TOYOTA TO ENTER U.S. LUXURY CAR MARKET

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., the sales arm of TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION in the U.S., announced today (August 24 in North America) that it will introduce a new series of luxury cars to be marketed through a separate new sales network.

As the market for luxury cars has grown sharply in the last few years, so has the demand for higher performance. Bringing the full potential of its engineering and development powers into play, Toyota will offer a line of high-quality cars with superior performance and technology to satisfy these customer needs.

The new line will be called Lexus―denoting high technology, luxury and performance―and will include two new Toyota-built models. Both will provide high performance and luxurious appointments.

A separate sales network of Lexus dealers will be established to handle the new series. Initially, the number of outlets is planned at less than 100. The sales target for the two new models in the Lexus series will be 30,000 units for the first year, with sales set to begin in 1989.