Photo copyright ©2009 Damon Lavrinc / Weblogs, Inc.
You’ve heard of diamond-encrusted televisions. You’ve heard of gold-plated refrigerators. You’ve heard of bathtubs dipped in platinum. Are any of these things better because of their blinged-out status? No.
A gold-plated refrigerator is still a refrigerator. If I gold-plated my excrement, it would still be excrement.
When you get down to the nuts and bolts of the matter, it’s just flat-out tasteless.
This is what plagues the Lexus LFA.
It’s a great machine. It can lap the Nürburgring in 7:24. It’s got a great-sounding V10 engine. It’s dynamic, and it’s the automotive equivalent of gold-plated excrement.
I have come to this conclusion via the power of complex mathematical reasoning. If I were born yesterday, I’d be able to guesstimate the LFA’s price at $168,000 just by looking at it. If you told me how it performed, I’d add $25,000 to the total. If I were to hear the sound of the engine – which may be the best sound of any road car today - I’d start feeling generous and I’d add $30,000 to the expected price.
So where does that leave us? $223,000
Lexus LFA MSRP: $380,000
Discrepancy between perceived price and actual MSRP: $157,000
So where did all those Benjamins go? They went into the carbon fiber-reinforced polymer body which saves about 200 lbs. versus an all-aluminum car.
So tell me, are you willing to pay $157,000 to lose 200 lbs? I’m not and I’m certain NBC’s Biggest Loser isn’t either. So while the Lexus LFA is a great car, it’s a great car wrapped in carbon fiber, or the automotive equivalent of gold plating, and for an extra $157,000 … well, if i carry the seven and cross-cancel – yep, that makes the car crap – crap wrapped in “gold”.
I know, everybody wants to be like Audi. Put a halo car in the showrooms to get people to walk in, and they walk out with an A4. Same thing with the Ford GT. Same thing with the Acura NSX. Same thing with the Dodge Viper. All those cars changed their entire car companies and the way people perceived them.
But now the halo car business is becoming too much of a “me too” business; as a result, I think this car will hurt Lexus’s image. The Lexus LFA is a halo car done wrong. Halo cars have to present something new and/or unique to the marketplace. The Acura NSX was the best example – it was the first supercar that was easy to drive. The Dodge Viper – the automotive equivalent of a red thong flossing a tan butt on a summer day north of 100°F. Audi R8 - a true supercar you could drive every day and almost afford. LFA: just another fast car.
You see, halo cars don’t necessarily have to beat all their rivals, but they have to be compelling. I’m sorry, but among Ferrari 599 GTB Fioranos and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMGs … even the much cheaper Nissan GT-Rs, the Lexus LFA is leaving this reviewer cold.
The name LFA originates from “Lexus Future Advance”. It’s a shame because in many ways, this car is retarding Lexus’s future.
They should have made a successor to the Supra (the name alone sounds better than “LFA”) that would have been less expensive than the Nissan GT-R, but better-performing. What they’ve given us is an overpriced Supra with a Lexus badge and radiators in the back. Stinky.
Photos copyright ©2009 Damon Lavrinc / Weblogs, Inc.
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