You guys are all missing one big point: Let's hope she doesn't wreck it. Don't forget, Lindsay Lohan, with DWIs, has already wrecked two Mercedes SL AMGs....and Paris Hilton, mentally, seems to be more or less from the same mold.

 

Whatever happened to "drive how it was meant to be".

 

Yeah, let's hope Paris doesn't actually own the car, that it's either a publicity stunt or the boyfriend owns it. If that is the case, we can't really call the buyer selection process silly if she in fact does not own the car.

 

Who cares if she owns it. She drives the other exotics she owns. Maybe she'll take an interest in the driving course? You never know. I still think this is just a prototype, and she'll get a pink one. If she's getting one. This might just be to show her what car she is getting, but in another color. I don't think she wants yellow. And that looks like it wasn't even delivered or anything. Weve heard nothing about it. I'm calling it a pre-production unit until we see some more info.

 

If she does own it, and she crashes it or gets a DUI, it will be bad publicity for Lexus.

 

I doubt it. I didn't think it was bad publicity for Mercedes when she got a DUI in her Mercedes SLR.

I can't imagine Mercedes lost sales because of that.

 

All this stuff about bad publicity is wrong. Who does Paris hang out with? The answer is other powerful people with lots of $$$ to spend. This is the smart way to get your brand/product known. If you think about it Lexus isn't a celebrities first choice unless it is a hybrid. Its always an exotic or Mercedes, BMW, Range Rover and so on. If Lexus did do this as publicity they were smart. Everyone on here saying its bad publicity would most likely never have the means to buy this car, so it won't tarnish the reputation of the LFA. It could potentially lead to other celebs buying the LFA, giving Lexus a boost. Im no fan of Paris and how much she makes for doing the stupid s*** she does, but I do see where this could help the brand. In all reality who says "im not going to buy a Mercedes cause Paris has one or Lohan crashed one?" Its a completely unrealistic argument.

 

She does have an ownership interest an a MotoGP team.

 

I think it can be good for the brand as long as Paris drives the car a lot and doesn't do anything outrageously stupid with the car .

I do agree, having a celebrity with an exotic Lexus, as opposed to just a hybrid Lexus can certainly help the brand.

 

you are missing the point on this car in a few of your posts. all along the way, lexus says they want to select the owners for their enthusiasm as well as the fact that they will appreciate the engineering of this car, one that lexus is proud of (from engineering stand point).

that is what i think affects lexus' image. if they didn't have this "requirement" or process, then honestly i would just laugh and move on. like you said, it's just another person with another nice car, they drive around. but with what lexus trying to portrait with the car and selection process, a lot of question marks came up.

yes you are right, to me what makes this case special or different is that lexus supposedly selected the owners. when lohan crashed her sl65, or when paris drive her pink or whatever bentley, i really don't feel much. i say sad to the car, but it doesn't affect what i think of the brand. they have money, they buy the car, power to them.

your post basically summed up the controversy and the uncertainty. yes, things could be overblown, but why? to me that's because of the picture that lexus tried to paint since the very beginning regarding the purchase program. if you ask me now, yes, i think they probably care about finding enough people with money to pay for the car than to find out about their driving background. but that doesn't de-value what they said in the beginning

yeah sure zach might not have the money (anything can be true). but remember s2000tois350 talking about his allocation and his phone call with the GM where he said 3-4 other very rich customers are all mad? well, how to explain them then? maybe the GM was bluffing.

and the fact that lexus didn't look at your driving background (unless they have CIA looking into you), like CDNROCKIES, maybe just enough to prove and show how much hype and bs lexus put up. see, we aren't the one brewing bs, we are just sticking to what lexus said and claimed, and putting it side by side with the conflicts we see here, and question about what's going on

i am happy to see the lfa on the road, and probably won't care much about who's driving it (unless that's me of course). judgment on her that's a simple fact of celebrity life, they are just center of discussion. of course, except that for paris, she basically made her life a very negative topic to talk about

if that's lexus' way, sure. hey, it even gets on tv show, that's good

but with the hype they put up? meh

 

Hopefully Paris does not ruin the perfect LFA like she did with her Bentley by turning it into pink on wheels.

 

Agreed.

It wouldn't matter to me one little bit if the car had just been put up on the open market and sold to the highest bidder. To "sell" it in the way that Lexus did and then, apparently, show that it was all a dog and pony show devalues the significance of Lexus in the supercar segment.

For those that are attempting to diminish the importance of this, realize that this car is now not sold out like had been reported initially. Now Lexus is in a position where they've pissed off many of the potential buyers. How do you now justify to those not originally "selected" that there are now cars available?

"Ummm....yes Mr. Buffett....we didn't think you were worthy of buying our car previously as you aren't enough of an "enthusiast" to project the image we are looking for....but we weren't able to sell them all....so if you still want one we'd now be happy to take your money."

Imo, if this is the route they planned all along, they should have opened it up freely and let guys like Leno, Seinfeld, etc. put them in their garages....even if only to be a part of a collection. At least you could respect them as dedicated car guys.

The very wealthy do NOT like to be told they can't have something. To first be told that they were not selected and then find out the car isn't sold out and that the selection process is a joke will cause many of them to avoid the brand like the plague.

Again, agreed.

I'm not hating on the LF A....I love it. However, Lexus shady portrayal of how the "selection" process works reflects very poorly on them and will not endear them to people with the kind of money to buy this car.

 

Anyway. I think the LFA is a great car, and it doesn't matter to me who they sell it to.

But my favorite sports car right now is the McLaren MP4-12C. Amazing technology in that one. I can't imagine if they could combine the chassis of the MP4-12C with the engine of the LFA.

 

For the record Lexus turned me down for my LFA allocation b/c they said I am a thug and I post too much and didn't want to me post Youtube vids of beating Civics with fartcans all day.

 

ROFL. That is funny.