Originally Posted by kickhard

Lets be real here. People who can afford these types of cars are looking for something special and making a special marketing program for this car is kinda silly. It will not draw more prospects in the door as these prospects are very limited. To some prospects this car is still a toyota! This car is an exercise in engineering which in turn will draw interest and prospects for its volume money maker cars hopefully. Thats it really. What I find funny is lexus spent more money advertising and showing this car than Nissan did with the GTR. I have only seen a GTR in a nissan TV spot maybe 2 times and it was not even a spot about the GTR. It was a spot about all Nissans.

Is the LFA special enough? At its price point? Did lexus really do the right thing in its sales process by offering the 2 yr lease thing as most people who own these types of cars are in and out of them quickly? Will the LFA retain its value? or will it fall on its face in resale? Is the 170+units way to much for the US market? Is this car special enough to sway Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, Aston, etc.. owners over to try this car? This market tough to crack even with a great product.

I dont know but I do feel the car is special with a lot of awesome technology. I honestly feel Lexus missed the price point here and should have offered this car in the 250,000 range with over 1000 world wide. It took over 10 years to get to this point and we will probably never see a pure drivers LFA after this one. Lexus is losing money on every car anyway so why not spread the car out as much as possible. You would hope lexus uses the chassis, technology and engine in other models to help offset development cost but we will see.

I think the journalist had some very good points even if he never sat in one or drove it. Some are true some not. Just because we are Lexus fans, nutswingers........ doesnt mean we should not be in touch with reality and the journalist gave a dose of it.............

Originally Posted by TommyJames

I have more confidence in the LFA than I ever did before this past weekend and I think it will find its market. Who knows how sales will ultimately shake out, but so far, I think the car speaks for itself.

Originally Posted by TommyJames

The silly lease, selection process, all that stuff is now gone. They thought they were going to have a problem that never materialized that was largely dealer driven, where each dealer had at least one customer who wanted a car. There were more dealers than cars available so they tried to create a criteria. Turns out, the demand wasn't as strong as first appeared. But, that doesn't mean the car is anything less in the market. As I said over a year ago, $400k exotics have not been flying out the door. It's an odd price point that sharply drops the number of potential customers when compared to anything even $100k less.

The car did require a very special marketing program and in my opinion, it wasn't targeted nearly enough at the right group. From the start, Lexus focused on wealthy individuals rather than exotic owners. Not one of us in the Seattle area were ever contacted in any way about the LFA and it's been completely off the radar until this past weekend. There is no other exotic manufacturer who's been anywhere near as silent with the exotic community. We've had every manufacturer contact at least one of us if not all of us, except for Lexus. So, even though it's a great car, it's absolutely no surprise it's not sold out.

I have more confidence in the LFA than I ever did before this past weekend and I think it will find its market. Who knows how sales will ultimately shake out, but so far, I think the car speaks for itself.

Originally Posted by rominl

now this is i think it says a lot. and same when hearing all the exotic owners talking about this. i most definitely hope lexus will find the market it's been searching for the lfa here in the US soon!

Originally Posted by 05RollaXRS

Yeah, that was Calgary. Originally Lexus told me 2 LFAs were coming to Calgary through the "ballot" process since the number of applicants far exceeded the 10 allocations to Canada.

So after the buyer pulled out, they pulled another name from the ballot and it came out to be some guy in Vancouver so that LFA was re-allocated to that guy in Vancouver increasing the Vancouver bound from 5 to 6.

Originally Posted by TommyJames

I think this is a very important point. Some exotic guys just don't want to drive the same thing as everyone else. There are guys in our exotic community that won't buy a F458 because they already think there are too many in the area.

Originally Posted by kickhard

Lets be real here. People who can afford these types of cars are looking for something special and making a special marketing program for this car is kinda silly. It will not draw more prospects in the door as these prospects are very limited. To some prospects this car is still a toyota! This car is an exercise in engineering which in turn will draw interest and prospects for its volume money maker cars hopefully. Thats it really. What I find funny is lexus spent more money advertising and showing this car than Nissan did with the GTR. I have only seen a GTR in a nissan TV spot maybe 2 times and it was not even a spot about the GTR. It was a spot about all Nissans.Is the LFA special enough? At its price point? Did lexus really do the right thing in its sales process by offering the 2 yr lease thing as most people who own these types of cars are in and out of them quickly? Will the LFA retain its value? or will it fall on its face in resale? Is the 170+units way to much for the US market? Is this car special enough to sway Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, Aston, etc.. owners over to try this car? This market tough to crack even with a great product.

