valunvesthere (< 20)

How Acura, Infinity, and Lexus became a global luxury marque.

October 17, 2011 – Comments (0) | RELATED TICKERS: HMC , NSANY.PK , TM

Because of Voluntary Export Restraint - VER. Daniel K. Benjamin has good opinion why American automotive manufaturing protectionism backfired Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles

Asides from buiding assembly factories in United States and Canada in the 80's Japan exported more Japanese assembled vehicles like Honda introducing it's luxury line Acura in 1986 followed by Nissan with Infinity in 1989 and Toyota with Lexus in 1989. Mitsubishi had joint venture with Chrysler. Mazda had plans with introducing Amati but never came to fruitation.

For example while the world was importing Honda Integras, Honda Legends, Honda NSXs and etc. United States and Canada were importing them under the Acura marque. In the mid 90's Honda built a assembly plant in Canada assembling Acura ELs (upscale Honda Civics) that were exclusive to Canadian markets and in the United States Acura CLs (upscale Honda Accords) that were exclusive to the American and Canadian markets. Nissan and Toyota has similar situations.

The Acura, Infinity, and Lexus marques at the time were exclusive to the American and Canadian markets. Thanks to American car enthusiast journalism like Car & Driver, Motor Trend, and Road & Track. Car tuning enthusiast journalism like Honda Tuning, Sports Compact Car, Super Street, and etc. tourists and temporary citizens who brought back magazines to their country of origin combined with the internet (as of the last decade and a half) has created demand for the Acura, Infinity, and Lexus marques to be sold in other markets. As of now Acura is sold in 5 countries, Infinity in 15 countries, and Lexus in 70 countries. Thanks to American protectionism in the 80's Japan Inc. has created more marques and created more high paying American and Canadian jobs.