LFA [Official] Lexus LF-A Supercar (Production Version)
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I want one, NOW! That blue one, please...
Same here, Pearl Blue LFA with exposed CF roof and exposed CF retractable rear wing with custom 21" Wedssport SA55M rims in gloss black with blue machining.
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http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...upercar-an-inside-report-chapter-5-exam-week/
The Making Of The Lexus LFA Supercar: An Inside Report, Chapter 5: Exam Week.
On the LFA’s in-house test track. Each car gets tested for some 50 miles
In this week-long report, we followed the Lexus LFA from raw fiber to body, paint, and assembly. In this final chapter, we take it on the test track in Motomachi.
Each and every LFA that rolls off the line is checked like no other car. 7,000 items of the LFA, all previously checked, counter-signed, eternalized in evidence sheets, are checked again. Each check again is eternalized in evidence sheets. When I said it takes 8 days to make an LFA, I lied. It takes 8 days to make one, and then it takes a full additional week to check it.
LFA test driver Nobuaki Amano
Nobuaki Amano has “one of the coolest jobs in the world,” at least according to Lexus-internal propaganda. Amano is the test driver. No LFA leaves the LFA Works without Amano having driven it up and down and up and down the test track that is nestled into an approximately mile long stretch along the eastern fence line of Motomachi. That track is good for 130 mph, if we want faster, we would have to go to Toyota’s Higashi Fuji proving grounds.
This is work?
I was in an LFA a year ago, that was in city traffic in Yokohama, hardly the place to put it through its paces. Going up and down along that two lane track is different. I hear the engine sing all the way into the soprano octaves while Amano paddle-shifts through the LFA’s sequential gears. Some likened the sound to “the roar of an angel”, some to “an F1-inspired tune.” Lesser poets could compare it to the sound of a circular saw.
25 times up, 25 times down the road
I leave Amano to his testing business. He travels 25 times up and 25 times down that fence line in each LFA, conducting a set test regimen of 54 items, and taking copious notes over 4 hours. The logs become part of the evidence sheet collection.
These tires will be used to avoid wear and tear of the customer’s rubbers
Before Amano takes the car out on a test run, it gets a set of tires that is reserved for that purpose, sparing the customer wear, tear and cuffs. The odometer will have Amano’s 50 or so miles on it. They come with a note explaining that this is part of the Lexus LFA build process.
Much prettier visitors have been here
Miss Universe.
It is late in the afternoon when we get back to the spartan meeting room in the LFA Works. We spent a full day trying to cover the two weeks it takes to build and test an LFA. In a corner is a cut out figure of Akio Toyoda in racing gear, the figure even shorter than the real life Toyoda. On the wall is a memento from a previous and much prettier visitor to the LFA Works, Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori, her autograph is obscured by a less romantic sample of a forged aluminum gas pedal and a magnesium paddle shifter.
Take a number
In the morning, we saw LFA number 369 in its early stages, two weeks more, and it will be on its way to its owner. By the end of the year, the limit of 500 LFA will be reached, and the limit will not be extended. All are spoken for, try to order one now, and you will be turned down, with many apologies, but nonetheless firmly. As a matter of fact, the LFA was sold before production started in late 2010. The 500-unit quota was reached in April 2010, those who wanted could try their luck on a waiting list. For two years, the people at the LFA Kobo worked through their order book, one car per day.
Tanahashi shows his diary
I only have two more questions for Tanahashi:
Why?
And what’s next?
Reason why.
Even before the LFA production had started, Toyota made it known that there would be no profit on the LFA. Know just a little about cars, and this will be immediately obvious. The price tag for the development of a regular car is said to be in the neighborhood of a billion dollars. Now imagine how much it costs to develop one that was 10 years in the making, that shares only five parts with other cars of the mothership, a car for which a completely new production technology had to be invented. My walk through the factory sealed my impression of a giant money sink. The 500 people who are lucky to get an LFA are even luckier: They get a deal. The true cost of that handmade carbon fiber car is astronomically higher. So why make it?
I put the question to Tanahashi. He won’t comment on specific plans, but in a roundabout way, he confirms that this is a test bed for how mass market cars in a still far away future might be built. Future cars must use much less of whatever energy they will use. The key to that is weight loss.
