the bank money and is behind on payments, the bank sends someone to come after you. If they slip behind their loan repayments, the bank needs to re-negotiate, or the bank could be in trouble for losing so much money. That’s the difference.”
With that crash course on selling things to the 1 or the 0.1 percenters done, I shut up and no longer ask why some customers spend stupid money on things that few see value in. Value is relative to one’s financial standing.
I once learned from a Lexus sales person (Lexus calls them sales consultant) that most of their elite customers buy cars without a test drive. One customer once told a Lexus sales consultant to bring the Lexus LS demo car to his driver, and if his driver likes it, he will place an order.
And that is the difference between someone who buys a Mercedes-Benz S-Class (from RM 647k) or a BMW 7 Series (from RM 569k), from someone who buys a Lexus LS (from RM 1.023 million). Now we have to add one more to the list, someone who buys a Lexus LM.
On a related topic, if you are not part of the top 1 percenters and are one of those who shop around for a more regular Toyota Vellfire, you might want to do it soon, as supply is going drying up. Details in the link below:
Over 15 years of experience in automotive, from product planning, to market research, to print and digital media. Garages a 6-cylinder manual RWD but buses to work.
