Lexus LFA at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show

Kind of with 1487 on this one. Powerplant, looks, and quality-wise, this car seems to be closer to a Gallardo, F430/458, or R8 V10. Trouble is, it's priced like a 599 or SLR. Sorry Lexus, you should have shot lower and gone with a 911/GT-R rival instead.

I think it looks ok, but its certainly not sexy like an R8. The exhaust pipe configuration is hideous - scratch that, the whole aft end is hideous. If I want a vehicle with this sort of looks, I'd much rather take the cheaper GT-R.

I also don't really have any 'desire' for a Lexus sports car in general.

I fully understand its mission and overall purpose as Toyota/ Lexus definitely need some excitement in the lineup. Great effort.

However, Toyota/Lexus has simply priced this car waaaaaay out of its segment, especially going against brands such as Ferrari and Lamborghini which both have much more badge power and prestige in the exotic car market. Besides the obvious limited production what justifies this cars expense?

To Honda/Acura: Grow some balls, finish the development on the NSX successor, and bring it to market as you could release a better car than the LF-A and charge less than half its price. NSX's pricing structure should be along the lines of the 911 Turbo and/or the Audi R8 4.2.

except for the front, back and side the car looks OK. INterior is ugly too. No wonder they only want to sell 500. Thats all they can sell at $375k. This is very un-Toyota and companies often flop when they step too far outside of their historical strengths. At a time when Toyota is already losing money this is a waste.

"I fully understand its mission and overall purpose as Toyota/ Lexus definitely need some excitement in the lineup. Great effort."

I doubt 500 units of a super expensive car that 99% of Lexus owners can't afford really does much to add a "halo" to the Lexus brand. This car has NOTHING to do with Lexus products as a whole. Who is going to look at this car and be inspired to buy an ES350?

another f--k ugly piece of s--t from toyota motors. who designs over there? anybody? or do they just throw tangrams at the wall and draw wheels underneath? it's like toyota WANTS to be the new GM. and great business strategy: establish a reputation as a mildly interesting middle of the road luxury brand, then suddenly jump into the $375K "supercar" market. as for this being a cure for toyota's boring car problem? how will this excite anyone? they are only making 500 of them, and anyone who can afford to buy one would be a fool to do so, given how much better, cheaper competition this car has. only the handful of people who follow cars enough to read edmunds religiously will even know about this thing, and so far it seems like we all hate it. as for comparing it to the ford GT, i happen to live in a city lucky enough to have one on our ford showroom floor to ogle from time to time, but that's the end of that story, it just sits on the showroom floor, for years now, unpurchased, just like this lexus is going to do. it's not a halo car, it's corporate art, and like all corporate art, its pretty heinous looking. i also happen to live in an area (the SF bay area) where, no matter how expensive, rare, or new a car is, there is at least one driving around our streets, and let me tell you, it pains me to see people driving around their maseratis with a baby seat in the back, and spongebob stickers in the windows like it's a dodge caravan, or a ferrari california in "look at me look at me!" bright yellow, so i look, just in time to see him CRUNCH CRUNCH! bottom out, backing out of a driveway, or pulling up next to someone in a lambo and being so excited to ask "how fast does that baby go?" and hearing back "i don't know, i never take it over 85". point being, a good portion of the people who do buy cars in this segment don't drive or simply don't know how to drive them the way they were intended. all on fronts this car was a waste of everyone's time, effort, and eventually, money.

apologies, i was basing my pricing on the previous comments. the price (as stated in the article about the first drive) is $534K(!) so just go ahead and add $159K worth of extra venom to everything i said.

Akio Toyoda is 'sad' that Toyota doesn't make an exciting car like the Supra anymore? WTF, isn't he Chairman? What's stopping you? Nissan makes TWO for God's sake and it's half the size of Toyota.

GM has the 'Vette and Camaro (and had the Solstice and Aura), Ford has the Mustang, Dodge the Challenger. Hell, even Hyundai makes a sports car now. Where is it written that Toyota can only produce underpowered economy cars and refined, but boring sedans?

