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Lexus LFA to sell, not lease in Europe

 Lexus LFA to sell, not lease in Europe
Lexus LFA at Park Lane, London

Those of you in North America looking to purchase a Lexus LFA will have to travel across the pond to do so.  Despite being available on a lease-only basis in NA, European customers will only be able to buy the cars.

Lexus stunned potential NA customers with the news of the leasing policy last week.  The Japanese automaker wants to prevent speculative purchasing, and inflated second-hand resale of the vehicle by maintaining ownership of all 150 units set for delivery in the U.S. and Canada.

The company offered no reason for its different direction on the European continent.

Lexus' new 4.8-liter V10 supercar is capable of going from 0-100 km/h in 3.7 seconds.  The LFA tops out at 325 km/h (202 mph).  One of the cars is already on display at the Lexus Park Lane showroom in Mayfair, London.

Orders will be taken on the car beginning in Spring 2010.  European delivery of the handcrafted Lexus LFA will take place between 2011 and 2013.

Dec 1, 2009 7:00 pm By Zack Newmark
Posted in:

Lexus Park Lane appointed European sales centre

London has a new must-see attraction with the arrival of the Lexus LFA at Lexus Park Lane.

The Mayfair showroom has been selected by Lexus as the centre for all European LFA sales, reflecting the car's status as one of the most exclusive machines money can buy. The V10-powered supercar has attracted huge attention worldwide since its official launch at the Tokyo motor show and met with critical acclaim for its performance, handling and advanced design and engineering. Just 500 examples are destined to be built, with only a proportion of this total made available to European customers.

A car that is as distinctive, sophisticated and sought-after as the Lexus LFA calls for a very special customer purchasing experience. To achieve this, a bespoke showroom has been created within Lexus Park Lane and a Personal Liaison Manager has been appointed to handle all sales matters.

A VIP selection room has also been opened, where customers can discuss their requirements on a one-to-one basis in comfortable, discreet surroundings.

The man at the heart of the operation is Devshi Varsani. A Lexus Park Lane employee of long-standing, he brings a wealth of expert knowledge to the liaison manager role and extensive experience in dealing with international clients through his work in diplomatic and corporate sales.

"The LFA is an exceptional car for Lexus and is attracting huge interest right around the world," said Devshi. "I am hugely excited at the prospect of introducing customers to the car and feel as though the world is looking over my shoulder.

"Lexus has a world-leading reputation for customer service and I will be playing my part in ensuring the people who purchase the LFA, wherever they come from in Europe, are given all the assistance and support they require.

"Since LFA was unveiled to the world last month, we have experienced a strong demand from prospective customers from across Europe.

"Having the car on display in our showroom will allow these potential customers to come see the supercar in the flesh, an important part of the sales process for such an extraordinary car."

LFA Sales Programme

Lexus has drawn up a unique sales strategy for sales and delivery of the LFA in Europe, taking into account the car's exclusivity and anticipating exceptional requirements from prospective owners.

Prospective owners are able to make initial enquiries via Lexus Centres, Lexus national marketing and sales companies, or on-line at the dedicated LFA web site at www.lexus-lfa.com. These will be forwarded to and followed up by the Personal Liaison Manager and if the customer wishes to proceed, an "expression of interest" form will be completed together with payment of an initial deposit.

Orders will be taken from March/April next year, with further consultation between the Personal Liaison Manager and the customer on their desired specifications and personalisation preferences, such as body and interior colours, wheel designs and equipment features. At this point an indication will be made of the potential individual delivery date: as each LFA is individually hand-crafted, deliveries to customers begin in 2011 and continue for two years. On signing a contract, the customer will be required to make a deposit.

All European cars will be fully sold to the customer.

