Any idea how many will be built a year? How many are allocated for US/Canada and the rest of the world a year? Will they be more exclusive compared to the M3, C63, RS4, CTS-V?

 

there will probably be less built due to customer loyalty and legacies to the other cars you mentioned...

 

my dealer says they'll only get 6 this year coming to hawaii. unless you preorder with 1000 down payment. I got the second one on the island.

 

From what I have found on the internet. 5000 coming to U.S. , 500 to Europe, 500 to Japan, and 500 more but dont know location.

 

This is correct. To do the math 5000units/12months=416. Last time I checked, there was 214 dealers so it comes out to be 1.9 per dealer. This car will be very exclusive.

 

It does work out to about 2 per dealer but that's every month. Heck until just recently the GS430/GS460 sold lower than that.

5000 a year is a pretty good target for Lexus for year one in such a new market from them. I would be willing to bet that many people think that number is crazy high while others think that number is low.

 

When a car company or any company for that matter can make/sell more but choose not to make/sell more - Ferrari Lambo etc - to deliverately to keep the number down, I would call that exclusive.

When the compnay can make more but choose to only make certain number b/c they cannot sell more than its direct competitors in the same market, I would call that noncompetitive or unambitious, NOT exclusive

 

It's true that Lexus could pump out as many IS-F as they want but keep in mine there are other factors involved. The new C.A.F.E. standard, market changes, consumer demands, aftermarket suppliers...etc. Also this is a first for Lexus so they are being overly conservative regards to production volume.

What makes you think Lexus can't sell more than it's competitors. That was that same think back in the late 80s when Lexus was launched and look at where they are. Also base on your statement you are saying that Audi(RS4), BMW(M), Mercedes(AMG), Chevy(ZR-1) are not exclusive?

 

I don't know about ZR1 but E46 M3 sold something just short of 100000 world wide. And I think I saw somewhere they are gonna pump out more than 100000 of E92 M3 for the whole production run. I wouldn't call that exclusive. I know RS4 and C63 AMG didn't sell as many but the reason they didn't sell as much is not b/c Audi or Benz artificially keep the number down to be "exclusive". It's b/c whatever they sold is about how many they can sell. Same for IS-F. 5000 or whatever is the number is what they can sell or what they think they can sell.

On the other hand, Ferrari could certainly sell more of 430 or 599 if they choose to make more, as the 1yr + waiting list for those cars not to mention you can't even get 599 unless you were a previous Ferrari customer can tell you. That's exclusive.

 

haha actually its more like a 3 year wait list now... they already broke their limit of 5000 cars per year ...

 

My point is, in this performance/sport coupe/sedan/vert category where IS-F M3 RS4 S4 C63amg is fighting for same possible buyers, you can't say IS-F is exclusive b/c there is gonna be less number of IS-F vs M3. The reason there will be less IS-F vs say M3 is not b/c Lexus kept the number down artificially to make it "exclusive", it's b/c for whatever reason, more buyers choose M3 over IS-F. Just like you can't say Ford is more exclusive than Toyota just b/c they sell less cars now. The reason Ford sell less than Toyota is not b/c Ford can sell more but decide to keep the number down. It's b/c people buy more Toyota than Ford for whatever reason - more reliable etc whatever.

 

The C63 isn't even supposed to be available in the US for another month - how on earth can you posit exclusivity based on sales of something that hasn't even sold here?

I can't speak for the C55, but the C43 was most definitely exclusive, even by your limited definition, and sold above MSRP for nearly its entire life. I bought mine lightly used from a dealer and still paid more than MSRP.

 

Well my point is IS-F is not "exclusive".

 

so how would you all define 'exclusive'

 

exclusive is a relative word...