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The consolidation of brands that occurred in the 80's & 90's was an action taken by the manufacturers to create greater economies of scale. The logic went something like the more units you sold allowed the cost of the cars development to be spread.
This is all good and well however an established brand is cheaper to acquire than creating a new barnd. This is why we saw the major car companies (GM, Ford, VW) went about acquiring the smaller ones (Volvo, SAAB, Jag, Seat) and/or merged (Diamler-Chrysler).
While Toyota did go down the Lexus path one would say it has certainly been a harder task.
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