Has The Lexus LF-A Already Lost Relevance In The Supercar Market?

Actually the question should have been is Agent009 loosing his relevance ... I say yes please boost this comment if you agree.

Actually the LF-A is already falling into the same rut the original NSX did.

In this case you have a dated design that was stillborn then revived with little improvement. Now you bring it late to market and then let it sit without improving it over time.

Meanwhile the competition simply continues at a break neck pace and sooner, rather than later, you find out you were passed. The writing is on the wall for you to read.

Lexus is known for a lot of things, but making key improvements on a yearly basis is not one of them.

The NSX was a true leader when released and after years of neglect it was simply run over by the competition and the LF-A will be the same.

"The NSX was a true leader when released and after years of neglect it was simply run over by the competition and the LF-A will be the same. "

- The LF-A was never a "leader"

" Now you bring it late to market and then let it sit without improving it over time. "

the LFA was only out a few months, and yes they already made an improvement, the Nurburgring edition. But Lexus won't be making too many more adjustments, since there are only 500 cars, and reportedly, they're already sold. If Lexus decides to make a follow up car, I'm sure, a most follow up cars are, it will be even better.

Dumb 009 thread again.

Read the comment above and behold the truth.

They can't handle the truth. They're Toyota fans for Christ-sakes.

Success at sales? Yes. Building passionate cars? No. There hasn't been a passionate Toyota in the last 15 years. The Matrix is Toyota's most exiting car (Pathetic). I don't care how much of them that they sell. Toyota needs to start building cars that aren't boring appliances. I'm not sure how anyone can be a fan of that brand.

Last time I checked it was 2011. How about something that wasn't designed in the last century (over 15 years ago)? LOL! Toyota doesn't even have a car that can compete with a Hyundai Genesis coupe, or Nissan 370z. The current Toyota line-up is the king of lame. Hyundai has a better line-up. Name a current Toyota that's worth paying attention to?

Saying that it was a "nice first try" is an admission that the car could have been much better. I remember all the crap that Lexus fans were spewing before the LF-A was released, about how it’s going to be the king of supercars. Now it’s finally out and all they can say is "nice first try", please. The LF-A was supposed to rule the roast. What happened?

Name a current Toyota that's worth paying attention to?

Can someone answer that please? And I'm not talking about a $375,000 limited exotic in which the customers were chosen. Just de-boost, because you know that there isn't one.

Yes, that's why the LFA fans now say it's more of an SLS competitor, even though it lacks the "luxury" refinement.

Not surprising though, that's what happens when Toyota delayed it's launch to coincide with a Formula 1 victory that never happened.

You cannot loose what you never had.

Sounds like the American auto industry

Yes, it has.

If you don't plan to improve it then why make it?

you're right, it's just a money-losing, one-off experiment. sell them and move on.

That makes no sense, 009.

Did the Enzo get improved every 6 months? The Carerra GT?

A car that has a 4 or 6 year run, even a super car like a Veyron or Murcielago will likely see improvements every couple years. But the LF-A is limited run and will be built and sold out too quickly for incremental changes. The fact that they did make a higher end version for some of the 500 copies is remarkable enough.

If Lexus decides to make a sequel it'll be even better. But a limited run car is going to be as it is. If you don't like it, keep your A4.

The LF-A was never relevant to begin with. From day one there were less expensive cars with more prestigious names that outperformed the LF-A.

The LF-A was a failed automotive exercise that showed the world that Toyota cannot build a super car at the same price/performance levels as the other exotics. Lesson learned. I doubt that you will see another supercar from Toyota.

@McNugget You don't have to go any further than the article that this post is about. Did you bother to read it? Here's a quote:

"It’s not that old, but the Lexus LFA seems to live in a bygone era. Color agnostic, the LFA was (keyword was) a direct competitor for cars like the the Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Gallardo, and even the dated-but-capable Porsche Carrera GT. Yes, the F430 and Gallardo are significantly less expensive than the LFA, but their performance is about the same as the Lexus supercar delivers.

A new generation of supercars is now here. The Ferrari 458 Italia and even the spanking-new Lamborghini Aventador still undercut the price of the LFA. It’s looking more and more like Lexus is way behind, despite having just arrived. Maybe this is what happens when you take a decade to create a supercar. Maybe it won’t matter, and the LFA will be able to keep up in sales and performance thanks to its exclusivity.

On paper, the Aventador is the clear dollar-per-horsepower winner; especially when you consider the effectiveness of laying down all 700 horsepower with four wheels instead of two."

The LF-A was very nice. It just came out 10 years too late.

Plenty of de-boosting but no valid counter arguments? Lexus Fans are the worse.

Review or no review, the facts remain the same.

I think you need to come to the realization that the LF-A is an also-ran. All while costing the most and having the least pedigree. Not to mention the car was released with outdated technology (the transmission) from day one. When someone was testing the LF-A, they said that the transmission felt like a Ferrari transmission from 10 years ago.

You like the LF-A. I get that. But that doesn’t make it better than it actually is.

Before the LF-A was even released people were saying that it would be the be-all-end-all. Now that reality has kicked in (it isn’t the be-all-end-all) some people (fans) refuse to accept reality. And the reality is that the LF-A is an overpriced car, with old technology, that lacks any pedigree. Can it perform? Yes. Are they’re better cars out there that costs less? Hell yes.

