By the summer of ’89, Americans had come to adore shopping for
Toyotas. no thought was necessary. Toyota had become the go-to supplier for a stem-to-gudgeon lineup of rational, oft-emotionless automobiles. “Uh, yeah, only got 10 minutes, so gimme 10 grand worth of car—blue or green’s all right.” Announcing its 1990 lineup, Toyota was giddy 82;to tell, “The Cressida is offered in several new colors!”
& so the news of a
Toyota luxury brand—
Lexus—was a bombshell viewed by not a few dealers & journalists as an uppity, above-your-station strategy likely to tank in a tsunami of 82;Japanese apologies & executive firings. “Jeez,” they warned, “sounds dicy.”
