I will preface this with the following statement – I like Lexus. I feel any car guy (or gal) can find a couple Lexus cars to love. Lexus has also been a serious trendsetter. It was the first luxury brand to introduce hybrid engines, the first luxury brand to introduce an 8 speed automatic transmission (yes, you read that right, EIGHT), not to mention it single handedly pioneered the “Crossover” – Lexus RX. In fact, the Germans are STILL playing catchup to all of the above mentions.

Enough of the bun on top of the criticism sandwich, lets get to the meat. Lexus recently introduced the Lexus LFA, a $350,000 “bargain” per Car and Driver. Go ahead, click it, I’ll wait.

Perplexing? It was to me. The maker of a Scion Xb wants over a quarter million dollars for a car. I don’t get it. Just thinking about the price tag alone, barring any supercar references, BMW has Rolls Royce, Mercedes has Maybach, Audi/VW has Bentley. The vanity of prestige is often used to justify these car brands’ illustrious price tags. The rich histories of Rolls, the ‘Bach, and Bent help justify it as well. Lexus has neither.

It might not be fair to compare a Bentley to a Lexus. So lets compare the market Lexus is going after, the Lamborghini and Ferrari buyers. History and prestige which, I would argue, also help justify supercars’ price tags. The two factors are (again) absent for Lexus. And the LFA is already being dubbed as an exotic? Call me old school but for me, mid (or rear) engine and exotic are synonymous. The LFA’s competition – Gallardo, R8, Porsche 911, Ferrari F430, all have engines where? That’s right, the back.

Nissan still has trouble justifying the $75k price tag for the GTR which, by the way, matches the LFA’s performance numbers to the tee. I don’t know why anyone would pay $350,000 for a Celica (R.I.P) on HGH with a Yamaha built V10. But hey, let’s only make a few hundred of these and people will buy em! Of course they will. People will buy anything. Pontiac Aztec, anyone?

—Lets play a game called LFA or Celica?