Who's denouncing its performance? It's just that for $100,000 less you can get better cars with a more prestigious names. Why is that so hard for you to comprehend?

Saying that it's a "failed automotive exercise" isn't denouncing its performance. How did you even come to that conclusion? There has been plenty of fast cars that failed. Now you can add your favorite (the LF-A) to the list.

The car was very late to market. You can look at the specs and tell the Carrera GT was the benchmark and that went out of production in 2005. So that should give one a clue. I agree with LexSucks for the most part. I would give Toyota credit for building it but that is about it. The car may die an ugly death in the market place and it probably has already started.

What I don't see anyone mentioning is how Lexus hurt the purchase experience by not actually letting you own, but only lease the car. That kind of process can only hurt acceptance as well.

Not to mention the current lessees aren't driving these things daily. They're mostly sitting in these peoples personal car museums collecting dust. And I also agree with the fact that Toyota took so long to bring this car to fruition it was out spec-ed by newer supercars before the first tire touched any ground outside Toyota headquarters.

Not sure if they were hurt by the experience, but it it didn't help them attain world class status either.

I always knew they could make a credible contender in the first place. The real question was if they could maintain the pace over time. In that respect the answer may be no.

It does seem that the LF-A did not stir much fanfare. And I think it is way overpriced and simply looks boring. Maybe in real life it looks great, who knows. Look at all the press cars like the Nissan GTR, Ferrari's and Lambo's get, for example. Let's be honest, even the most die hard Lexus/Toyota enthusiasts must admit teh LF-A just hasn't received much press or interest as you would expect for a car that is suppose to have been so great.

they proved this: toyota can take a decade to produce a car that can equal the performance of competitors for a short time yet costs $100,000 more, looks strange, and loses money on every sale. congratulations on these FACTS.

While more exclusive than a Ferrari, price and full-ownership, the LF-A was never a milestone supercar. It lacked the performance of it's competitors and came out three - four years too late to have any real impact.

A car can not loose relevance if it did not have any to begin with!

LFA is an extremely limited production car. No doubt Toyota will easily sell all 500 units so there is no question of competing in 'Supercar Market'. It is not same as 458, MP4-12C, SLS, GT-R...etc and not directly competing IN THE MARKET with those cars. LFA is a technological showcase that Toyota can make a Supercar with supercar engine and most likely will make a series production Sportscar in the near future. It is also an opportunity for traditional Supercar buyers not first timers to try something different and own an extremely rare Supercar. LFA buyer most likely have or had Ferraris, Lambos.

blazinboy, this made me think. Just what is so groundbreaking about the LFA? The engine? The chassis? What is it? "In February 2000 the LF-A began development as a supercar project codenamed P280, which was intended to showcase the performance capabilities of Toyota Motor Corporation and its Lexus marque" Well, I guess Toyota did what they intended. It showcased "their" performance capabilities. I see no where they claimed it would be groundbreaking.

OK, I am wondering. How many of you guys think the LF-A looks good?

I Googled "LF-A beautiful car" and most everything I read said that it has an impressive presence but good looking or beautiful wasn't used to describe it.

http://forums.subdriven.com/showthread.php?4675839/page1

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BetaOffer.com

LexSucks seems to be attracting a lot of deboosts. Here I am though to draw some of the fire because I agree with every word. For the LF-A to have lost relevance it would have had to have had it in the first place. Too expensive, too slow, to complicated to ever worry the likes of Ferrari or even Nissan with the GTR. Toyota on a whole is lost. Their cars are ugly beyond belief and nowhere near as rock solid as they used to be. So what's the point of owning one? Who knows. I had my moment of insanity when I bought mine, but I quickly came back to my senses. They're gonna have to work hard for my money, but since they haven't even broken a sweat yet, they get passed by. Finally let me just say, some of you idiots love to flame the Agents for posting stuff on here. You should be lucky that they are as tolerant of your bullshit as they are because if I was running things around here 90% of you idiots would be gone. You bitch when they make a typo but continue to let that imbecile Tryme post his grammatically disgraceful drivel. You just don't know where to point your undersized dicks. Let the deboosting begin. And let me give a big screw you to all who do.

The deboost button on this site will become revelant to me when A) you can see who did it (similar to the facebook "like" button) or B) when you can't deboost unless you leave a comment as to why you are deboosting. This site needs a major revamp and I'd be almost willing to put my web design skills to use for free if the agents wanted me to. Thats why I'm rarely on this site anymore. Someone pissed me off with the elemantary sh*t that goes on here so bad one time that I deleted the site off my bookmarks. Now I'm only here if I have time AFTER I get bored from the many other auto news sites out there.

In reference to this article though I don't think it matters whether the LF-A lost revelance or not. Building a supercar does nothing but positive for a company and their engineering team. Every other one of their products can be reversed engineered from what was learned in the process. Am I a fan of the LF-A? Doesn't really matter. Can't say yes can't say no. I can't afford one anyway. I DO know that every single one of us would drive one if we could. #justsaying

I boosted you too, just for the awesome de-boosting comments.