THE Lexus LFA it was one of the rare Japanese supersports to exist. An agonizingly slow development gave rise to a fascinating machine. Marked by a sharp styling and, above all, by the 4.8 l V10 NA that fitted it. Its ability to devour spins is legendary, delivering 560 hp at a raucous 8700 rpm . The sound was truly epic:
It was only produced in 500 units for two years, between the end of 2010 and the end of 2012. It's 2017, so you would expect all LFA's to have found a home… or rather, a garage. But it seems that this is not the case.
It was Autoblog that, when crunching the numbers of car sales in the US during the month of July, came across a Lexus LFA sold. Considering that it is sales for new cars, how is it possible that there are still sales of a car that has been out of production five years ago? It's time to investigate.
When asked about the Lexus LFA, Toyota officials said, astonishingly, that they were not the only ones. Last year they sold six, and there are still 12 Lexus LFA unsold in the US! The 12 supersports are classified as distributor inventory. Yes, there are 12 LFA, zero kilometers and at least five years old, that can still be sold as new.
The North American representatives of the Japanese brand were unable to answer whether there are more Lexus LFAs in the same situation outside the US, not having this information.
But how is it possible?
Lexus International responds. Initially, when the Lexus LFA went on sale in the US, the brand was willing to accept only direct orders from end customers, avoiding price speculation.
But to respond to a drop in orders in 2010, the brand decided to take other measures. To ensure that cars didn't sit idle at the factory, the brand allowed customers who had already booked an LFA to reserve a second. And it also allowed distributors and executives the possibility to order cars for them or to sell through official representatives of the brand.
And it is the latter that have resurfaced from time to time in new car sales records. However, considering that some of these dealers have had the cars for five years, they don't seem to be in much of a rush to sell them. They are excellent machines for display or even for collecting, so the sale of each unit can represent large amounts above the already high price of the Lexus LFA.
It is Lexus International itself that says: "Some of these cars may never be sold, except perhaps by the distributors' heirs."
Update to January 4, 2019: Again, through Autoblog, we learned that of the 12 still to be sold at the time of this article's publication, four have already been sold during 2018, with eight Lexus LFA remaining unsold.
Update on August 6, 2019: Autoblog reports that three more LFAs were sold, so far, in 2019, interestingly enough, all in January. In other words, there are still a handful of Lexus LFA left to sell.