Here’s a puzzler for ya. A new Lexus commercial features Toyota’s two most legendary sports cars, but neither is mentioned or spotlighted at all. Normally the presence of such revered chariots would hint at the company’s storied history or legacy of high performance machines. Not here. The spot is for the Lexus NX, a competent luxury crossover but not the kind of car that sets your hair ablaze.
The main thrust of the “Perfectionist” commercial is that you can parallel park the NX via a smartphone app. The owner drives up to a cafe where there just happens to be a Lexus LFA and Toyota 2000GT parked curbside. Using the app, she slides the NX into the spot between the two supercars while standing on the sidewalk. An onlooker appears impressed with the parking job, but no one in the ad bats an eye at a couple million bucks’ worth of Toyota on the curb.
It’s probably not a stretch to say that many NX customers wouldn’t know a 2000GT if it slapped them in the face. So why put Toyota’s two most sought-after sports cars in the ad at all when they could’ve just used some nondescript Camrys? Well, perhaps some Toyotaku will appreciate the nod and, well, you can’t take the kids to school in a 2000GT so an NX in the driveway might make a good daily.
It’s done purely to show that incompetent drivers can now rely on the machine, instead of their driver skills to park properly and not make a monster mash out of two dear cars (dear = beloved, dear = expensive – take whichever one you like…. or both!)
… In other words, Toyota have recently released the next-generation RAV4 (which also shares the same platform with the Lexus NX) and the clue is that most of the bits of the model – except for the exterior design – (which has been active since 1994) are just the same as the incumbent generation, instead of following the footsteps of the A90 Supra (being built on BMW blueprints) by having the RAV4 name to be rebuilt as another non-Toyota product while carrying the aforementioned nameplate. While having wondered for many but countless times that the Peugeot 4007 / Citroen C-Crosser is a negative example, given that it was based on a Japanese Mitsubishi Outlander – whose platform was also shared with the Mitsubishi Lancer, first-generation Jeep Compass and Dodge Caliber (as well as Hyundai Tucson and second-gen-onwards Kia Sportage given the Hyundai Motor Group’s historic Mitsubishi Motors connections) – had RAV4 and NX were made out of a non-Toyota vehicle for the same reasons as the Supra (A90), then since Toyota already has ties with PSA and Fiat SpA’s successor Stellantis (which is however primarily aimed for Europe) among others, both said Toyotas would’ve been remade as cars with engineering of PSA Group origins that even sits in the same segment as the RAV4 and NX. (For examples, Peugeot 3008 and Citroen C4 Aircross, also it would be similar but not similar to when Toyota rebadged the final-gen Chevrolet Cavalier with the former’s emblems.)
Recently, as speaking of (the former) PSA Peugeot Citroen, I was doing research about Citroen’s ZX (which was sold in the same period as AX and BX following the discontinuation of last non-Peugeot CX) and realized that I saw an article on the web about names used by Chrysler autos that also shared with other carmakers before, as ZX and NX were also used by Nissan / Datsun for the same reasons Peugeot previously used the GR name before Toyota did – the XM from also Citroen was later and currently used by BMW in fact, then its probably because at that time when Nissan (before the 1999 Renault merger) already used the NX nameplate meant that Citroen rejected a plan to use it for a BX successor and opted to name the latter instead as Xantia (later replaced by C5) – as hence that name contains an uppercase X and a lowercase n.
But, in regards of the ad campaign – which is instead catered exclusively to North American brains since NA is where Toyota sells more cars there, then its not given how the rest of the CM (commercial) would only express marketing hype over the fight for survival and vice versa (VV), but also, with the addition of the fact Europeans (especially French and Italians as well Spanish, Portuguese etc.) are not known for advertising – also considering the lack / minimalism of historical presence of Italy in Asia-Pacific as well, then if the advert (to which Toyota critic the UK / Britain calls it) were made (but parodied) outside North America and (likewise) Asia – cars featured there apart from NX were instead taken place by Stellantis and Renault Group (except Nissan) vehicles just to keep Toyota in company… (Not only it may express the decline of Japanese automotive power, but also, it would even explain the stereotype of Toyota cars for being bland and less fun to drive…)
Please stop, just stop…
You hit me hard in the pun with “Toyotaku” and I will be using it from now on.
I saw this commercial a few days back and said something to the affect of “why are they wasting a 2000GT and LFA appearance for some SUV?” I guess it’s not like it’s really “wasting” anything, they didn’t crash them or anything, but just not sure it does much other than point out that Toyota can make amazing vehicles…but here’s another SUV.
I’m going to need a “Toyotaku” shirt.
I know its a commercial but do ad people really think these types of ads sell cars? My take aways:
1. No where in any city will you find a parking space that long. Does it really need that much space? If it does then the function is pretty useless.
2. In no city would road traffic ever stop to allow someone to do that. The owner would be dragged out of the cafe and run out of town.
3. I wonder how much the cafe charges for such expensive cars to be parked outside it.
4. The woman using the app looks very smug about what she is doing. Maybe the cars belong to an ex?
5. I am not sure if the woman in the cafe is impressed by the car or lusting after the woman.
6. The LFA and 200GT are very masculine yet the NSX is very feminine. See point 5.
I’d err on the side that the woman in the NX probably smacked the door into the 2kGT as she was getting out to let the car park for her, otherwise, we’d see both an LFA and GT get destroyed…