I dont know but I do feel the car is special with a lot of awesome technology. I honestly feel Lexus missed the price point here and should have offered this car in the 250,000 range with over 1000 world wide. It took over 10 years to get to this point and we will probably never see a pure drivers LFA after this one. Lexus is losing money on every car anyway so why not spread the car out as much as possible. You would hope lexus uses the chassis, technology and engine in other models to help offset development cost but we will see.

I think the journalist had some very good points even if he never sat in one or drove it. Some are true some not. Just because we are Lexus fans, nutswingers........ doesnt mean we should not be in touch with reality and the journalist gave a dose of it.............

Originally Posted by 07grIS350

This is what I have been saying all along. Lexus built the car and they positioned it with the exclusivity factor to arrive at that price. They probably feel that 500 units is enough to establish the desired halo image, and at the same time giving the customers something really special that is only comparable to top European exotics in term of availability.
From that POV, they are reaching at something most others luxury car companies have not dare to try.

Originally Posted by TommyJames

That's the problem: The number of cars doesn't get them anything unless they continue to spend money, either on the next car, or on sustaining the image of the car. They didn't build enough cars to sustain the value of the high end from the image side and it's too many to sustain the value of the cars on the manufacturing side unless you do something to sustain the brand image for that niche, something they are not doing. There is zero evidence to support 179 cars at $400k doing anything but depreciating. I've seen the arguments about other cars appreciating, but they started at a much lower number, not $400k. Remember it only takes the sale of one car at a low price to pull everything down. I've brought this up directly with Lexus.

So many people think that because they only plan to build 500 that it's somehow a good thing. I told Lexus directly that I think it's a bad thing without them sustaining that segment of the market somehow.

Originally Posted by 07grIS350

I did not say anything about depreciation. I am not sure how that's relevant to my point regarding the exclusivity of the LFA. What I am saying is the premium in the LFA price is due to its exclusivity, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Do you have any proof that 500 LFAs did not do anything for Lexus? I believe Lexus did not enter the exotic segment to stay. The LFA is just a halo product that was designed to enhance the image of the luxury car company. Therefore, I think it's just plain wrong to approach it as your normal exotic offers. I think you would be very disappointed if you're expecting Lexus to continue in the exotic space beyond the LFA.

Originally Posted by 07grIS350

This is what I have been saying all along. Lexus built the car and they positioned it with the exclusivity factor to arrive at that price. They probably feel that 500 units is enough to establish the desired halo image, and at the same time giving the customers something really special that is only comparable to top European exotics in term of availability.
From that POV, they are reaching at something most others luxury car companies have not dare to try.

Originally Posted by kickhard

Lexus should not have to search for a market. The market should be and is already there however small it may be. You have to instead create the reason why these people should buy the LFA vs the other exotics out there exclusivity, performance, value, etc.....
Well Lexus better hurry because it doesnt have much time before the production of this car will end and then you will have LFA's sitting at port and showrooms which in turn will hurt the value and resale value of this car. Lexus doesnt want to see LFA's sold at thousands of dollars discounted just so they can move them

Originally Posted by TommyJames

Sorry, but depreciation is on the minds of virtually all exotic owners. Second once the cars are sold and the publicity dies down, there is no image gain. It goes away. Nobody thinks the old NSX is helping Acura. In fact the lack of follow-on cars on the road hurts them because the used car owners have an entirely different image.

You have such strong opinions, but what is your experience branding products? What experience do you have with exotics? I'd love to know the basis for your opinions.

Originally Posted by 07grIS350

You'd care about depreciation most if you looked at the exotic car as a short term weekend toy. You'd need to know where the funds would come from for your next best and greatest temptations. I guess only these buyers would discount the exclusivity factor Lexus baked into the LFAs.
I have zero experience in branding, but I do believe Lexus has experts in the area. How else did they become such a huge success in a short time, while Acura and Infiniti are just another luxury wanabees. I think you are concentrating too hard on the LFA and missing the big picture. I believe the LFA is just the initial step in Lexus's strategy for building a successful F line of cars. To me, the SC-F, GS-F, 2G IS-F and whatever F cars will be the follow up vehicles to the LFA. This is where the LFA investment would be judged by the company.
Didn't Lexus break into the luxury car segment with LS400 to compete with the top models from other brands? Then they successfully expanded downwards, relying on the reputation built by the LS. I see very strong parallels here.

Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX

Some good posts, again my issue is again with these **** poor articles on auto news sites more than with solid complaints about the car itself.

Question for yall. If the LFA sold 450 units or around 90% of its production run instead of 500, would you consider it a "failure"? I'm not even sure what to think yet. As I stated before, quite frankly its astonishing Lexus sold one . Lexus is the only Japanese brand with a car over 100k and that is the LS 600 then you leap to 375k to the LFA.