NEWBERG, OR – Lexus says its LFA supercar is nearly sold out, with a half-dozen or fewer of the units allotted to the U.S. market remaining.
“We’re down to taking (about) the last two orders now,” Mark Templin, Lexus group vice president and general manager, tells WardsAuto here in an interview during a media backgrounder for the new Lexus ES. “We’re finalizing that. Over the next two months, we’ll have every single order in.”
Tim Morrison, Lexus vice president-sales, tells media at a Detroit-area event last week that only about a half-dozen U.S.-market LFAs have yet to be allocated.
Templin says only nine LFAs remained unsold globally as of May, out of a production run of 500.
Lexus originally was allotted 150 units of the supercar for the U.S., but spokesman Michael Kroll says those sold out fast, prompting another 23 units to be shipped from Japan, where the LFA is assembled.
An additional five cars were allotted this year for U.S. sale, possibly one reason why the car’s days’ supply has shot up in recent months, Kroll says.
WardsAutoU.S. inventory data shows 32 LFAs were in dealer stock, in transit or at port at the end of May, equal to a 277 days’ supply, up from 144 at the end of April.
In 2011, Lexus sold 62 LFAs in the U.S. It has delivered 22 this year through May.
Some of those initial hand-raisers for the 562-hp, V-10 supercar, which starts at $375,000 and can surpass $400,000, changed their minds. But Templin says it didn’t take long to find new buyers.
“You had some who put their name down, put a deposit down, and by the time it came time to really put the $50,000 down and put their order in (they say), ‘My wife won’t let me buy it,’ or ‘My company’s not doing so good,’ or ‘I was tired of waiting so I bought a Ferrari.’”
Lexus originally planned to restrict the LFA to leasing to maintain exclusivity and avoid buyers flipping the car for a profit.
But as WardsAuto reported in July 2010, the auto maker changed its strategy to allow sales to dealers.
Lexus won’t disclose how many LFAs have been sold to dealers and how many have been leased, as it considers a sale to a dealer the same as one to a private individual. “Dealers who did purchase the vehicle did so for their own personal use,” Kroll says.
The lease-only directive also has fallen by the wayside with some retailers, who are selling the car on Internet auction site eBay.
Over the past month, four Lexus dealers have listed, and in some case relisted, new and used LFAs on eBay.
As of June 19, four LFAs are listed for auction on eBay, including a $381,300 black LFA from Lexus of Pembroke Pines (FL), which was relisted after it failed to sell in an auction last week.
Selling an LFA on eBay makes sense because a well-heeled customer would rather buy than lease, says Mike Gagliardi of Lexus of Pembroke Pines, who wasn’t aware of the lease-only directive.
“When they make only so many, and it’s numbered, that’s probably something you don’t want to trade in after a certain number of years,” he says.
None of the LFAs listed in the past month on eBay have sold. A used white ’12 LFA with 648 miles (1,043 km) listed at $175,000 by a Lexus dealer near San Francisco garnered five bids, but none met the reserve-price requirements and the car wasn’t sold.
Morrison says most LFA sales have been made in the so-called “Smile” region of the U.S. that runs through the southern tier of states and along the two coasts.
Dan Swartz of Lexus’ Central Region, which encompasses Detroit, Chicago and other Midwestern cities, says most LFA sales in his territory have been to current Lexus owners.