Tanahashi’s comrade-in-arms, deputy chief engineer Chiharu Tamura (they met right out of school at Toyota, working on the front and rear end of the first front drive Celica) has a 1968 Subaru 360 at home. This car reached 66 mpg in 1968. Ever since, efficiency improvements bought with billions of research money were eaten by a ravenous monster called weight. 44 years later, the Prius c developed by Tanahashi’s colleague Satoshi Ogiso gets 53 mpg. Is that progress?
Picture-perfect
When I met Tanahashi in the morning, he said that “the ideal material for a car body is very strong and very light.” Carbon fiber is that material, but it is far from affordable. As long as people put strips of fabric into a mold by hand, as long as a part must be baked for hours, the price of this material will remain in the stratosphere. Tanahashi and his people are working on bringing this price down to earth.
Get moving.
“Pre-preg is much too slow,” says Tanahashi, referring to the method of manually putting strips of resin-saturated carbon fabric into molds, and baking it in an autoclave. “In the years to come, Resin Transfer Molding will be the mainstay of carbon fiber making.”
RTM, the making of carbon fiber in a press, cuts the time of making a part in half. Right now, this half still is 8 hours instead of 16 hours, unacceptable for production runs of several thousand per day. “With cutting-edge technology, the time can be brought down to 10-15 minutes in the press,” says Tanahashi. Much better, but still much too slow. A stamp press cycle time for metal is about six seconds, that’s ten parts per minute, not four per hour.
“I am very confident, that with some more research, CFRP will be ready for volume production,” says Tanahashi. “How quickly and when, I am not sure. We are moving in that direction and we are making progress.” The team around Tanahashi will remain busy for a long time.
Life after the LFA
Speaking of keeping busy, I ask what will come after the LFA.
Tanahashi facetiously says, “the LFB.”
When confronted with the rumor that the next car will be a million dollar supercar that is made in the homeopathic quantity of 100, Tanahashi wipes it off the table: “No, not true at all.”
So will the next car be a high-end CFRP Lexus under $100,000 at maybe 5,000 units a year? Tanahashi pauses, thinks for a few seconds, reviews where he and his team are on that road to the future, then says:
Tanahashi collects his thoughts, then says:
Jyane!
Monday, July 9: From A Bar To Bar None. How the LFA was born, and why it is made from carbon fiber.
Tuesday, July 10: In The Clean Room. Where the LFA is made from the strongest and most expensive type of carbon fiber available.
Wednesday, July 11: Call Me Names. How the LFA really received its name.
Thursday, July 12: Balance Of Power. We watch the V10 engine go into the LFA.
Friday, July 13: Exam Week. We examine Chief Engineer Tanahashi about how the LFA influences future cars, and what will come after the LFA.
Domo arigato gozaimashita
Thetruthaboutcars.com thanks all who have made this possible. We thank chief engineers Haruhiko Tanahashi and Chiharu Tamura, who, half a year ago, recklessly invited me to visit them where they work.
We thank the public affairs people in Tokyo, who, after having recovered from their heart attack, tirelessly supported the project. We thank Paul Nolasco who translated a pile of pages with dense technical Japanese content into a pile of pages with equally dense English content.
We thank the anonymous man who volunteered his size 11 ½ toecaps. We thank you for reading and commenting.
Thetruthaboutcars.com extends an invitation to all automakers to make more Behind the Scenes reports possible.
The Making Of The Lexus LFA Supercar: An Inside Report, Chapter 5: Exam Week.
On the LFA’s in-house test track. Each car gets tested for some 50 miles
In this week-long report, we followed the Lexus LFA from raw fiber to body, paint, and assembly. In this final chapter, we take it on the test track in Motomachi.
Each and every LFA that rolls off the line is checked like no other car. 7,000 items of the LFA, all previously checked, counter-signed, eternalized in evidence sheets, are checked again. Each check again is eternalized in evidence sheets. When I said it takes 8 days to make an LFA, I lied. It takes 8 days to make one, and then it takes a full additional week to check it.
LFA test driver Nobuaki Amano
Nobuaki Amano has “one of the coolest jobs in the world,” at least according to Lexus-internal propaganda. Amano is the test driver. No LFA leaves the LFA Works without Amano having driven it up and down and up and down the test track that is nestled into an approximately mile long stretch along the eastern fence line of Motomachi. That track is good for 130 mph, if we want faster, we would have to go to Toyota’s Higashi Fuji proving grounds.
