Although people love to hate its newest models' design – especially when it comes to that spindle grille – sales numbers are proving otherwise. In August, Lexus grabbed top spot on the luxury vehicle sales chart, outselling Mercedes and BMW. "As BMW and Mercedes move down-market, the Lexus strategy has been very different," Bloomberg Intelligence's auto analyst Kevin Tynan commented. "It's more about the Japanese building quality and reliability and not trying to out-German the Germans."

Lexus owes much of its success to the NX crossover, which was accountable for 4,448 units sales out of the brand's 33,487 total deliveries. A not-so-close second, with 28,373 units sold, was Mercedes, with the new C-Class enjoying a 39 percent increase over 2014 numbers and the GLA crossover selling 2,169 units. BMW came in third last month, with total sales of 27,775 and the 3 Series still leading the company's sales charts. In a year-to-date examination, BMW is still heading the sales charts for 2015, with its 223,248 units delivered. In this category, Lexus has now overtaken Mercedes with 222,151, Leaving Merc in third place with 220,870.