Being such a masterpiece, I always wonder why the LFA didn’t do well when it first came out. Yet now you see them selling for damn near $1M. It’s like Van Gogh. No one appreciated the work of art until it was gone. But why?
I remember people couldn’t shut up about it being a Lexus. Probably the dumbest argument possible.
It was one of the few cars that even I as a child could tell was very special and more exotic than “exotic” cars.
The Lexus LFA should’ve been the new Supra instead of a rebadged BMW Z4
This is exactly what leads to a car becoming a high value classic. Good cars that aren’t super popular when they come out frequently rise in value once people have time to appreciate them. Toyota wiped the board and started over 3 times on the LFA, it was never going to be profitable. It became a moonshot car and contines to be a halo for the brand, the LC cars have very reminiscent styling and i think this helps those cars find relative success. The ford GT, Carrera GT, S2000, Toyota FJ, they weren’t very well liked in their time but ridiculous prices now
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Too expensive and also Lexus
/thread
It was near enough Aventador and Audi R8 money combined for Audi R8 performance. In 2011, An Aventador sold for £274,000 and Audi R8 for £112,000, £386,000 combined. The LFA sold for £345,000. If you wanted the Nurburgring Performance Pack, that was an additional £55,000 bringing the LFA price up to £400,000.
The performance and power specs were from a previous era of super cars. When they released the car in 2012 it was past its prime, it was originally intended to be released earlier(believe 2007) but they had to redo the chassis because it was too heavy. 553hp in 2012 didn’t look enticing for $375k when Lamborghinis and Ferraris were putting out 700hp for the same money, and a GTR 1/3 of the price offered the same level of performance. You simply had to be a diehard Lexus fan to buy one.
Now that it’s old enough people are starting to see its collector value. That’s why prices are sky rocketing. On top of that the push for alternative fuels and smaller engines make people see the value in having a NA high revving V10.
The extended period of low interest rates and rampant speculation of collector items that followed has boosted a lot of NA supercars to insane prices. This has only been amplified for the push to electrify and higher emissions standards leading to smaller turbo engines.
No shortage of N/A supercars in those days and mostly because it was “just” a Lexus
Nobody wanted to buy one new. Toyota only made and sold a few of them as a result. Sold cars are very rare. Prices go up as collector demand increases.
Be realistic. It’s not people that actually drive these that drive up prices.
Because really the only thing the LFA has going for it is the exhaust note, which can’t really be experienced in a print ad or a magazine article or sitting on a display at an auto show. It doesn’t look particularly great, it wasn’t the fastest in its class, and its badge lacked motoring history or prestige, particularly for the very high price they were charging for it. 13 years later, online videos and motoring journalism is much more ubiquitous so we have a better idea of what makes it so special, coupled with the hindsight of knowing nothing comparable would follow it.
Because it is quite overrated, and it’s mainly because wow Lexus made a super car, it’s a mediocre supercar in reality, and the price is too expensive for its class from a toyota, it’s not a bad car, but i think people at the dome don’t really trust it.
Jeremy Clarkson gushed about it and now everyone loves it lol
There was an option to buy these?
I thought they were lease only.
EDIT-I read up on it myself and answered my own question.
It suffered in comparisons at the time of release regarding performance value, relative especially to the GT-R. But the uniqueness of the car overall along with the lusted-after naturally-aspirated V10 have since caught a lot of attention as the years advanced.
Quite like it myself. But will just have to be content with the $5 Matchbox collectors LFA on the shelf for now lol.
Because the GTR came out and was a lot cheaper and much faster.