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The story
A post about BMW’s redesigned 3 Series sparked a lively comparison of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Lexus popularity on 5ch’s “Hello! Project” board. Posters cited each brand’s Instagram follower counts (BMW: 44.21 million, Mercedes-Benz: 39.04 million, Lexus: 5.15 million) and YouTube subscriber numbers one after another, turning the discussion toward why long-established luxury brand Lexus trails so far behind on social media. Some praised Lexus’s “overwhelming reliability,” while many others pointed to its weak brand power, and some even questioned whether the comparison was fair to begin with — opinions were split.
What people said
Setting the pace for the sports sedan once more. THE NEW BMW 3 and THE NEW BMW i3.
Available with petrol or all-electric powertrains.
The hood's tall enough to make you think it's a diesel, but I bet there's nothing but empty space underneath.
Isn't that for pedestrian safety?
Something about needing clearance space with the engine.
Japan's apparently one of the only places where Mercedes outsells BMW.
Lexus is even further below that.
44.21 million — BMW
39.04 million — Mercedes-Benz
5.15 million — Lexus
We lost the same war — why such a huge gap?
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Giving off Renault vibes.
Barely any YouTube subscribers either.
It's basically become an out-of-touch brand for people who don't use the internet.
Compared to BMW and Mercedes, Lexus is a newcomer too.
BYD's garbage.
2.05 million — BMW
2.45 million — Mercedes-Benz
270,000 — Lexus
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing: 39.2 million.
That's because they're totally focused on GR right now.
Wasn't Lexus's whole selling point, even against other gas cars, quietness and refinement?
That's exactly why Nissan, and lately Honda, went downhill.
Being built on Toyota reliability underneath counts for a lot.
Overwhelming reliability, obviously.
That just means it has no value as a luxury brand, so that's no good.
Don't you know about the "Lexus Shock" from the original LS400 (sold in Japan as the Celsior)?
Selling well in America is all a car really needs.
There's no point if you can't win in luxury cars.
No idea who you're arguing with or what point you're even trying to make.
Used to own one, secondhand though.
It's a torque kind of car.
The only way to stay competitive would be for Japanese workers' wages to sink to the bottom of Asia.
There's no escaping this race to the bottom.
I get what the designer was going for.
If the grille alone is the "nostrils," it just ends up looking like nostrils.
So they stretched it up into the headlights to say "these are eyes, not nostrils, got a problem with that?"
But this just looks like Hyundai.
This one's a no-go.
Ah, I get it — they turned the two nostrils into two eyes.
abroad, BMW drivers all seem to share the same reputation —
it's known as the car driven by reckless, low-class types, and that reputation is terrible.
In Japan the image is totally different, more like something a small-time rich guy drives.
Also overseas it's said to break down constantly and eat money.
I get that impression too, but
in Japan, Mercedes has an even stronger "thug" image than BMW.
Tough guys drive Benzes lol
BMW's got more of a "softie" image.
Even in Japan, BMW has that "reckless driving" image.
Whether EV adoption keeps accelerating from here or not, once you've established the luxury brand first, you're fine either way.
Even if you can't differentiate on motors or batteries, it's enough if the logo itself carries value.
But that logo would be Chinese.
A logo's value isn't in the physical product, it's value as information.
Even if Louis Vuitton manufactured in Bangladesh, that wouldn't turn it into a "Bangladesh" brand.
Um… wait, do you actually think it's made in China??
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The new 3 Series was reportedly announced with both gas and EV (i3) versions sold side by side, and the timing coincided with BMW’s generational model change — that’s what kicked off the thread. The discussion then shifted away from design and toward whether it’s even valid to use social media follower and subscriber counts as a measure of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Lexus’s popularity. Some pushed back in the comments, calling it “idiotic to compare a whole company’s numbers to a single model,” pointing out a mismatch: follower counts represent an entire brand, while the actual topic at hand was individual models. There were also points raised about Lexus sales being concentrated in the U.S. market and about Toyota diverting development resources to GR (Gazoo Racing), but the thread never actually examined how either of those factors might relate to Lexus’s weak social media presence.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “The New BMW 3 Series Got a Huge Design Overhaul and It Looks Amazing.”
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