Is the 2012 Lexus LFA Lexus' Worst Idea to Date?

Would you buy a $350,000 Lexus? While the Lexus LFA super car isn't for just any Joe Schmo on the street, Toyota officials are certain that the LFA will garner at least some interest from potential buyers of more recognized super cars such as the Lamborghini Aventador and Pagani Zonda. The question that you would have to ask yourself, though, is does the Lexus LFA actually deserve to take a place with vaunted sports cars like those?

The Lexus LFA certainly has the technology and power to meet the performance bar set by these cars. Powered by a specially-built 4.8 liter V-10 engine, the LFA boasts 552 horsepower and 354 foot-pounds of torque. This engine serves to propel the carbon-fiber reinforced polymer body to sixty miles per hour in 3.6 seconds. There is also a track-tuned version of the Lexus LFA, which produces an extra 10 horsepower, features a mildly improved transmission and a host of aerodynamic improvements over the "standard" Lexus LFA. Whether you're willing to foot another $100,000 for what could be seen as inconsequential improvements to an already extraordinarily expensive car is purely up to you.

Lexus has indicated that 500 LFA coupes will be produced, fifty of which will be the track-tuned versions, meaning that you'll probably have a difficult time getting hold of one if you do want to blow your money on a souped-up Toyota. Sure, Toyota's resale value is tough to beat, but really, $350,000 for an over-engineered design study? While it's laudable for Lexus to produce what is easily their greatest-ever aspirational vehicle, to put the LFA into the same league with Lamborghini and Ferrari is almost criminally inappropriate. For one, the Lamborghini Aventador is faster, hitting 62 miles per hour in just 2.8 seconds as opposed to the LFA's 3.6 seconds. Secondly, Ferrari has just simply got interior styling down pat. The Lexus LFA interior looks like something you'd see at a Saturday afternoon car show, with twenty kids standing around and a stereo blasting.

Sure, the Lexus LFA has style, and it's got more technology thrown at it than the space shuttle. The problem is that the Lexus LFA has no soul, an integral part of the kinds of cars that command more than a quarter of a million dollars as the price of entry. Sure, the LFA looks like a car right out of a James Bond movie, but it's destined to be one of those cars that, try as it might, just can't reach the level of stardom that James' DB5 had. It's a car that's destined for a one-movie run, a quick chase scene, but then a deadly fall from some high cliff into crashing waves below, while an Aston-Martin glides effortlessly up the steep terrain. The biggest problem that Lexus will have with the LFA, however? In three years, you'll have to stop and think for a minute to even remember what it was called.

Sources:
Lexus.com: Lexus LFA: www.lexus.com
Motor Trend.com: 2012 Lexus LFA First Drive; Arthur St. Antoine: www.motortrend.com