Toward the end of the 80s Mercedes, BMW and Porsche made quite possibly their historically best products. Their quality was still high and their tech was still the best. The MB 560s and the top end BMW 7 Series but also some of the 5 series and of course Porsche had done the 959 (not really a big run) but vehicles like that. They were doing well. But in late 90 or 91 Toyota through its new Lexus brand introduced the LS 400 and it was better as was the next generation of LS 400. They took what was good in the German products and made something that was simply better and would stand the test of time- the sum of its parts was a higher quality product. It knocked the Germans on their buts. The quality and art in Lexus has subsequently declined but the Germans declined faster even as they regained much of their market share. Lexus still makes better cars than they do. The Germans said they sacrificed quality for a while to electronics. It is not true, the quality never came back. But Tesla isn't Lexus and the technology changes Tesla is a harbinger for means these ICE makers are really just yesterday's buggy makers. They've been reduced to furniture makers.
I've been seeing the same thing. About the only thing anyone can complain about Tesla compared to luxury cars is the quality of the furniture (and maybe a bit more sound deadening insulation). Mechanically, the Tesla is better than everything the luxury cars have been struggling to achieve throughout their whole existence.
What's interesting about Lexus, is initially they were very advanced cars. The SC400 is a technological marvel of it's time. Once the brand became established Toyotas bean counters took over and now your simply buying a Toyota with a fancier interior. Good on them if they can fool customers to pay more money. But you can't expect that strategy to last forever. It'll be interesting to track Lexus sales over the next 5 years, as sales of electric vehicles move out of the 2% share and into the 20% plus market share.
