UDel

https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motora...192812270.html

New Lexus LFAs still unsold two years after production ended




Even today, four years after Toyota's Lexus division set out into the supercar world with the 552-hp, V-10-engined Lexus LFA, the car seems like a mirage. After a decade of planning and research, only 500 were built — meticulously, mostly by hand — with prices of $375,000 each. Able to be customized in 30 million ways, a special edition of the LFA lapped the Nürburgring in near-record time in 2011, and Lexus shut down production in 2012.

Two years later, Lexus still has unsold LFAs waiting as patiently as pastors in its U.S. showrooms. Last month it sold two; in 2014, it moved 17. Most new cars spend an average of just over two months on a dealer's lot; at this rate, the 2012 model year LFA might finally sell out in the United States right around Halloween. Why does such a fast car move so slowly out of Lexus showrooms?

Blame the unicorn nature of the LFA, starting with its price. At that level, the LFA is more expensive than every new Ferrari before options, and just slightly less expensive than a Lamborghini Aventador. Those cars have devoted followers and fans who ogle them on the street; despite its rarity and performance, the LFA has never garnered such a cult. And since it was a single model, with no predecessor, successor or even real link to the rest of the Lexus lineup, there was no momentum to remind new buyers of its existence.

It's not uncommon for high-end cars to sit on dealer lots for months and even years before a sale; higher-end, low-output manufacturers are loathe to discount their metal just to move it, fearing the damage to residual values across their lineup. Lexus isn't going to throw a cheap lease deal on the LFA, and the dealers who have one are content to use it as showroom sculpture until just the right person shows up.

We asked Lexus for comment on LFA sales, and didn't hear back, but best we can tell there are 18 new LFAs listed for sale in national databases, some with prices as high as $450,000. The new F line of performance Lexus models was meant to evoque the spirit of the LFA, and its possible that upon seeing there are still a few around, a few drivers of means will swing by after getting their Bentley serviced. But it's just as likely that by December there may be a lone LFA or two, still waiting after all these years.



I was pretty surprised when I clicked on Yahoo to see a front page article on the LFA, not the best press for the LFA but it is a interesting read. Shows they did not end up selling all 500 and several are still at dealerships. Looks like if you are in the market for a new one you still have plenty of time and choices.

gengar

Yahoo is desperate for clicks today, apparently. Nothing here other than the same old regurgitated nonsense that could be dispelled quickly from any number of sources, not in the least our very own forum here.

S2000toIS350

Not any fan of what Yahoo generally purports as news but I do not see much to dispell here

05RollaXRS

Desperate for news items have not much for them to write about.

17 out of 180 LFAs for same in US, which is around 9% and that is supposedly a big deal for Yahoo. That is laughable.

Compared to pages after pages Ferraris and Lamborghinis for sale on Dupont Registry, that is an extremely small percentage.

MrMark

iTrader: (3)

I'll take on off their hands....

Gojirra99

But those 17 LFA's are never registered to a real owner and thus reported as a sale officially in their sales report 2 years after production, whereas vast majority of those Lambos and Ferrari's in Dupont Registry are really used cars with at least a couple thousand miles on them, plus there are vastly more ferrari's and lambos of a much much wider range of model years in existence anyway, so hardly comparable apples to apples ......

gengar

Wow, where to even start with inaccuracies in the article?

1. The Nür LFA lap was a record time;
2. the LaFerrari obviously costs more;
3. let's not forget that the LFA apparently easily sold out everywhere but the US (gg Lexus on pissing off its Japanese fans);
4. any LFA sale at this point is a dealer-purchased car, and hardly qualifies as new (even if never registered);
5. most of the "listings" for "new" LFA sales are fake, as previously discussed on this forum (the VINs are fake or don't match known info).

As I mentioned above, those are basically used cars sold as new. Lexus dealers played games with the LFA by placing speculative orders or agreeing to take on future deliveries because they can get away with driving cars around without registering them - so they get to "own" the LFA while still advertising a "new" car. A while back I got contacted by a dealer in Houston asking me if I was interested in their "new" Nür LFA. It had something like 400 miles on it.

Don't get me wrong - there is a lot Lexus did wrong with how they sold the LFA in the USA and I have been openly critical of these decisions (not the least of which was upping LFA allocation in the USA well past demand - from ~120 to 150 to 179). But what's incredible is that none of these are the criticisms being leveled by wannabe Internet journalists or the legions of fanboys on the Internet, and in fact many of the criticisms those groups choose to voice are completely false.

It just goes to show that people will put in great efforts to believe what they want to believe, even when those beliefs are utterly controverted by readily available truth.

lfahalo

Can somebody post an example of a fake listing? I'm not doubting that they exist, just want to see an example of this peculiarity and the evidence proving it is fake. Thank you.

gengar

I mentioned the fake listings issue here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...ml#post8235231 Some listings I saw did not even have a VIN for an LFA. On autotrader, the first two listings without pictures that I checked both had mismatched VINs (wrong color), so I didn't even bother checking more.

To figure out if a listing is fake, cross-reference the VIN with known models in our registry. I can check the autotrader listings again for fakes/mismatch VINs when I have more time.

ChickenIS

iTrader: (1)

Yahoo is not a good source for much beyond email. LFAs are nice.