You would not believe the amount of scorn that the Lexus LF-A has generated among the crowd of guys that could buy one with the couch change...
It has nothing to do with the vehicles $350,000 price tag, or the performance that really doesn't justify that price. The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is just as rare, just as overpriced for it's performance, and the guys love it. I love it too. In fact, it's one of my favorite cars of all time.
It has nothing to do with the Lexus brand either. HALF of these guys have a Lexus as their daily driver. On days when a Murcielago or a 430 Scuderia makes no sense, the Lexus LS 460L seems to be their drive of choice. And these guys have nothing bad to say about those cars. In fact, they all love them.
The LF-A pisses them off because of the perceived arrogance of Lexus management. If you want an LF-A, you are interviewed to buy one, and Lexus decides if you're "worthy." To a group of guys who have worked hard and earned more money than most, the thought of being told that they aren't "worthy" of Lexus' car really is quite crap... And it's not them being told no, but the thought that anyone who wants to / can spend $350,000 on a car should be more than welcomed by the company charging more than a third of a million dollar for a sports car. The crazy thing is that 500 isn't even that low of a production number, so the rarity isn't really that big of a deal...
Honestly, Lexus (and honestly, Toyota) screwed the pooch on this one something fierce... They would have done much better releasing a car that cost a third as much, calling it the new Supra, and limiting production to 5000 a year worldwide. They would have sold every one of them, and they would have leveraged the heritage and history of a beloved sports car that commands $55,000 for a model that's a decade and a half old.
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