Who Wants To Lease An LF-A?
The most expensive Toyota ever made, the $375,000, “totally customizable” Lexus LF-A will not be available for sale to anyone, reports Automotive News [sub]. Not because nobody wants to pay that much for a Toyota though, but because the company is somehow worried about price speculation. “If someone buys it the first month and then decides to sell it, that could be damaging for the ownership experience,” says Lexus VP sales Brian Smith. “If it is not controlled and hits the speculation market, all bets are off. We want people out driving the car and not just parking it in a museum or selling it at an inflated price.” Which is why only 500 models are being produced? At the end of the mandatory two-year lease, customers will have the option of buying their LF-A outright. So how does the world’s largest automaker build such an advanced, limited production machine and not expect speculation and/or hoarding to take place? Moreover, how will they guarantee that LF-As are actually driven during the two-year lease period? One of the greatest sins of the auto industry is the reluctance to admit that a brand belongs to customers. For Toyota, it seems, not even its brand-defining supercar will truly belong to its customers… for two years anyway.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I think Toyota is just making sure that the profit stays with the manufacturer and not the exotic car broker
Why not make sure the buyer owns two other Ferrari's? I mean Toyota's... LOL! Give me a break! Ferrari doing this on an 'F' model, OK. Toyota on their first attempt at an exotic? FAIL.... Not to mention it looks horrific and underperforms compared to the competition. All at a higher price. I mean, get serious.....
Ok, so I race it, and I drive like pre-hoon version of David Holzmann ... one slow lap and back into the pits ... onto the trailer ... and back into the garage ... DNF, at least to my mind, constitutes racing.