Remember when Herr Schmitt took us for a TTAC exclusive into the workshop that made the Lexus LFA? It’s now the home of the Toyota Mirai.
Automotive News reports Toyota gave its FCV to the LFA Works — located behind the Motomachi plant in Toyota City, Japan — because the facility’s attention to detail and better tools (i.e., hands) than any of the more “ultra-efficient,” machine-powered factories under the automaker’s watch.
Because of the Mirai’s hand-built nature — the powertrain and other components are assembled in Toyota’s Honsha plant, then brought over to the LFA Works for final assembly — executive vice president for domestic sales Masamoto Maekawa warns supplies will be limited, with only 700 planned for the first year, 200 of which are already on-order:
Each unit is carefully built with utmost care. So therefore, the production volume might be limited. During the initial stages, delivery time might be delayed. The 200 orders are mostly from government and corporate fleets.
Prior to the Mirai, the small workshop made limited-edition models, including a $10,000, 100-unit run of carbon fiber bicycles marketed to well-off Lexus owners, a carbon-fiber roof for special performance variant of the Toyota Mark X, and of course, the 500 LFAs assembled between 2010 and 2012.
“attention to detail and better tools (i.e., hands)”
“Well, there’s no more work at Lagonda, loov, but I’ve ‘eard Toyoter’s ‘irin’ masterbeaters over in Japan. Fancy a spot of the Orient?”
” delivery time might be delayed”
Not to mention the long quarantine times for rabies testing before letting this Pit Bull into the US
Pit bulls are cute in a homely way. The front end designs we’re seeing lately remind me of those scary fish deep sea divers occasionally bring up.
One needs scientific notation to adequately express the fugliness coming from Lexus nowadays.
The Nissan Juke humbly hands the title of Ugliest Car In The World to the Mirai.
Penned by 12 year-olds?
Darth Vader called, he wants his helmet back….
In 5-years everything will look like this. And the real story here is Toyota is betting on hydrogen.
If that’s the case (and I seriously doubt it), I’m sure glad that, as a 71 year old, I have probably bought my last car.
What does this styling have anything to do with hydrogen power? Seems to me you would want to go with “conventional” styling if you want a new technology to be embraced.
I think it should be long with rounded soft lines, like the Hidenburg
Oh, the humanity
That’s a phallacious suggestion.
The designers of that front end must be inhaling hydrogen.
This thing is hideous; MSRP was $60k last I read.
That may be the ugliest car ever made. Certainly in the top 5.
This : Corolla :: 6000 SUX : ’73 Cutlass Supreme
’73 Cutlass Supreme??!! One of the best looking and largest selling Oldsmobiles ever made, not to mention a pretty good car
One of the Classic Car Collectors in Ruidoso, NM, owns a brown-metallic one with a Creme-color vinyl roof. It’s classy!
I think Pres*dent Nixon just meant that the Corolla provided the underpinnings to this thing and the Cutlass for the SUX. I don’t see any disparaging of either the Corolla or Cutlas. They were just the pre-disease incarnations.
OMG….somebody finally did it…they made an automobile that makes the Pontiac Aztek look absolutely beautiful by comparison!
Let’s not go overboard. The Aztek will make you throw up your lunch. This will make you throw up the dinner you haven’t eaten yet.
JTDC this thing is hideous. But not as bad as the ‘short bus’ Multipla.
To my eye, Toyota has made many ugly vehicles and very few beautiful ones, but this mess of a design I can think of no explanation for.
Shame, the fuel cell technology is amazing and finally in mass production, but this vehicle I’d be embarrassed to seen in.
It looks like they were doing an CGI morph from Corolla to some supercar, and stopped the animation in the middle.
Looks like it’s got mumps.
That is one whacked looking car!
The roofline does indeed look a bit handmade. As in, hand beaten by an apprentice blacksmith….
The hoodscoop is on backwards.
And the front looks like it has on, one of those bite prevention thingys people put on aggressive dogs.