Toyota Learned NOTHING From the Lexus LFA

[00:02] Yes, Toyota is gatekeeping their own new supercar and not in a cool way, in a we hired a life coach and made him a salesman kind of way. Like, subscribe so we can hit 2 mil and let's go. Hey guys, real quick, the giveaway for the Shelby

[00:15] and Supra and the $100,000 has ended and well, the winners are being picked right now. But, we're coming back bigger and better and better. So, click the link in the pinned first comment because like Rocky who won the GT-R, like Greg who

[00:28] won the 100K, you can sign up to be notified and get 100 free entries once it goes live. So, click the link down below, go put in your email and I can't wait to show you what we have cooking. All right, back to the show. Meet the GR

[00:40] All right, back to the show. Meet the GR GT twin-turbo 4-liter V8 hybrid assist GT twin-turbo 4-liter V8 hybrid assist 641 horsepower over $220,000 starting price. On paper, it was absolutely disgusting, incredible, a

[00:52] genuine halo car from a brand that hasn't had one since George W. Bush was in office and now that it's finally here or almost here, Toyota has decided the like you're applying for a mortgage at a bank that doesn't like you. Toyota's

[01:06] Gazoo Racing boss confirmed that buying a GR GT will, quote, feel like an interview process. There are specially trained GR Meisters. Yes, like they're handing out black belts, who will be your personal guide from the moment you

[01:19] express interest all the way through the ownership. They're not just a salesperson, they're your friend for life as long as you have the car. Your friend for life. I didn't even get that level of commitment from my last

[01:31] multiple times. And it's not just the emotional support program. There is actual vetting happening. Toyota has said buyers need to prove they're real enthusiasts who will drive the car, not flip it. Influencers, I'm looking at

[01:44] you, John Cena. Oh, wait, I can't see you. Yes, influencers hoping to grab one for content are apparently not welcome. Rich people who want a trophy for their garage might not make the cut, either. You need to demonstrate to a Toyota

[01:56] representative that your intentions are pure before handing over a quarter million dollars. Now, before you all come at me in the comments saying Ferrari does this, Porsche does this, yeah, you're right, and we're going to

[02:08] get into that. But, there's a very important difference, and that difference is why Toyota is going to regret this. Ferrari and Porsche absolutely vet their customers. You want a LaFerrari? You better have a history

[02:21] of buying Ferraris, attending Ferrari events, and generally existing in the Ferrari universe for years. Porsche has allocation systems where loyal customers with long purchase histories get first dibs on the GT cars.

[02:34] These programs work because Ferrari and Porsche have built a decades-long ecosystem. There's a ladder. You start with a 911 Carrera, or maybe a Taycan for your wife. You work your way up. You earn the GT3, you earn the GT3 RS, and

[02:48] eventually, if you've been a good little Porsche customer for 20 years, maybe you get a phone call for the GT2 RS. The exclusivity means something because the relationship is real, and it goes both ways. Toyota has never sold a car like

[03:02] this, ever. Their own Gazoo Racing chief admitted, and I'm paraphrasing, that they are dealing with a customer they have never seen in their stores before. So, you're telling me Toyota wants to vet buyers based on enthusiasm and

[03:15] loyalty to a supercar program that doesn't exist yet? What's the criteria? You own a GR86, you have a Supra like the one that you can win that I'm giving away. You bought a GR Corolla, and you're really into it. There is no

[03:28] established Toyota supercar customer. They're trying to build the ladder and gatekeep the top rung at the same time. That's not exclusivity, that's vibe-based sales policy. And this is where the LFA conversation has to

[03:42] happen, because we have been here before, and it did not go well. You see, the Lexus LFA, if you don't know the LFA, here's the TLDR version. Toyota spent over a decade developing it. Carbon fiber body, a 4.8 L naturally

[03:55] aspirated V10 that revved to 9,000 RPM and sounded like something an aerospace engineer dreamed up of after drinking too much sake. Legitimately one of the greatest engines ever bolted into a road car. The thing was a technological

[04:08] marvel. It cost 375 thou in 2010. They built 500 units over 2 years. Dealers about flippers and so precious about who owned the LFA that they initially

[04:20] refused to sell it outright. You could only lease it in certain markets. They wanted control over where the cars went and what happened to them. Sound familiar? And after all the engineering, all the exclusivity theater, all the

[04:33] careful planning, LFAs just sat in showrooms for years, not months. There are documented cases of American Lexus dealers holding onto unsold LFAs for so dealers holding onto unsold LFAs for so long the car became automotive folklore.

