Subject: 
        JAN 98, page 29, LS400
   Date: 
        Thu, 04 Dec 1997 00:50:39 -0500
   From: 
        Omar Abou-Zied 
     To: 
        mjordan@cis.compuserve.com
    CC: 
        davide@cis.compuserve.com;, lccrane@cis.compuserve.com;, automobile@cis.compuserve.com


Dear Mr. Jordan,

In April 1992 you correctly referred to Mercedes-Benz as "a shrine
visited too often, a coin passed through too many hands."  I'm appalled
by your latest suggestion that respect be granted to one of the greatest
counterfeit coins: the LS400.  Your connoisseurship is thoroughly rusted
by alleging Mercedes-Benz copies Lexus.  Sir, you are blind.  Please
(!), justify your frank, hit-and-run statement.

I'll remind you "just where everybody started."  The 1990 LS400 copied
the grille, side-molding, chrome trim, and foot-engaged parking brake
from Mercedes.  Similarly, BMW's 7-Series is caricatured by its B- and
C-pillars--a deviant switch.  Remember the sudden change to 9-hole
wheels after Mercedes introduced 8-hole wheels in 1992?  How about the
gated shifter on the 1995 model?  Cascading trapezoid headlamps are now
pilfered from the 600 Coupe.  Again, the latest LS400 wheels filch style
from Sport-packaged Mercedes.  Even the circumscribed "L" is
questionable.  Call it pretentious prestidigitation.

Dependence upon Bruno Sacco is also evident in the Lexus GS400 & RX300;
Infiniti Q45; Acura TL/RL; Honda Prelude (SLK silhouette/lamps); Jaguar
saloon decklids; Chrysler Sebring coupes, and then some.  Call them
Masquerades-Benz.  The leader of the automotive world is still
Mercedes-Benz.

Toyota's LS400 is an appliance lacking character, soul, and history. 
It's a spurious work that shamelessly plagiarizes the Mercedes design
vocabulary.  You find it "difficult to see the LS400 with a fresh eye,"
but masquerades are occurring with greater frequency and audacity.

Mistakenly praised as an original in 1990, the Q45 was a Jaguar from the
door-handles up.  Today it's the best copy of the current Mercedes
S-Class.  Not surprisingly, the travesty made its recent advertising
debut at a masquerade ball.

Now that's "one of life's little ironies."

Absolutely,

Omar Abou-Zied
Alexandria, VA