Really? If I remember correctly, Lexus was taken very seriously as a rival then.
However, their later models never reached the same level of quality as the first one. It is said that Toyota, the parent company, didn’t make any revenue on the first one, but only with the later ones…
Sadly, other manufacturers also struggled with declining product quality after the late Nineties. Yes, I‘m looking at you, Mercedes…
I had to take a car to Ohio to a friend who was in medical residency. It was S class, maybe a 2002 or so. You couldn’t use the AM radio (I wanted to listen to Rush). You could get static and what I think was the spark plugs.
The car had lots of problems, not just that, but it’s unacceptable in a car that expensive.
Then I took the Lexus that belonged to his father-in-law back home. The difference was night and day. The Lexus had a much sportier feel, was faster and had not one problem.
If one were to plop down a load of money on a car a Lexus is the better choice.