Lexus vehicles are sold in North America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania; in the United States, Lexus is the highest-selling brand of luxury cars. Until 2005, Lexus vehicles were sold under the Toyota marque in Japan, at which point the Lexus marque was introduced.

Since its debut in 1989, Lexus has developed a reputation for the reliability of its vehicles and the quality of its customer service. In 2006, consumer ratings firm J.D. Power named Lexus the most reliable brand in the U.S. based on its Vehicle Dependability Survey, a measure of over 47,000 vehicle owners and the problems they experienced in the first three years of vehicle ownership. It was the twelfth consecutive year that Lexus achieved this top rating . That same year, Consumer Reports also named Lexus the most reliable brand in its Annual Car Reliability Survey of over one million vehicles nationwide . Additionally, Lexus ranks highly on surveys of dealership service experience. The British Top Gear and Auto Express satisfaction surveys have had Lexus at the top of the surveys for most of the past fifteen years, with reliability as one of the main selling points of Lexus around the world.

From its inception, the motto of Lexus has been "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection." In 2003, the Lexus Division in the U.S. altered its motto to "The Passionate Pursuit of Perfection." Since fall 2006, the worldwide Lexus motto is simply "The Pursuit of Perfection."

History

The origins of Lexus

In 1983, Toyota Chairman Eiji Toyoda summoned a secret meeting of company executives, to whom he posed the question, “Can we create a luxury vehicle to challenge the world's best?” This question prompted Toyota to embark on a top-secret project, codenamed F1 (“Flagship” and “No. 1 vehicle”) . The F1 project, which eventually became known as the Lexus LS 400, aimed to develop a luxury car that would expand Toyota’s product line, giving it a foothold in the premium segment and offering both longtime and new customers an upmarket product. . The F1 project was inspired by the success of the Toyota Supra sports car and the luxury Toyota Cressida models. Both the Supra and Cressida were rear wheel drive cars with a powerful 7M-GE/7M-GTE engine. The successful launch of the Acura marque by Honda three years prior also influenced Toyota to advance its plans for a luxury division.