This is work?
I was in an LFA a year ago, that was in city traffic in Yokohama, hardly the place to put it through its paces. Going up and down along that two lane track is different. I hear the engine sing all the way into the soprano octaves while Amano paddle-shifts through the LFA’s sequential gears. Some likened the sound to “the roar of an angel”, some to “an F1-inspired tune.” Lesser poets could compare it to the sound of a circular saw.
25 times up, 25 times down the road
I leave Amano to his testing business. He travels 25 times up and 25 times down that fence line in each LFA, conducting a set test regimen of 54 items, and taking copious notes over 4 hours. The logs become part of the evidence sheet collection.
These tires will be used to avoid wear and tear of the customer’s rubbers
Before Amano takes the car out on a test run, it gets a set of tires that is reserved for that purpose, sparing the customer wear, tear and cuffs. The odometer will have Amano’s 50 or so miles on it. They come with a note explaining that this is part of the Lexus LFA build process.
Much prettier visitors have been here
Miss Universe.
It is late in the afternoon when we get back to the spartan meeting room in the LFA Works. We spent a full day trying to cover the two weeks it takes to build and test an LFA. In a corner is a cut out figure of Akio Toyoda in racing gear, the figure even shorter than the real life Toyoda. On the wall is a memento from a previous and much prettier visitor to the LFA Works, Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori, her autograph is obscured by a less romantic sample of a forged aluminum gas pedal and a magnesium paddle shifter.
Take a number
In the morning, we saw LFA number 369 in its early stages, two weeks more, and it will be on its way to its owner. By the end of the year, the limit of 500 LFA will be reached, and the limit will not be extended. All are spoken for, try to order one now, and you will be turned down, with many apologies, but nonetheless firmly. As a matter of fact, the LFA was sold before production started in late 2010. The 500-unit quota was reached in April 2010, those who wanted could try their luck on a waiting list. For two years, the people at the LFA Kobo worked through their order book, one car per day.
Tanahashi shows his diary
I only have two more questions for Tanahashi:
Why?
And what’s next?
Reason why.
Even before the LFA production had started, Toyota made it known that there would be no profit on the LFA. Know just a little about cars, and this will be immediately obvious. The price tag for the development of a regular car is said to be in the neighborhood of a billion dollars. Now imagine how much it costs to develop one that was 10 years in the making, that shares only five parts with other cars of the mothership, a car for which a completely new production technology had to be invented. My walk through the factory sealed my impression of a giant money sink. The 500 people who are lucky to get an LFA are even luckier: They get a deal. The true cost of that handmade carbon fiber car is astronomically higher. So why make it?
I put the question to Tanahashi. He won’t comment on specific plans, but in a roundabout way, he confirms that this is a test bed for how mass market cars in a still far away future might be built. Future cars must use much less of whatever energy they will use. The key to that is weight loss.
Tanahashi’s comrade-in-arms, deputy chief engineer Chiharu Tamura (they met right out of school at Toyota, working on the front and rear end of the first front drive Celica) has a 1968 Subaru 360 at home. This car reached 66 mpg in 1968. Ever since, efficiency improvements bought with billions of research money were eaten by a ravenous monster called weight. 44 years later, the Prius c developed by Tanahashi’s colleague Satoshi Ogiso gets 53 mpg. Is that progress?
Picture-perfect
When I met Tanahashi in the morning, he said that “the ideal material for a car body is very strong and very light.” Carbon fiber is that material, but it is far from affordable. As long as people put strips of fabric into a mold by hand, as long as a part must be baked for hours, the price of this material will remain in the stratosphere. Tanahashi and his people are working on bringing this price down to earth.
Get moving.
“Pre-preg is much too slow,” says Tanahashi, referring to the method of manually putting strips of resin-saturated carbon fabric into molds, and baking it in an autoclave. “In the years to come, Resin Transfer Molding will be the mainstay of carbon fiber making.”
RTM, the making of carbon fiber in a press, cuts the time of making a part in half. Right now, this half still is 8 hours instead of 16 hours, unacceptable for production runs of several thousand per day. “With cutting-edge technology, the time can be brought down to 10-15 minutes in the press,” says Tanahashi. Much better, but still much too slow. A stamp press cycle time for metal is about six seconds, that’s ten parts per minute, not four per hour.
