Lexus LFA proves an easy sell, in the land of Porsche and Ferrari

All people recognize quality no matter where it comes from.

Actually it's been proven that once you hit $10 million your taste buds actually change. Look it up. 12% of people already know this.

Perception is reality. That's why Mercedes are luxury cars in North America, and taxis in Germany.

they're taxis in Baraquilla aldo, or is it Cartagena

re ErichHartmann' comments: Your argument seems to fall apart by the fact that Mercedes are not used as taxis in the US. Is that because your statements of spaciousness and reliability do not apply in the US? Or perhaps, like I said, the perception in North America is that MB are luxury cars, and they therefore carry the luxury car price tag, which makes them unlikely candidates for taxis in North America.

They are marketed, priced, sold, and perceived as luxury cars in North America. There is a substantially different picture in Germany WRT MB, for example.

As you believe, so shalt you perceive.

lol did you say a Lexus by comparison to a Mercedes is expensive to maintain and not fuel efficient...is that a joke????? lol unless mercedes is using different cars in other parts of the world that has to be the most foolish statement ive ever heard

EH probably meant that in Europe a Lexus is expensive to maintain. Let's be realistic here. Lexus spare parts and service isn't cheap either, especially in Europe where they seem to charge an equally high fee. Furthermore, there isn't really one economical Lexus sold in Europe. A Lexus GS taxi, since they're all gasoline-powered, will be a bitch to run and maintain.

There was an article a few years ago on IHT I believe about the taxi market in Europe. The number one reason why the E class is so popular is indeed because it's reliable, durable and the diesel engines its offered with are very fuel efficient from a in-city use perspective. These were reasons given by the taxi drivers themselves.

@ Erich: You are on spot. But some people here on this site tend to view things how they like them to be. I don´t know for how many times so far "we" tried to explain to them, that a car being used as a taxi, is not a bad thing here in Europe.

@badgewhore: The European taxi drivers know exactly why they don´t use one of this useless Prius. Any diesel is for their purposes more efficient than any of these overhyped hybrids. Keep on whining man and be worried for more recalls coming from your beloved and overrated carmaker.

Germans recognize MB as reliable with long lifespan..which is the best for Taxis....most of the other brands does not meet the expectations of the owners of taxis thats why E-class is the king on that niche of the market in Germany and we know that it is more expensive than the competitiors but Taxi drivers will stay with the best. Regarding the quality of the Lexus LFA, is not just perception....the car is a Great Sport car and germany is full of great engineers that recognize good products right away and they won't care about who build it. And you forgot Costa Rica....The best taxi car there is the E-class all other won't survive the those roads and won't last enough to be profitable, and finaly no body hear knows about reliabily and durability more than a taxi driver,, it is just common sense.

So they sold a third of all orders in Europe . Well that is a mere 150 cars not really a tremendous feat I would say.

Well, considering that's it's Europe (aka badgewhore hyperprotectionist snobland), a third is not that bad.

Protectionist? No one wins against Japan or Korea. They are the most protectionists.

That's what most people automatically tend to think, but do a bit more research and you'll soon discover that EU protectionism is quite high, not just with automobiles.

"As we may know already, Lexus has a tough job selling its cars in the backyard of BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz."

o-rly?

lol Steve is so naive, Mercedes doesn't offer their Taxi versions in the US market...what a dolt

People recognize a bargain when they see one.

Specialy Taxi drivers looking for "the best" for their money.

The few Vector's where aslo sold out, even with a 3 speed auto-trans...
Doesn't prove much, even bad cars are collectibles.

For me this car is a modern time XJ220.

a third of euro orders from germany....so how many is that?

only 500 cars being produced for the planet. not more than 100 are going to europe. so perhaps 35 people in germany (a nation of 80 million) bought the car. WOW.

Yup, that is correct. And they didn´t even buy it, the leased it. Wrong titel. And of the 35 that LEASED it in Germany, my guess is, that at least 15 to 20 of them are the owner of a Toyota / Lexus dealership, and the others are blind, or just have to much money to waste.

People who want exclusivity can't get it anymore with Ferrari/Lambo. They are just way too common. Perhaps the Reventon but even that doesn't have the engineering and personally-tailored allure of the LFA. Plus Lexus' customer service is probably very nice at that price level.

lol, don't kid yourself, I don't see anywhere on the lexus site that these things are custom tailored (i.e. where you are measured/scanned and the vehicle dimensioned to fit you). But yes you can option it with all the $20,000 paint jobs, and $1,000 stitch colour choices your wallet can afford.

Custom tailoring is a very great feature to show off. If the lfa had that option, trust me, lexus would be all over telling people about it.

Moot. They're already sold out. Apparently they don't need to be custom fitted.

Joe

LFA's main selling point is it's extremely limited availability and the engineering behind it. Some other examples are ALfa 8C Competizione coupe which was also limited to 500 units. Again Alfa's appeal was very limited availability and design. 8C was sold out within weeks and Alfa decided to make another 500 8Cs but this time spyder version. I won't be surprised if in future Toyota make more versions of LFA.
There are more examples like SL65 Black Series, CLK DTM Coupe and Cabrio, SLR 722...etc.
So one shouldn't question these cars performance too much saying 'they are so expensive but still cheaper xxxx car will beat it' because they are also about exclusivity and highest level of quality engineering. LFA has beaten it's target the Ferrari 599 and is extremely rare so Toyota's target is achieved.

JUGNU

"LFA has beaten it's target the Ferrari 599'

- You sure about that? I have the most recent Car and Driver magazine. The LF-A even with non-legal tires is slower than the 599. What has the LF-A beaten the 599 in again? The LF-A is even slower than Gullwing SLS Benz which was tested in the same magazine. The LF-A is a nice car, but claiming that it "has beaten the Ferrari 599" is just fanboy talk.

Really lexsucks? You're latest issue of Car and Driver? The LFA that they were testing where they pointed out is was a prototype without Launch Control? The one where it pulled 1.05G of lateral grip, the one that stopped from 60mph in 94ft? Yeah that's not even the lightest model of the LFA and doesn't even have all it's features yet it's still awesome performance. Get the facts straight before you post.

More features = more weight = slower car.

Freshseth83,

"Get the facts straight before you post.'

- Are you for real? My facts are straight. The 599 as well as the SLS gullwing have better acceleration numbers than the LF-A. Are you saying that C&D is incorrect?

And the 1.04g and 94ft braking performance can be attributed to the fact that the LF-A was riding on non-legal tires.

And your "that's not even the lightest LF-A model" is pure fantasy. The LF-A weighs 3583 lbs. They weighed on a scale. The 3200lbs number is pure fanboy fantasy. Tell me something, how is Lexus going to cut 400lbs off of that prototype?

You lexus fans need to accept the reality that the car you thought was going to rule the earth, cannot rule anything. Deal with it.

Are you people even reading the article? It states "a third of the orders from Europe were placed in Germany,".

To you folks that are reading-impaired, it means they sold one-third in Germany ALONE. Not all of Europe.

Unless there's a typo...

How much you wanna bet Lexus can produce another 500 of these and still wouldn't have problems selling all of them.