 

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Comments (45)

 otakki otakki
Of course, the rest of the world doesn't trust us here in the US due to the majority here not living within their mean. Look at the situation here in US. The dollar index shows our USD is on the way to go belly up...
December 2, 2009 12:29 am
 scratchy996 scratchy996
Europe has it's speculants too, but no one in Europe wants to buy this expensive Toyota, it makes no sense for speculants to jump on it.
December 2, 2009 1:10 am
 hunkeers87 hunkeers87
nothing special about this car....
December 2, 2009 1:40 am
 M! M!
this is getting more ridiculous. speculators live around the world. not just in north america. chances are those who can afford the price for a LF-A would have vacation homes around the world, and won't need to lease it from lexus USA.
December 2, 2009 1:53 am
 eddie eddie
Buy it in Europe and ship it over.
December 2, 2009 3:16 am
 ifudge ifudge
anyone who buys or leases this insanely overpriced celica needs to get their heads checked.
December 2, 2009 3:28 am
 GTurbo GTurbo
It is such narrow-mindedness that made the GT-R by Nissan such a world class beater, keeping a 997 911 Turbo honest at almost a fraction of its price! Beware because Lexus takes such comments very seriously and acts accordingly. They are celebrating two decades this year hence the LF-A's existence.
December 2, 2009 4:09 am
 Ferrariguy Ferrariguy
Overpriced as opposed to what?? I agree it's a pretty steep price, but it's all relative? Do you think it's overpriced in terms of Tiger Woods income, Bill Gates, LeBron James, etc... To a lot of people who are not enthusiasts Porsche, BMW's or any luxury cars are overpriced. You can pretty much buy a Honda Accord and do the same or a Mustang/Corvette and equal the performance of a supercar. Again overpriced is all relative.
December 2, 2009 4:50 am
 G G
Dude above, what the heck are you talking about if you go all "relative" in that sense you would be referring to the purchasing power to people i am sure whoever else talking about overpriced here refers to the fact that you can but like a ferrari (or something else...dun care) at the same price range relativity requires you to measure car-and-car not car-and-people stoooopid.
December 2, 2009 5:07 am
 Chinaski Chinaski
Speculators? Oh give me a frickin break! There is no hot market for a $400k Lexus that people are going to bid them up past that. They'll be lucky to sell the 100 or so they're shipping to the US. Porsche had trouble selling their Carrera GT for even MSRP in the states and that was during a much better economy. They ended up cutting their original build number in half.
December 2, 2009 5:12 am
 ifudge ifudge
fair points GTurbo and Ferrariguy. The beauty of the GT-R is that it is a Giant Killer for an M3 price. I'm all for that and think Nissan are awesome for creating this. It's overpriced compared to its competitors, which I'm not entirely sure which they are as it's more expensive than MB SLS/SL 63AMG Black, Porsche 911 Turbo, Ferrari 48 Italia... Those cars have pedigree and proven performance. LFA builds on...the SC430?...
December 2, 2009 5:30 am
 e36mmm e36mmm
Chinaski, Carrera GT has been rated the best selling supercar in history! period! and your saying it had trouble selling in U.S? Get your facts right..
December 2, 2009 5:36 am
 meizterwerk meizterwerk
it may have that price due to its massive carbon fiber construction and it counts because if you will crash with it, chances are you might not even have a scratch.
December 2, 2009 6:52 am
 bravado bravado
Interesting, it takes them four extra cylinders to get Nissan GT-R like performance, and of course it'll be much more expensive. What a breakthrough for Toyota/Lexus, sweet!
December 2, 2009 9:00 am
 9TNine 9TNine
This may be another repeat of Toyota Formula 1... Big Fail! Toyota should go back to its roots of building cheap, reliable cars... (Trouble is they're no longer cheap NOR reliable anymore!)
December 2, 2009 11:50 am
 RzGTmorio RzGTmorio
I like this car
December 2, 2009 2:31 pm
 CarFan56 CarFan56
9TNine, You are right. The toyotas have become way less reliable then Volkswagens now
December 2, 2009 5:24 pm
 GTurbo GTurbo
Well Xenicide, it's good enough and I'm seeing more GT-Rs on British roads actually.
December 2, 2009 6:19 pm
 Targa_Florio Targa_Florio
I can strongly confirm that it will struggle to sale in UE except in UK & Benelux: the rest of Europe is strongly attached to heritage/tradition for any car more expensive than the average car. Lexus Europe sold less than 55 000 cars in 2007!
December 2, 2009 8:01 pm
 eddie eddie
CHINASKI I think you are conr
December 2, 2009 8:37 pm
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