“I am very confident, that with some more research, CFRP will be ready for volume production,” says Tanahashi. “How quickly and when, I am not sure. We are moving in that direction and we are making progress.” The team around Tanahashi will remain busy for a long time.
Life after the LFA
Speaking of keeping busy, I ask what will come after the LFA.
Tanahashi facetiously says, “the LFB.”
When confronted with the rumor that the next car will be a million dollar supercar that is made in the homeopathic quantity of 100, Tanahashi wipes it off the table: “No, not true at all.”
So will the next car be a high-end CFRP Lexus under $100,000 at maybe 5,000 units a year? Tanahashi pauses, thinks for a few seconds, reviews where he and his team are on that road to the future, then says:
“It’s not that simple.”
What will happen to the LFA Works at the end of the year? Will Tanahashi, now 59, simply go into retirement? Will the 170 associates who make the LFA go back to making Crowns, Corollas and Camrys?Tanahashi collects his thoughts, then says:
“CFRP is a very promising material. Even after the LFA project finishes, the carbon factory will be well utilized.”
With that thought, we bid Tanahashi and his team adieu. I am sure we will meet again. Somewhere.Jyane!
Monday, July 9: From A Bar To Bar None. How the LFA was born, and why it is made from carbon fiber.
Tuesday, July 10: In The Clean Room. Where the LFA is made from the strongest and most expensive type of carbon fiber available.
Wednesday, July 11: Call Me Names. How the LFA really received its name.
Thursday, July 12: Balance Of Power. We watch the V10 engine go into the LFA.
Friday, July 13: Exam Week. We examine Chief Engineer Tanahashi about how the LFA influences future cars, and what will come after the LFA.
Domo arigato gozaimashita
Thetruthaboutcars.com thanks all who have made this possible. We thank chief engineers Haruhiko Tanahashi and Chiharu Tamura, who, half a year ago, recklessly invited me to visit them where they work.
We thank the public affairs people in Tokyo, who, after having recovered from their heart attack, tirelessly supported the project. We thank Paul Nolasco who translated a pile of pages with dense technical Japanese content into a pile of pages with equally dense English content.
We thank the anonymous man who volunteered his size 11 ½ toecaps. We thank you for reading and commenting.
Thetruthaboutcars.com extends an invitation to all automakers to make more Behind the Scenes reports possible.
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Actually the "I" is a Japanese character that means work. I'm hoping for a LFA II too though
The chief engineer himself also gave hints that something is in the works calling it "LF-B" most likely pointing to the "AD-A" LFA. With Akio Toyoda being the chief, I can totally see him giving green light for another exotic supercar.
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LFA stands for Lexus Fuji Apex, in my book it stands for Lexus F****** Almighty
What would LF-B stand for ?
In any case I don't care, what it will be called, I just want it to be. I should at least be able to buy the next one, because it may be the last ever.
F1, M3 EVO, M3 CSL, 360 Challenge Stradale, NSX, Supra, Carrera GT to name these few were the first and the last. Never will there ever be anything like those.
What would LF-B stand for ?
In any case I don't care, what it will be called, I just want it to be. I should at least be able to buy the next one, because it may be the last ever.
F1, M3 EVO, M3 CSL, 360 Challenge Stradale, NSX, Supra, Carrera GT to name these few were the first and the last. Never will there ever be anything like those.
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- 8,621
Al Sayer proud owner of Lexus LFA
Toyota luxury brand synonymous with reliability, opulence
KUWAIT CITY, June 17: Bader Al Sayer, Deputy General Manager of the Lexus Division of Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons, is the proud owner of the Lexus LFA supercar, of which production remains limited to just 500 units worldwide.
Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand is deemed synonymous with reliability, comfort and opulence. However, Al Sayer confesses to not knowing what to expect from Japan’s first supercar. Fortunately, the LFA, the pinnacle of the Lexus “F” premium sports car series, has turned out to be anything but disappointing, “Driving it is a real fun experience,” he said.
In the new generation of carbon fiber constructed supercars, the Lexus LFA features a 4.8-liter V10 engine equipped with dual VVT - I pumping out an output of 560 hp at 8400 rpm and 480 Nm of torque delivered at 6800 rpm. Not only does the LFA have one of the most distinct exhaust wails but it has proven itself to be a real performance car with the Nurburgring edition lapping the Nordschleife in 7:14.64 last year.
