Hard to believe that the luxury market is taking a dive. The wealthy should be cash heavy now since equities and real estate investments are in the crapper.

Yeah, but think about it. With the economy going down, some peopel can’t afford the ultimate luxury brand, so they have to settle with faux luxury brands like cadallac and lincoln. I mean for the price of an IS350, you can get a fully loaded faux luxury car by lincoln and cadallac.

Half the people who buy into the mass-luxury market couldn’t really afford the cars they bought to pose around in. They just got ahold of easy credit and used their overpriced homes as a crutch.

Now they are back down to a bit of reality, and blame Bush for ending their pipedreams. Best way to avoid these issues is to never live above your means and don’t even live at your mean; live below them and invest the difference, wisely. That way you don’t end up like a freakin loser with an Armani suit, a foreclosure sign in front of your house, and a repo’d mass-luxury idiotmobile.

It’s nice to know that such actions are not exclusive to domestic manufacturers. Though the “rich” are always “rich”, it doesn’t mean they will spend heavily on such products even in the face of a slowing economy. If only out of sense of modesty, and not wanting to “show off” at a atime when so many must cut back. Personally, I think this is a prudent step.

Lexus sucks!

instead of branding it as a lexus, they should have just put their funds into making a new Supra, but nooooooooooooooo….. bastards

That sucks. Less ricers on the road? Whaaaa.

Just because it is a Lexus doesn’t mean “rich” people are driving it. A lot of BMW and Lexus drivers can barely afford the lease payments on the things. In this climate sales of 911s, for example, have no problems because actual well off people buy those. If the LF-A isnt going to be sold it has more to do with the performance being off and not as good as the GT-R or Corvette then it does the economy. My guess is this is smoke screen for that.

Do those who by Lexus need performance?

Lexus has always been able to make under-performing cars that still sell as “sports” coupes. The SC series is a prime example.

hahaha Lexus is scared of the new NSX !!

garbage in garbage out.

I have to say delaying the LF-A is a mistake.
Comparing an Acura or Nissan to a Lexus just won’t happen. The rich will go ape-%$#@ for a 3-second Lexus, with looks tat leave Ferrai 612 IN THE DUST!
The Acura and Nissan are fast, but look like day-old eggs.
Lexus would have NO PROBLEM selling 1000 at $150k.
That would be cake!
Why the sell the 2.5 in the IS, I’ll never know.
It is neither efficient, or fast, or competitive in the $30k+ segment.
Why compete with Audi 2.0T? For what?
DrFill

How the mighty have fallen. This was predictible. What’s next Lexus, you going to put your badge on a Yaris too?

And how many idiots are really going to pay $100k+ to drive a Toyota with a “L” in the grill? I’m sure the thing will be awesome in many respects but I find it interesting that Toyota’s engineers STILL can’t match GM and Nissan at the track with their “super car”. How many more LF-A stories do we have to read before the thing comes out anyway?

Only the idiots that can buy and sell your sorry a$$!
DrFill

Am I the only one who’s wondering how Lexus was able to trademark “IS 300C”? I mean, in a climate where BMW can claim to own “M” Chrysler must surely own “300C”.

And this move by Lexus is just stupid… or really smart. I don’t think they’re doing this because they need to, but because of how it makes them look. Lexus could easily sell performance models (there will always be a demand for performance vehicles), but their demographic is probably largely made up of faux-environmentalists, and Lexus knows it can sell more cars if it appears to be as green as possible. Sadly, part of that is killing performance models.

The longer Lexus and Honda delays their LF-A and NSX-successor, the more ground they will have to make up. We’re talking about two cars here that have Nissan GT-R matching performance but by the time they are released, the GT-R V-spec or some upgraded spec model will already be on the market.
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Mayer Ray, extremely well put. I just finished residency not too long ago, and went from making $3000 a month (I could barely afford all my expenses) to making $1500 a day.

I thought I would be living large - for the last year I’ve been looking at Cayennes and Range Rover Sports and BEnz CLSs, but then something clicked a month or two ago. I’ve seen that paradigm all too many times, the douchebag with the foreclosed home and the leased luxury car…. So I’ve gone the other extreme - BROWN BAGGING my lunch and comparing pasta prices at the supermarket!!!!! LOL! I didn’t even do this when I was a student making $200 a week at my part time job!!!!!!

Yep, good post Mayer Ray.

I’m following your strategy, and have been for years. Because of this, I will be purchasing a new CTS-V next fall, while a bunch of suckers will wish they could afford one, or one of these Lexus models that won’t happen.

The other thing I tend to do is buy my cars new, fully loaded with every option I want, and keep them for a long time. Cars are one of the worst depreciating assets you can buy. Trade them in every 3-5 years, and you’re eating most of the depreciation. Keep them for 10 years however, and you get the most for your money. If you buy a nice car, fully loaded, chances are it will still be a nice car 8 years later, and you won’t be bored with it if you choose wisely and get options that you will wish your car had later (i.e. if I bought a base model Corvette, I would always wish I had a Z06).

My ‘02 Z06 is a perfect example. It’s 6 years old now, yet it still thrills me, and its capabilities still exceed my driving skills. And I still get tons of compliments on it (I don’t buy cars to receive compliments, but its still nice anyway). Bottom line, I’m not even close to be being bored with the car yet, and I plan to keep it for 4 more years, 10 total, before upgrading to a new C7 Corvette (if I like it). Amortizing a $50k car over 10 years works out to $5k per year - not bad. And that’s assuming it will be worth $0 in 4 years, which of course won’t be the case - it’ll probably be worth at least $10k by then. In those 10 years, I save quite a bit of money that would otherwise be paying for new car depreciation, or lease payments, and then I can use that saved money to buy something even nicer next time I buy.

The CTS-V I purchase will be another 10 year hold, if I like the car, which I’m sure I will.

DrFill, you come across as an L.A. fag. Sorry, you didn’t give me much else to respond to.

(buy and sell my sorry a$$???) oookay

So, what’s delaying the L—s LUXURY models?