BoreRoverGuy

It looks like the ‘24 Inspiration Series was announced by Lexus around September of ‘23. I believe dealers could start ordering regular ‘24s around June. Given that the ‘25 still hasn’t been announced, is it likely that the Inspiration Series gets announced at the same time, gets announced around January which would be really late in a model year, or they probably won’t make one for ‘25? I don’t know much about typical Toyota/Lexus release cycles.

cwest13

I think we've seen there is no "typical" for the announcement of new MYs for the LC 500. Generally seems to be 3-4 months after the announcement of the new model year, but it isn't consistent.

But, you can try and look at historic data points.

2024 - announced May 17, 2023, Inspiration Series announced August 15, 2023
2023 - announced October 5, 2022, Inspiration Series announced ??? (why can't I get google results for 2023??)
2022 - announced October 29, 2021, Inspiration Series announced March 15, 2022
2021 - announced April 8, 2020, Inspiration Series announced January 12, 2021
2020 - announced March 25, 2019, Inspiration Series announced August 14, 2019
2019 - announced August 31, 2018, Inspiration Series announced January 30, 2019
2018 - announced March 17, 2017, Inspiration Series announced October 24, 2017

np20412

There was no Inspiration Series in 2023

cwest13

Huh, didn't realize that they took a year off. Strange.

BoreRoverGuy

Interesting in ‘19 and ‘22. They basically only gave themselves six months to move those cars, but then again there’s little about the LC500 that seems like TMC is looking to move metal. I don’t fully get it, to be honest. It’s not an LFA or a Veyron which were basically engineering exercises, though still no slouch, but they do very little marketing of their flagship two door which reviewers almost universally praise.

np20412

It just sits in a weird segment is all. Not a huge demand for heavy lux coupes in the first place. Couple that with the price tag and the Lexus image of not being known for sporty coupes, you get low production and sales.

The reality is waaaaay too many people claim to be enthusiasts and are worried about paper 0-60 times and what they can carve up around town, plus they want to be associated with the brands that people envision when you think high-end vehicles that are not exotic. I would bet every one of those people who bash the LC for being "too heavy, slow, and clunky transmission" would be happy as a pig in **** if they had one as a daily driver and did not have an ego that needs feeding to feel like they have to be at the top of the food chain on their way to the post office. So the buyers in this segment flock to German brands or C8s that outperform in both of those categories at similar or cheaper pricing. If you are a true enthusiast that uses their car for regular recreational sport at the track, the LC should not even be on your radar for that purpose. Not to say you couldn't track the LC regularly, but if you do, you already know you're getting torched by the M/AMG/P-cars on the track and you're ok with that.

Lexus is not using this vehicle to steal buyers from other brands. I'd venture most people buying new LCs are already familiar with Lexus as a brand, and thus find the value in the type of vehicle it is.

I've recently turned to saying "Buy the German car to impress others; buy the LC500 to impress yourself"

BoreRoverGuy

I think that you have it right, as it’s a VERY niche car. It sits between sports car and grand tourer, and is neither. That’s not a bad thing, but the niche is too small to sell a ton of cars, or even have a name. I still think that the way Lexus handles the marketing of this car is just odd, and while they can’t sell 50K cars, they can move a lot more cars than they do. Any other model with such low volume would be axed from the lineup, and I truly believe that they could sell more cars if they really wanted to put in minimal additional effort. From lack of awareness that the car even exists, to untrained dealers unable to get people cars spec’d how they want (ignoring that they have this odd desire to crank out so many white cars for inventory), everything about this vehicle points to an apathy at Lexus over this vehicle, which is better than a negative feeling and killing it off, I suppose.

np20412

The dealership experience to me was a total new one. Sales people know next to nothing about this vehicle, even when you manage to find a dealership that actually has allocations of it to sell. My local dealer told me they get 1-2 LC to sell annually. They wouldn't even pursue a swap, forget about actually putting in a proper bespoke order. I'm going to be making the hour+ drive to service it at the selling dealer instead, at least they get some LC thru for service regularly.

autozero

To add to what everyone's said so far, the LC is easily one of the most highly praised and adored cars by automobive journalists and influencers. I've never seen so many people unanimous that a car will be a future classic one day yet neither Lexus, their dealer reps or the general public seem to be leaning into the media praise whatsoever