When asked how it compares to a rival Ferrari or Bugati, Al Sayer confesses that a strict comparison cannot be made; the roughness, speed and noise of the car are uniquely compelling. “You can’t compare it to the Ferrari. The mechanics of the car reminds me a lot of the Ferrari but there is a lot of technology in it, a lot of new features that is very unusual for a sports car. It is far more technological”, said Al Sayer who is also a seasoned Ferrari driver. When asked what his favourite feature was, he named the analog tachometer needle “It is really fun. Sometimes, I just do it for the fun of it, to see it move and get back” he shared.
For a KD 150,000 car, many would wonder how often Al Sayer is able to take it out for a spin. “Actually I can drive it on a daily basis. But the problem is with all the construction ongoing in Kuwait I tend not it. Also, I have to make sure that there is suitable parking for it at the venue I am riding to. There are huge risks involved so I tend not to take it to a place where I’m not confident of finding parking or one that is very crowded. But ideally, one could drive it on a daily basis.”
The staggering price tag attached to owning one of these is actually just a fraction of the cost, Al Sayer informs, “The cost of developing the car is really expensive. For Lexus, it took them about 4-5 years to take a decision on whether to build the car or to stop it because the cost and resources to this car wasn’t justifiable by commercial means. The cost of production is twice its selling price. But Lexus wanted to prove that they can make a super car to enhance the brand.”
Each car takes about 6-7 months to produce and each stage is photographed and compiled into a handbook. “It is a beautiful experience. As an owner, you know all the people that participated in making your car, all the engineers involved. Every owner gets a booklet of manufacture. But the best part is that it is all handmade. The LFA and the Century which is the Toyota version of an electric car is still handmade. There aren’t any other cars that are handmade; they are all made by machines. You don’t experience the uniqueness.”
As owner of one of the two cars sold in Kuwait, Al Sayer doesn’t really see a niche market carved out for the LFA here, “Without the leadership of CEO Akio Toyoda, this project would not have been completed. He is the man who insisted to have that car because he has a special love for sports car and that is why he approved it. Unfortunately, Lexus took a lot of time to think about it and approve it. The problem with that is that by that time we entered the global financial crisis. The timing was wrong and Lexus is not a big player in the Supercar market. It doesn’t have a longstanding background in that area. But the demand for the car and people talking about it is interesting for us.”
A proud LFA rests in the Lexus showroom, awaiting its new owner, one who may be compelled by its drive-centered, high rev engine, responsive handling and engaging dynamics, or just its stirring engine roar and L-finesse2 design.
Toyota luxury brand synonymous with reliability, opulence
KUWAIT CITY, June 17: Bader Al Sayer, Deputy General Manager of the Lexus Division of Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons, is the proud owner of the Lexus LFA supercar, of which production remains limited to just 500 units worldwide.
Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand is deemed synonymous with reliability, comfort and opulence. However, Al Sayer confesses to not knowing what to expect from Japan’s first supercar. Fortunately, the LFA, the pinnacle of the Lexus “F” premium sports car series, has turned out to be anything but disappointing, “Driving it is a real fun experience,” he said.
In the new generation of carbon fiber constructed supercars, the Lexus LFA features a 4.8-liter V10 engine equipped with dual VVT - I pumping out an output of 560 hp at 8400 rpm and 480 Nm of torque delivered at 6800 rpm. Not only does the LFA have one of the most distinct exhaust wails but it has proven itself to be a real performance car with the Nurburgring edition lapping the Nordschleife in 7:14.64 last year.
When asked how it compares to a rival Ferrari or Bugati, Al Sayer confesses that a strict comparison cannot be made; the roughness, speed and noise of the car are uniquely compelling. “You can’t compare it to the Ferrari. The mechanics of the car reminds me a lot of the Ferrari but there is a lot of technology in it, a lot of new features that is very unusual for a sports car. It is far more technological”, said Al Sayer who is also a seasoned Ferrari driver. When asked what his favourite feature was, he named the analog tachometer needle “It is really fun. Sometimes, I just do it for the fun of it, to see it move and get back” he shared.
