Lexus handpicks drivers for LF-A

They sent the site a cease and desist letter and then viper stoped hosting the files directly on the site, i say they were pretty clear that they wanted it stopped.
 
The car is already horribly overpriced, I doubt many true drivers will want to buy it. Most of the buyers are probably collectors or duches anyways.
 
How long till the LFA gets recalled due to sticking pedals?
 
uhhmmhh.... Bill Gates is going to be thrilled with his 400.000$ Corrola...

...not is he getting it to driving, because it will spend most of its time standing at a Toyota Garage, having its floormats replaced...
 
lol wow but a bunch of arrogant pricks.

Who cares, Bugatti and probably many other high end companies did the same thing in the 30's, Ferrari more recently did it with the Enzo, and I'm willing to bet that it's been done many other times as well. How else are cars like the Morgan Aeromax and Alfa 8C Competizione sold out completely even prior to being launched? Obviously they informed people who are likely to buy it before anyone else knew about it.
 
People complain that toyota does't make any exciting cars, but when they do make an exciting car they find something to complain about that. :rolleyes:
 
Maybe this car was built for people with passion for actually driving. Who knows.

Maybe.

But those people will rather buy a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Aston Martin or in other words: A car they like to be seen in.

Lexus forgot that the LFA lacks one important main ingredient to sell it in a "limited-edition-we-will-choose-the-customer" way: Style.

I think the arrogance behind marketing the LFA is incredible. Not only is it ridiculously expensive but I read, that you have to deposit 35000 Euros for a test drive :shock:

People complain that toyota does't make any exciting cars, but when they do make an exciting car they find something to complain about that. :rolleyes:

They're starting at the wrong end of making exciting cars. You gain reputation by making desirable and affordable exciting cars first. Then, when you gained a certain reputation, you go on making something more expensive. Or you go the Italian way and go completely bonkers. Toyota is too uncool for that, though.

Their approach is completely wrong -- it assumes their is a desire for a Lexus supercar -- and I have a feeling they will have trouble selling the 500 pieces.
 
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I think the arrogance behind marketing the LFA is incredible. Not only is it ridiculously expensive but I read, that you have to deposit 35000 Euros for a test drive :shock:

You are saying this as if someone who can afford a sports car that costs 1/3 of million dollars will be put off by a relatively tiny amount of money. People buy these kinds of cars without ever even seeing them in real life, if someone is actually interested in a test drive, they're most likely going to buy it.

They're starting at the wrong end of making exciting cars. You gain reputation by making desirable and affordable exciting cars first. Then, when you gained a certain reputation, you go on making something more expensive.

Their approach is plainly stupid and I have a feeling they will have trouble selling the 500 pieces.

They sold 150 or so already in Japan, I doubt they'll have trouble selling another 350 over the course of a few years.
 
Sounds like a standard procedure for me. Of course it sound weird for a Lexus, but that's how it goes with every limited car/product.

It's about brand management. Selecting your customers that they bring the most value to you. Lexus wants to polish up their image and be cool and a desirable brand. Ferrari has done the same for ages in many its cars.

This it not to say LF-A was build as a marketing tool, but they are trying to capitalize on the exclusivity much as they can. Which is the only right thing to do be honest.

edit. eh I'm slow getting my thoughts together to a post, so many posts in that time I was typing...
 
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Not only is it ridiculously expensive but I read, that you have to deposit 35000 Euros for a test drive :shock:

Only people that complain about the price are those who aren't wealthy enough to be in the lf-a buyers demographic anyway. You might also complain about the price of a veyron but that didn't stop them from selling.

They're starting at the wrong end of making exciting cars. You gain reputation by making desirable and affordable exciting cars first.

Well they made the AW11 MR2, SW22 MR2, all the cool old rwd celica's and the rally winning 4wd celicas, gt-2000, AE86, chaser, and finally the mk3 and mk4 supras. How many more affordable and exciting cars do they need to make?
 
Only people that complain about the price are those who aren't wealthy enough to be in the lf-a buyers demographic anyway. You might also complain about the price of a veyron but that didn't stop them from selling.

Other car makers may do the same but they do it more discretely. But what do you excpet from Toyota? :rolleyes:

If I were a millionaire and would encounter the "We have to check if you are worthy of being our customer" behavior, I'd simply laugh, buy a car from the competition, drive to the Lexus dealership in it and show them the middle finger, making sure they'll see it.

