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That's great!
I had a similar experience on my test drive. I had this involuntary smile on my face and thought "I cannot imagine being in a bad mood driving this car".
Bought one shortly afterwards and have never been in a bad mood driving since
Jeremy Clarkson is probably my favorite car reviewer, now. He ruined the resale value of these cars and I was able to buy one for a smoking good deal used. Thanks for Jeremy for creating some drama for ratings! The most fun car I have ever owned. Drove mine today and was just loving it the whole time. This is a car that needs to be out on the road to be appreciated. Probably one of the finest all around daily driver, all road conditions cars ever built.
Jeremy Clarkson is probably my favorite car reviewer, now. He ruined the resale value of these cars and I was able to buy one for a smoking good deal used. Thanks for Jeremy for creating some drama for ratings! The most fun car I have ever owned. Drove mine today and was just loving it the whole time. This is a car that needs to be out on the road to be appreciated. Probably one of the finest all around daily driver, all road conditions cars ever built.
Clarkson knew he was full of it and was coming from a personal place of personal disdain. He even sandbagged the race against the M4. That is why for the first time in history, he did not allow Stig to do a timed lap as he would have egg on his face.
Stig himself (Ben Colins) made a snarky and sarcastic remark at Clarkson here about Clarkson's driving skills as he did amazing drifts with the RCF
As far as reviews go, it is important to remember one thing, up until the release of the F cars Lexus was never "cool". People thought the LFA was a flop and it actually was. They didn't even sell all of them. It wast till later that it received its badge of honor much like a successor of the Honda/Acura NSX. It provided something no other supercar could, reliability. I loved it because of the top gear segment.
Toyota and Honda made soul-less people movers for a long time. Any cool product from either brand was a bit adolescent. Acura and Lexus had a long play to get their new performance + reliably seeking clients. That took about 20 years of cool adolescent car dreamers to grow up a bit and put some money in the bank. That was the plan all along. Remember Scion? The story of scion was to get those adolescent buyers into the seat of a affordable Toyota. Toyota successfully retired Scion after achieving just that. To them that brand was a major success and led to the growth of young buyers of Toyotas. I was in high school in the late 90s and it was not cool to drive a Toyota. They were for old people. So when Lexus came out with their luxury performance line up, it was a bit of a pill for these older reviewers to understand. I think it took a while for people to comprehend the thought of something lesser on paper to be greater in hand. I wish I could keep my RCF forever and I'm happy I bought it. For me, I can only envision something with three pedals in my garage so ill have to give it up at some point because two pedals are for bicycles.
I do like to see the F cars finally getting the respect they deserves and those reviewers are eating their words now.
The LFA analogy is a good one. I was there for the whole journey and have vivid memories since I used to defend LFA zealously during those years on LFA forums. Initially, it was completely thrown under the bus by the media and fans of other cars like GTRs, 458 Italia, LP570-4, R8 or SLS etc. until it got close to end of production when it started being appreciated as a time capsule of that era. I also predicted the value would appreciate over the long term (their values went down initially to $280 - $290K).
I rarely want to reveal my inner thoughts, but RCF is a gem of a car. I don't drive it much, but whenever I do, it is an exhilarating experience especially with the mods I have on. It is a treat sitting in my garage and I am fortunate enough to have dropped nearly $80K CAD so far and counting (mildly used + my mods on it) and still feel very happy about it. This makes it the second biggest single-item purchase I have made behind our home as we have a very modest lifestyle. I get to enjoy the beastly performance and that high-strung V8 sound with two baby seats in the back and a small stroller in the trunk. I have lots of new mods planned for it.
Despite the resale value of RCF going up, I cannot see a compelling argument to sell it.
09-14-21, 10:17 PM
2 year Lexus RCF ownership experience
