situman

I dont understand why Lexus would put prospective owners thru such pain, especially since its the company's first supercar. Let the owners buy it or whatevers. They can do whatever they want wit it and if it appreciates in value thru constant hand changing, even better. At the end of the day, rich people dont like the hassle. Their mentality is "here's my money, now give me what I want." Well, not all, but most.

05RollaXRS

I really hope Lexus does that. Although, the chief engineer has said it runs faster than 7:20 on Nurburgring, having the press there and run a timed lap is the best thing for the LFA track prowess.

I am sure later on independent publications like sport auto will be doing a super test on LFA around Nurburgring, but still before the production model comes out, Lexus should officially give a Nurburgring lap time for LFA.

aQuarius26

iTrader: (2)

So is that 7:19 official at least?

05RollaXRS

Official enough to be on the nurburgring lap time on wikipedia etc.

When the chief engineer got asked several times by the press about the best Nurburgring lap times, he replied with "has been lapping at better than 7:20".

That pretty much makes it 7:19 at the very least. If he is being conservative, 7:18 is not out of the question. The Nurburgring edition will probably be around 7:16 or so.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

so recently i notice more lfa commercials (at least a 2nd one), and of course the past 2 weeks the cool ad on yahoo.com. so i have been thinking...

when the first lfa commercial came out, i consider that more of a lexus commercial than lfa commercial. it's to talk about lexus brand, the direction they are heading, and what they are achieving. i think from that perspective, the commercial was great.

but then it comes a 2nd one, and then the yahoo ad. all with JUST the lfa and no other lexus. then it started to hit me that maybe they are trying to sell the lfa instead. i talked to a few friends of mine, and some of them have the same feeling too. suddenly, that becomes a no-no to me. for a car like this, doing public commercial to sell the car, i am not sure if that's a great idea.

ferrari and lamborghini never have commercials on tv. porsche didn't have commercial on the gt. aston martin doesn't have commercials on their cars neither. a car in this caliber, a 400k car, like it or not, exclusivity is a key, and using public channels to sell the car, i don't know, that somehow cheapens the car a little bit in my eyes.

of course, that's my observation, and it's my assumption that they are trying to sell the car rather than promoting the brand. but that makes me think that lexus has to be careful. it's great to improve brand image with lfa, but if they make people think they are trying too hard to try sell the car, then it sounds a bit weird.

some people would say for ferrari, lamborghini and porsche, they already have their history, heritage, and reputation to build off, whereas lexus doesn't. i absolutely agree, but at the same time i don't think that's excuse for them to sell the car this way. there are other better channels to get the car out to exotic owners and people who can afford the car, whereas selling the car through commercials, randomly thinking, probably more than 95% of people can't afford the car at all to begin with. i wonder back in the days when lamborghini first came out, did they advertise on tv?

i was talking to my friend today, who had lunch and hung out with his friends (one with 599, one with murc). they both know about lfa, but they are not considering the car. they know lfa performance wise is great and arguably one of the fastest car for the price, but they say a lot of exotic owners, speed is not that high up on the priority list. a lot of time the cars are more of a status, symbol, etc... and with that in mind, at 400k, a lot of cars come before lfa (lexus). they also commented about the 2 yr lease thing and said that makes it even less attractive.

after hearing that, it seems to me that might ultimately still the reason why lexus has trouble selling the lfa here in the US. people who can afford 400k and with the interest to spend that kind of money, lexus still have some way to go to "give" the owners what they want

i am not trying to discredit the lfa, it's a great car and i love it, but i have been looking at it and the marketing behind. i am sure there are people out there (gengar for example) who appreciate the engineer, the details, and the performance behind the car and thus buying it, but here in the US market, will it be able to hit their target to find 150-170 such buyers? reality seems to say otherwise so far.

gengar

I'm not sure I buy that because, based on posts here, if Lexus wanted to sell out the LFA they'd merely have to increase allocation to Japan.

05RollaXRS

x 2

I think Lexus is trying to use LFA as a brand image in those commercials. They already have 120 - 130 firm orders in the US for the LFA. They only have to sell less than 50 more.

Or they could increase allocations in Canada. They allocated only 10 for Canada and all of them sold out rather quickly. 3 of them are coming here in Alberta. I am sure another 5 - 10 more Canadian billionaire/millionaire enthusiasts will be willing to put an LFA in their garage.

Dave600hL

Yes please.

@ rominl,I would guess that is more to show what they are capable of. Well that is the way I see the ads.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

of course, my whole post was about US sales and allocations, and only that. the commercial is shown here in the US so that's the market they are for, that's what i am talking about.

to be honest, if they move all the unsold cars here in the US to japan, i am pretty sure they will all sell right the way. but obviously lexus doesn't want to do that, that's why they are still trying to sell the lfa here in the US and the 866 line is still open. i think lexus does not want to sell more than a certain number of lfa in japan because they want the car to be spread out more across different regions. in the end, this is a halo car for them to prove what they are capable of.

one thing no one can deny is lexus is still trying to sell lfa here in the US. and i don't think i have read any solid report saying that there are 120-130 confirmed orders on lfa here in the US. in fact i don't think anyone (except lexus) knows for sure how many lfa has been sold here in the US

rominl

iTrader: (4)

lol dave, of all people, you are the guy i most definitely want to see picking up a lfa! let's just say i am trying to get more information and see if there is anyway the allocation can be "tampered" with

G Star

iTrader: (2)

There could also be another reason for the commercials. To show Lexus is taking interest in the performance category and getting younger buyers' attention through the LFA. I see the LFA commercial at some tech news sites and randomly advertised throughout the internet even on Hulu commercials. They're showing that Lexus can be exciting too.

Dave600hL

Hmmmm... I like that word "tampered"! LOL

rominl

iTrader: (4)

lol yes, if there is a way to get you the car!

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i have a suspicion they're not selling well (not sold out) in the u.s. with the horrible economy and with higher taxes all but certain for high income people by new year.

switching allocation to elsewhere is a possibility, but depending on their purchasing/manufacturing timelines, it might not be that simple due to LHD/RHD needs.

xioix

Some people might not like the way Lexus at 1st handled it, as some people might not like that they had to prove to Lexus why they deserved to own one

E.G. Zach Levi, he called Lexus to get more info and was thinking about getting it, but the folks at Lexus decide that Zach was not worthy to have an LFA in his garage