For a KD 150,000 car, many would wonder how often Al Sayer is able to take it out for a spin. “Actually I can drive it on a daily basis. But the problem is with all the construction ongoing in Kuwait I tend not it. Also, I have to make sure that there is suitable parking for it at the venue I am riding to. There are huge risks involved so I tend not to take it to a place where I’m not confident of finding parking or one that is very crowded. But ideally, one could drive it on a daily basis.”
The staggering price tag attached to owning one of these is actually just a fraction of the cost, Al Sayer informs, “The cost of developing the car is really expensive. For Lexus, it took them about 4-5 years to take a decision on whether to build the car or to stop it because the cost and resources to this car wasn’t justifiable by commercial means. The cost of production is twice its selling price. But Lexus wanted to prove that they can make a super car to enhance the brand.”
Each car takes about 6-7 months to produce and each stage is photographed and compiled into a handbook. “It is a beautiful experience. As an owner, you know all the people that participated in making your car, all the engineers involved. Every owner gets a booklet of manufacture. But the best part is that it is all handmade. The LFA and the Century which is the Toyota version of an electric car is still handmade. There aren’t any other cars that are handmade; they are all made by machines. You don’t experience the uniqueness.”
As owner of one of the two cars sold in Kuwait, Al Sayer doesn’t really see a niche market carved out for the LFA here, “Without the leadership of CEO Akio Toyoda, this project would not have been completed. He is the man who insisted to have that car because he has a special love for sports car and that is why he approved it. Unfortunately, Lexus took a lot of time to think about it and approve it. The problem with that is that by that time we entered the global financial crisis. The timing was wrong and Lexus is not a big player in the Supercar market. It doesn’t have a longstanding background in that area. But the demand for the car and people talking about it is interesting for us.”
A proud LFA rests in the Lexus showroom, awaiting its new owner, one who may be compelled by its drive-centered, high rev engine, responsive handling and engaging dynamics, or just its stirring engine roar and L-finesse2 design.
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- 8,621
The Last Word On LFA Sales. Or: How To Cure OCD With One Phone Call
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...sales-or-how-to-cure-ocd-with-one-phone-call/
Obsessions are a menace. The daughter of a friend had a shower obsession. “I have an obsessive compulsive disorder,” she would readily admit, only to continue: “I’ll be right back, I need to take a shower.” Such a pretty girl. And she always smelled so good.
A prime obsession of the auto blogosphere are the sales of the Lexus LFA. Is it sold out? Is it not?
(To avoid killing you with the suspense: It is. Has been since April 2010 when Lexus had its 500 orders long before production started in December of that year. Not interesting? I don’t blame you. Stop reading. There is plenty of other content.)
I encountered this manifestation of automotive OCD during the writing of the story about the LFA production. Before the series could even start, I was taken to task over the claim that all 500 LFA are spoken for. Somewhat shrill comments stated they aren’t. Proof presented ranged from eBay links to the counting of LFAs at carshows.
Further research revealed that there is a veritable epidemic of this disorder.
In May last year, Motor Authority, “the luxury and performance leader” of the High Gear family, complained that “only 90 LFAs have been built to date for worldwide sales.” Motor Authority needed to be reminded by Lexus that there had been something called an earthquake and a tsunami (it had brought production of all cars in Japan to a multi-month halt, and turned the Japanese car market into the worst since decades). Like an obstreperous child, Motor Authority continued to write that the LFA “is barely selling at all.”
A month ago, the Detroit Bureau delivered a dissenting view, writing that the LFA is “sold out – almost.” That piece of investigative journalism was picked up eagerly by other automotive media who’s idea of investigative journalism starts with Ctrl-C and ends with Ctrl-V.
To this day, the disorder is keeping discussion pages at Motortrend going. One commenter cited the fact that this discussion only has 12 pages as proof of the underwhelming success of the LFA. After all, “a year ago, a troll thread with LFA in the title would be over 100 pages or locked by now.” (This is your brain on Facebook and Twitter.)
There is one sure-fire cure for this particular kind of OCD: Call and ask.
Don’t call someone at Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. They will only know their numbers. You need to invest a few dollars into 011-81 and call Toyota HQ in Japan if you want the global view.
After they had done a few days of research, I was told officially and in writing that the LFA was sold out before production started in late 2010. The 500-unit order limit was reached in April 2010, “there even was a waiting list,” says Lexus International head spokesman Hideaki Homma.
