To only make a limited number of them, make more and lower the price. Lots of tooling and lost talent making a limited number. Just not smart.

 

When to car is not profitable, making more at lower price will only increase loss. LC is the answer, unfortunately without the best engines in the world: 1LR-GUE.

 

Not buying that at all, I think most of the cost is R & D, plus there are lots of different ways in accounting to arrive at vastly different figures of costs and losses ......

 

I think it was more of a statement of what the brand is capable of, in the hopes that an iconic exotic might lure more buyers to the "regular" cars in the lineup. It's a form of Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.

Also, it was a way for Toyota to justify developing cutting-edge production methods that could possibly trickle down to the rest of the family line, just as new technologies on the LS are soon implemented on the GS, ES, etc. Maybe we'll see some carbon fiber A-pillars on the LC?

 

Simple answer

Lexus LFA was engineered from the ground up to be entirely hand built since everything is bespoke (unlike every other super cars that share many components/parts with other counterparts/predecessor and hence can be put on the same production line).

A mass produced car cannot be entirely hand built. Lexus carbon fiber process is entirely done by hand. Again, not possible with mass production.

Every LFA has all torque specs, every millimeter tolerance documented in a network database, which again is not possible with the existing machinery.

Secondly, exclusivity was a big part of the LFA philosophy taken from the 2000 GT. That was made very public in the initial press releases.

 

I find it very funny that any manufacture that makes a "nice" looking car has to price it out of sight.
Yes I understand the reason for the LFA price. But if any auto maker wants to make a statement, design and offer a good looking car. Kind of like ford and its GT40 same old price it out of sight and then say "well no one wanted it so we discontinued it" its like come on its not that we didn't like it, its we could not come up with the huge amount of money to buy it. Lexus sure made a statement to some of us. They used to make a nice looking car "LS400", but now just look at the predator (Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie) looking front end, I call it just ugly, along with the zero styling, sorry but Mercedes has them beat in the styling department. And the monkey see monkey do attitude to auto design is sickening. No one knows how to make a roof anymore. All manufactures make the same style because its cheap to do. Maybe they should go back and look at a 1st Gen LS400 and relearn what they all forgot. It would be a breath of fresh air to see a proper roof again. With no plastic strips to cover the pinch welds.

 

But, how does that apply to the Lexus LFA?

Ford might have discontinued the GT (Porsche did that with the Carrera GT, Mercedes did that with the SLR), but then again, how does that relate to Lexus?

 

First you complained: Awesome, nice-looking cars are so expensive.

Then you complained: Manufacturers make boring, similar-looking cars because they're inexpensive.

Hopefully you understand these are congruous statements and shine quite a bit of light on reality.

 

It all pertains.
The simple answer is they need to make inexpensive nice looking cars, just that simple.
Make an LFA lookalike with out all the fancy drive train and carbon fiber, use steel or Aluminum. Just make cars that have good styled bodies, there is absolutely no reason to have some crazy high HP engine for street use, it is a total waste when your limited to granny speeds on all the roads.
I just ask all manufactures to make a nice looking car like the LFA and the Mercedes SLS AMG, etc. and most of all make it affordable. Can we see how it all pertains now? Did I clear up the haze?

 

if manufactures stopped making crazy high horsepowers cars, and started making "affordable" good styling looking cars like the LFA, SLS AMG and etc, all the rich folks would be driving the same great styling cars as the average Joe, i dont think they would appreciate that much since it wouldnt help separate the distinction between the wealthy from the non wealthy.

manufactures make exotics/supercars for the exclusivity of ownership, and theres is always going to be someone in the 1% that will be able to afford it.

 

Interesting again that you bring up the LFA as an example, because many of the exterior design features on the LFA could not be done with steel or aluminum - so in fact, it's not possible to simply make a cheaper LFA clone with steel/aluminum.

I get what you're saying, but ultimately, designing and engineering cars is very expensive. Designing and engineering a car that looks great is costly, no different than designing and engineering a car that is fun to drive.

It's for this reason that we see Chinese carmakers basically copycat the physical appearance of other existing cars. They do it because It cuts so much cost to skip the design phase and just copy others - even if it is rather shameful and embarrassing.

 

I'm sure plenty of people who can only afford Civics would love to have a car that made it look like they had a lot more money. Doesn't mean it makes sense to cater to them.

 

I think the RC was the first step in the right direction for Lexus to give us sportier looking cars. The spindle grill is not universally loved but nothing ever will be. We can all agree its dynamic and looks like nothing else out there. The RC from the side and rear views looks as good as any sport coupe out there. The F front looks hot to most of us. The 350 isn't far behind.

The next SC should be the car that takes it to the next level. Should be better looking than the RC without coming close to the LFA price.

Be patient.

 

I have seen the spindle grille on the RC-F in real life and I really like it. I know it is polarizing, but I think RC-F looks a lot more aggressive and unique in real life.

 

Lexus lost a lot on each LFA sold. They simply cost way more to make than their price. On top of this, the LFA was meant as an exercise, to show that Lexus can build a world-class supercar. It was never intended to be a standard production car, regardless of success or demand.

Supercars are also exclusive by design. If you ramped up production, the people who can afford it won't buy it. Most of them want something very few others have. If they see them everywhere, they ignore it and find something else that's more exclusive and unique. It's the nature of the market segment the LFA is in.