Lexus has to win customers, has to convince them into buying their car, for crying out loud. Ferrari has got a reputation for decades, Lamborghini has got a reputation for decades, Aston Martin, too. They can get away with arrogance (not that I'm saying they are arrogant) and file it under "brand character".

But Lexus simply can't. Lexus doesn't have a character. It's just a name without meaning to sports car enthusiasts. It has to earn reputation first. You cannot move to a new neighborhood and as the new kid on the block stand in the middle of a playground and shout "Yo, fellows. I'm the new one here. Line up in front of me, if you wanna be my friend. I'll pick out the worthy ones."

You'll get your face punched -- and rightly so -- if you'd do that.

Well they made the AW11 MR2, SW22 MR2, all the cool old rwd celica's and the rally winning 4wd celicas, gt-2000, AE86, chaser, and finally the mk3 and mk4 supras. How many more affordable and exciting cars do they need to make?

Firstly I'm talking about Lexus as a brand. Since Toyota always seemed so eager to make a distinction between normal Toyotas and Lexuses, I think it's fair to see and treat Lexus as an own brand without any connection to sporty Toyota models of the past.

Secondly, don't forget that Toyota has a very fragmented global strategy. Toyota doesn't play the same role here in Europe, as it does in Australia or in the USA. They are not even the No. 1 importer in Germany, that place goes to Renault.

So almost nothing of what you listed above, sounds familiar to me or has a meaning or reputation here, because either the models have been ditched long ago or they were never sold in larger numbers to make them memorable for car enthusiasts.

Instead Toyota concentrated on selling heavy, thirsty trucks in the USA and is famous here in Europe for being representative of being not representative for anything. Their last really successful advertising campaign here dates back to the 1980's (!) and Lexus models sell in two-digit numbers per year.

Thus you'd expect Lexus to put an emphasis on the European market, when they come up with a super car. The market with the highest brand diversity, where more car makers compete with each other, than anywhere in the world, where the most famous race tracks are and where we have the last unlimited roads in the world.

But that won't go well, if you go against the established super car makers (and their pampered customers) with such arrogance...
 
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Ferrari has done things like this for years with different cars, and this car is not much more expensive than a 599 in the USA.
 
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If I pay money for a vehicle it is mine to do whatever I want with it. Screw Toyota and Ferrari for this kind of lease crap.

I'll wait for someone in a German shed to build something similar and sells it for $100,000 less and would be yours if you bought it.
 

What you have done in an unecessarily long and convoluted way is say that you don't like toyota and/or lexus which is ok because i am sure you can't afford an lf-a anyway. What you haven't done is explain why nobody will buy an lf-a, which of course you can't do considering there is already a waiting list. ;)
 
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The problem is that no one on this forum has a snowball's chance in hell of even considering to own cars with price tags like the LF-A. We like to predict how multi-millionaires and billionaires think when they choose to buy cars and obviously some people, maybe naively, think that since Lexus is a brand without history/prestige/etc. that none of the super wealthy will want one. Maybe, maybe not. We simply live in a completely different world than they are and I cannot even imagine having so much money to splurge on such cars, in addition to having your own concierge physician on-call 24/7 as well as having salaried staff to manage your mansion/wealth/garage/etc.

So in the end it's fucking pointless to debate and argue over how stupid Lexus is for overpricing the LF-A or over how the rich will laugh at Lexus and no LF-A will be sold. Discussions like that may be productive for something like Ferrarichat.com where there may be actual buyers of the car posting but since that is obviously not the case on this forum...what the hell is the point besides I guess freedom of speech and the possibility of looking real stupid when Lexus does sell out all LF-As.

I will be delighted if when the topic of LF-A comes up in the future, that we don't focus on its price or the customers but actually....GASP....talk about the car itself! Wow, what an idea.
 
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I agree that the discussion is pointless, but since someone started it, well... it is discussed :D
 
I read in another forum that all of the LF-A's have already been pre-sold.

I'm guessing that most of these buyers have never really driven the car. I think that when they were being pre-sold, there were only 6 actually completed. I might be wrong..I'll double check..

However:

Does this mean that the people who bought them, bought them because they were "So totally awesome, dude! I can't wait to drive this!"

Or, did they buy them just because they could? And will just add them to their trophy cases?
 
Well, as I understand, Lexus will decide who of those who "applied" for buying the car, is really worthy of getting one.

If they're all already sold out, I suppose there are more people with more money than pride (or brains) out there, than expected.

Or maybe they simply like the sliding dashboard instruments -- which is very cool, I admit -- and are willing to spend hundreds of thousands just for that.
 
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