[04:46] a US dealership for years after production ended. A car that could hit 60 in under 4 seconds making zero trips to anyone's driveway. So how does all this happen? It happens when you price a car beyond what the emotional market

[05:00] will bear, make it difficult to acquire, and assume the hype will last forever. Hype is a sprint, dealership inventory is a marathon, and the LFA found that out the hard way. Now the LFA is worth a fortune today and everybody wants one.

[05:13] Great. Congratulations to the guy who held on. But that's not vindication of Toyota's sales strategy. That's just time healing wounds. The car succeeded in spite of how it was sold, not because of it. So here we are this year and

[05:26] Toyota's essentially doing a director's cut of the same movie. The GR GT is going to start above $220,000. It's going to be sold exclusively at Lexus dealerships because Toyota dealers apparently can't be trusted with it,

[05:40] which is a whole other conversation. And you need to pass a judgment test from a human being called a Meister before you're allowed to give Toyota your money in America, where we pride ourselves on freedom to make stupid financial

[05:53] decisions without anyone's approval. And look, I want to be clear about something. The car itself sounds extraordinary. 641 horses from a twin-turbo V8 with a hybrid torque filling in every gap. A purpose-built

[06:05] developing and testing at the 'Ring. They built a secret training facility in Texas just to get Lexus dealers ready for it. The engineering ambition here is real. This is not a badge engineered

[06:17] sports car or a Supra situation where people argue about how much of it is actually a Toyota. This is the real deal. [music] And the real thing deserves a real sales strategy. And interviewing customers it's not that.

[06:30] launch hype will be massive. Initial allocation will sell through because enthusiasts will make the first wave disappear fast. Toyota will feel vindicated. The Meisters will be busy. Everyone will write glowing articles

[06:44] about how Toyota finally did it. And then the second wave of inventory hits. already have one. And the influencers got turned away. And the flippers went and bought something else. And And the guy who just wanted a cool fast car for

[06:59] through what amounts to a personality evaluation at a car dealership. And suddenly $220,000 Toyota is sitting next to a pre-owned RX 550H. Nobody is making eye contact with it. I'm not saying it's guaranteed. I'm saying the conditions

[07:14] happened. And Toyota hasn't shown me anything that changes the math. Ferrari built a culture around 50 plus years where being in the club means something programs, driving experiences, communities [music] that span

[07:29] generations. When Porsche vets you, you're protecting something that already has enormous perceived value. When Toyota vets you though, they're protecting something that hasn't proven itself in a market yet. Those are

[07:41] completely different propositions. The GR GT needs to earn its legend status. not a business model. That's just straight luck. And if Toyota wants this supercar lineage, which is clearly the dream here, they need people in them on

[07:58] roads, at tracks, in the culture, not sitting in a climate-controlled showroom waiting for the right buyer to walk in and pass their vibe check. Let the car do the gatekeeping. If someone buys a GR GT and immediately flips it, the next

[08:10] owner still has a GR GT and that's another person in the ecosystem. Let the car build on the culture. Trust the engineering you spent all this money on. Toyota, you have something special here and I genuinely believe that, but you

[08:23] are so close to doing it again. The overpriced halo car with all the right specs and all the wrong energy around buying it. Learn from the LFA, not the part where it became valuable and everybody respected it in hindsight.

[08:36] showroom floors while the world moved on. You built a monster, Toyota. Open the cage. Drop a comment. Do you think the vetting process is smart or is this the LFA disaster in slow motion? And if you had to [snorts] answer one interview

[08:52] question to prove you deserve a GR GT, what would you say? Let's hear it. I'll start. Mine is I watched Initial D unironically and I have never once called a car a daily when it clearly isn't. I think that qualifies me, right,

[09:05] isn't. I think that qualifies me, right, Toyota? Or is it Lexus? Or is it GR? year. Check out some of these Ideal vids and promise me one thing. Keep living and promise me one thing. Keep living the Ideal lifestyle.