Toyota used to make some fun cars across a variety of price points, the 2000GT, the early Celicas (I had a '72 myself), the 80's Celica All-Trac Turbo, the FX-16, the 2nd and 4th gen Supras and the 1st and 2nd gen MR2. Clearly they can make a fun and reasonably priced car if they want to. It seems like Toyoda-San wants to so get to it.

I really think it's a stunning vehicle. It falls short of the F458 visually, but the LFA still looks like a supercar. I think it's MUCH more beautiful than the R8. Price is ridiculous though; and unless it offers something else bo one can, there are way too many other nice choices out there. The noise the LFA makes is amazing though!

I cant think of any supercar except the top Lambo that is uglier than this. even the new odd looking Ferrari looks far better than this monstonsity. This lacks any beauty whatsoever. They should have outsourced the design to Aston or Audi and things would've turned out better. Toyota has no experience designing desirable high end sports cars and it shows. On top of that this car has ZERO connection to any other Lexus.

1487, your comments have been noted. Just like they are on every single other blog post on Inside Line. Personally I think the car looks great - a better looking, much more expensive GT-R, if you will. And the sound it makes at WOT is almost loud enough to completely filter our your senseless judgmental babble, which I never thought would happen.

I'm curious why they didn't go mid-engine with this car. They did get a good F/R weight balance with this car, but still, a mid-engine design would have been better, especially for a supercar like this, in which most are mid engine.

Also, Yamaha's engine development undermines Toyota's in-house engineering talent. If you're building a car like this to showcase your engineering talent, you shouldn't rely on another company to do the engineering for you.

"I cant think of any supercar except the top Lambo that is uglier than this. even the new odd looking Ferrari looks far better than this monstonsity."

You say that like a) looks are objective not subjective and b) it's some widely accepted fact that Lambos are ugly.

I do find it sort of hilarious that the $20k-ish FT-86 looks so much better than the LFA.

"1487, your comments have been noted. Just like they are on every single other blog post on Inside Line."

Dont get mad at me because the car is unsightly. If you are bent out of shape based on my comments don't read what they are saying on other sites. Don't shoot the messenger. Considering the price it better look more expensive than the GTR.

"You say that like a) looks are objective not subjective and b) it's some widely accepted fact that Lambos are ugly. "

You're right Sabastian, I'm the first and only person ever to comment on styling on an internet site. BEcause every other poster knows styling is subjective and refrains from providing an opinion. The LP640 or whatever it's called is not attractive to me. Just because its 4 ft off the ground doesn't men it's attractive. While some may disagree on hte ugliness of this Lexus I think we can all agree it lacks any grace or elegance. It's very aggressive in a juvenile sort of way.

"Also, Yamaha's engine development undermines Toyota's in-house engineering talent. If you're building a car like this to showcase your engineering talent, you shouldn't rely on another company to do the engineering for you."

Sting, although I do agree, Lotus designed the 5.7L DOHC V8 for the C4 Chevy Corvette ZR1. That said, why is it wrong for Toyota to do something similar?

"1487, your comments have been noted. Just like they are on every single other blog post on Inside Line. "

Exactly! It's almost as if he's trying to find faults with the LF-A just because it's a Toyota. Given the car isn't even out yet I'd at least give it a chance to prove itself.

The only things I have issues with are the ridiculous price and the super low volume of 500. Other than that......

'LFA'? "loofah'?
Does kinda look like a loofah.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'....

To answer the original question... frankly, I don't feel anything about this car. It kinda confuses me, but I just am not either way about it. I think it's way overpriced, but if someone wants to pay for it, good for them. I don't understand why there are so many vents in the back when it's a front engine car, but whatever. I don't know how it can be so low on torque, but hey, it sounds amazing. In the end there are positives, negatives, and like most Toyotas I just don't really care that much.

When I see an Aston Martin I will drop everything to enjoy its design, when I see an Elise/Exige I admire the tremendous degree of raw driving experience... and both of these vehicles are less expensive. When/if I ever see one of these things I'll probably just check it off the list of exotic vehicles I've seen, such as the SLR Roadster

Loofah should be the official pronunciation.