The LFA is built to order, something a customer in Europe or Japan will readily understand: You place an order, they build it for you. In the color and with any special wishes you have specified. This may sound alien to someone who picks a car from a dealer lot, this may sound super alien to someone who orders his supercars from Pimp My Supercar V2, but it is what it is.
Armed with that nugget of wisdom, it becomes clear that all 500 can be spoken for, even if some are still being made. Sometimes, it takes a certain degree of maturity to appreciate the fact that “signed, sealed, delivered” can be many months apart.
And what about the handful of LFAs that pop up on eBay? This is something Lexus is not eager to talk about. Not because it reflects badly on them. From placing an order in early 2010 to today is a long time, and a few former high-flyers have fallen on tough times. If people default on mansions, not picking up your supercar when it has arrived is conceivable.
That, however, is a sad and boring story, and why let a phone call get in the way of intrigue and innuendo?
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...sales-or-how-to-cure-ocd-with-one-phone-call/
Obsessions are a menace. The daughter of a friend had a shower obsession. “I have an obsessive compulsive disorder,” she would readily admit, only to continue: “I’ll be right back, I need to take a shower.” Such a pretty girl. And she always smelled so good.
A prime obsession of the auto blogosphere are the sales of the Lexus LFA. Is it sold out? Is it not?
(To avoid killing you with the suspense: It is. Has been since April 2010 when Lexus had its 500 orders long before production started in December of that year. Not interesting? I don’t blame you. Stop reading. There is plenty of other content.)
I encountered this manifestation of automotive OCD during the writing of the story about the LFA production. Before the series could even start, I was taken to task over the claim that all 500 LFA are spoken for. Somewhat shrill comments stated they aren’t. Proof presented ranged from eBay links to the counting of LFAs at carshows.
Further research revealed that there is a veritable epidemic of this disorder.
In May last year, Motor Authority, “the luxury and performance leader” of the High Gear family, complained that “only 90 LFAs have been built to date for worldwide sales.” Motor Authority needed to be reminded by Lexus that there had been something called an earthquake and a tsunami (it had brought production of all cars in Japan to a multi-month halt, and turned the Japanese car market into the worst since decades). Like an obstreperous child, Motor Authority continued to write that the LFA “is barely selling at all.”
A month ago, the Detroit Bureau delivered a dissenting view, writing that the LFA is “sold out – almost.” That piece of investigative journalism was picked up eagerly by other automotive media who’s idea of investigative journalism starts with Ctrl-C and ends with Ctrl-V.
To this day, the disorder is keeping discussion pages at Motortrend going. One commenter cited the fact that this discussion only has 12 pages as proof of the underwhelming success of the LFA. After all, “a year ago, a troll thread with LFA in the title would be over 100 pages or locked by now.” (This is your brain on Facebook and Twitter.)
There is one sure-fire cure for this particular kind of OCD: Call and ask.
Don’t call someone at Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. They will only know their numbers. You need to invest a few dollars into 011-81 and call Toyota HQ in Japan if you want the global view.
After they had done a few days of research, I was told officially and in writing that the LFA was sold out before production started in late 2010. The 500-unit order limit was reached in April 2010, “there even was a waiting list,” says Lexus International head spokesman Hideaki Homma.
The LFA is built to order, something a customer in Europe or Japan will readily understand: You place an order, they build it for you. In the color and with any special wishes you have specified. This may sound alien to someone who picks a car from a dealer lot, this may sound super alien to someone who orders his supercars from Pimp My Supercar V2, but it is what it is.
Armed with that nugget of wisdom, it becomes clear that all 500 can be spoken for, even if some are still being made. Sometimes, it takes a certain degree of maturity to appreciate the fact that “signed, sealed, delivered” can be many months apart.
And what about the handful of LFAs that pop up on eBay? This is something Lexus is not eager to talk about. Not because it reflects badly on them. From placing an order in early 2010 to today is a long time, and a few former high-flyers have fallen on tough times. If people default on mansions, not picking up your supercar when it has arrived is conceivable.
That, however, is a sad and boring story, and why let a phone call get in the way of intrigue and innuendo?
Similar threads
Lexus
Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation.
Founded in 1989, the Lexus brand is marketed in over 90 countries and territories worldwide
and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. Lexus is headquartered in Nagoya, Japan.
Its operational centers are in Brussels, Belgium, and Plano, Texas, United States.
Official website: Lexus
Official website: Lexus
