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« on: November 28, 2009, 10:38:07 pm » |
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Comparing the halo cars of Toyota and General Motors, I see another example of a disturbing pricing trend. Lexus LFA: 552hp, roughly 3300-pound front-engine, rear-drive coupe with aluminum and carbon fibre body, titanium connecting rods and valves, dry sump, six gears, ceramic brakes, 202mph claimed top speed. $400,000.
Corvette ZR1: 638hp, 3352-pound front-engine, rear drive coupe with aluminum and carbon fibre body, titanium connecting rods and valves, dry sump, six gears, ceramic brakes, 205mph claimed top speed. $107,000.
Priced like it is I can't help but think the Lexus LFA is designed to be just another low-volume, overpriced supercar that isn't as competent as last year's Corvette Z06 or ZR1. I didn't think Lexus was so shallow as to sell a pretty but vastly overpriced car on looks and prestige alone. Honda's NSX was pretty reasonably priced when it came out and it wasn't priced higher than the top-spec Ferrari like this one is. I think the LFA is an attractive car and would be interesting at $100,000 to $140,000, but at $400,000 it just makes me wonder where I can get gauges like that for my next automobile project.
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GT-Four
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« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2009, 02:17:21 pm » |
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Honda's NSX was pretty reasonably priced when it came out and it wasn't priced higher than the top-spec Ferrari like this one is. The NSX didn't have the horsepower of a Ferrari, either. Besides, Honda has cancelled the new NSX and stopped production of the S2000, whereas Toyota is coming out with the FT-86 in a year. Sure, Toyota has been out of sporty cars for a while when they dropped the MR2 Spyder and Celica GTS after 2005, but right now Toyota is shaping up better than Honda. I think the LFA is an attractive car and would be interesting at $100,000 to $140,000, but at $400,000 it just makes me wonder where I can get gauges like that for my next automobile project. Just because you can't afford it doesn't mean it's not a great car and an example of Toyota's engineering skills. That gauge cluster is awesome though, it makes all of the aftermarket gauages on the market look like crap. I wonder how insanely expensive the replacement part will be and when we'll see them show up on tuner cars.
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« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2009, 07:02:02 pm » |
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Just because you can't afford it doesn't mean it's not a great car and an example of Toyota's engineering skills.
I'm just saying people can't possibly be shopping it against the Corvette ZR1 or Z06 simply because the Lexus LFA is 3x or 4x the MSRP, even though the cars are otherwise extremely similar. The biggest difference is that the Corvette is a high volume production car with its own full-time assembly line and the Z06 and ZR1 are special versions of the regular Corvette, whereas the LFA is a low-volume car that has no pedestrian version to amortize its development costs.
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FT-86
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« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2009, 11:07:57 pm » |
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Let's face it, the Lexus LFA would have been vastly overpriced and far too late to market if it was introduced in 2008, and people would have laughed at Toyota for making a stupid corporate move like GM or Chrysler. Introducing it in 2009 with a straight face and claiming they're losing money on each one is beyond ridiculous. Toyota got where it is by making excellent quality cars that were an excellent value, and I'd like to see them do that again.
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meathead
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« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2009, 02:41:01 am » |
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LFA is a joke, it was probably made for some big name Toyota executive. I would love to take it for a test drive though.
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GT-Four
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« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2009, 03:44:00 pm » |
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The only thing I'm interested in about a $400,000 car is what bits and pieces of technology from it are going into the next car I am gonna buy in two years.
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