What Lexus USA is trying to do is to prevent speculators from driving the price of the already super-expensive supercar into the stratosphere. The LFA is supposed to be the flagship of a new focus on competing with other automakers on performance and exclusivity as well as quality. Giving Lexus that shine means controlling the customer experience to the last possible degree and that means insuring we don't see the LFA up for sale on eBay.

So what Lexus USA is doing is creating a special lease arrangement in which the company will retain the LFA's title for two years before turning it over to the owner. That's not a traditional lease model involving deposits and finance arrangements, it's just being called a "lease" because "customers will arrive at a private deal with the company about how much they're going to pay and when (always totaling the identical total price), then the company will turn over the title after two years" takes up too much space.

So yes, you can still walk into an American Lexus dealer with a whale penis leather briefcase full of ill-gotten gains and walk out with an LFA, you just won't get the title in the mail for two years. That restriction only applies in the US. Well-healed European Toyota enthusiasts will be receiving their titles immediately.

Production of the 552 HP supercar commences next December, with each being built to order. Make sure you check out our review of the 2011 Lexus LFA.

Bank customers opting for the cars do so in lieu of interest. So you’re locking up to $235,000 away for three years with no growth. We’re also presuming the cars are leased, and need to be returned at the end of the two- or three-year period. So we’re not actually sure if this is a good deal.

Let’s assume you can earn 3.5% interest a year on your money. On $235,000, that’s $685 a month. A C4 diesel can be leased from $300-400 a month, we’ll assume another $200 for insurance, which still brings us in a little under that $685. Of course, the bank is probably getting some kind of bulk discount and doing the financing itself, so won’t be paying interest on its own vehicle loan. In other words, Banesto is making a healthy profit by offering cars instead of interest. Don’t have $235,000 to invest? Piaggio scooters are available to customers stashing away fewer Euros. [via Money.co.uk]

Although Toyota spokespeople claim they're "going to have to make large provisions," they don't appear ready to comment on how much those charges might be as the automaker plans to report its fiscal first-quarter results for the period ended June 30 on Thursday.

Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Of Toyota's total vehicles sold in the U.S., about 16% were sold on lease compared to approximately 20% for the Detroit automakers. Still, that's enough of a liability to cause even the great and mighty Toyota to feel some pain on used car returns off leases. At a time of $4-per-gallon gas, those Tundra truck and big Highlander SUV buyers aren't going to want to be buying those cars back at the end of their lease term wethinks. [via WSJ (sub. req.)]

Jalopnik Snap Judgment: How the loss of leasing business affects auto sales remains to be seen, but if automakers are getting clobbered on the residuals, taking a loss on each lease just to bump the sales tally doesn't make much sense either. The recent leasing changes may actually be an example of the forward thinking we tend to criticize our American automakers for not implementing often enough. If, at the same time, they offer lower-interest financing and continue to provide cash-back incentives, it could force consumers into smaller new cars or purchasing used cars, since the option of leasing more car than they could buy will no longer be available. [Automotive News (Sub. Req.)]

Now we understand that our Representatives in the House are busy people, what with all the time it takes to investigate the moral fiber of our baseball players and pretending that there's not a war on, but surely they'd benefit from spending just a few minutes picking out better cars or scouring the internet for deals. We're even prepared to help them do so, for free.

Representative McNulty, you might find the Mazda5 has greater utility than your Mariner, it also gets 28mpg on the highway and is available in your area, Albany, for just $249 a month for 24 months. And did you know that the regular 4-cylinder Mariner gets marginally better fuel economy and is available straight from Ford.com for $279/month? It beats riding the boat.

Mr. Towns, if fuel economy is your greatest concern, we'd humbly suggest that an SUV, much less one powered by a 3.5-liter V6, may not be the best car for you. What about a Toyota Prius? Not only will it carry more street-cred with your liberal Brooklyn constituency, but it's available for just $330!

And finally, Mrs. Slaughter. $808 will get you a lot of car, especially if you need one that's safe in the snow. BMW's X5 is amazingly capable in bad conditions and they'll let you have one for only $729/month. That'll save the taxpayers $79 each month and more importantly, might save your life. [via The NY Times]
Photography credit: DBKing

There's a lot to figure when you're planning a 60-month lease of an $14,000 car: up-front capitalization, estimated resale value when the lease is up and buy-out price. Now, add two zeros. According to Automobile, that's what's in store if you want to lease the Bugatti Veyron from Putnam Leasing: a $400,000 down payment and $23,595 per month. Of course, then there's a limit of 2,500 miles per year. Add it up, and you're nearly a half-mil in the hole compared with buying it outright. In other news, Ben Franklin's corpse just exploded.

Lease a Bugatti Veyron for $24K a month [AutoBlog]

Related:
The Bug, Squashed? Bugatti Could Be Laid Low by New US Airbag Requirements [internal]

Volkswagen hopes that, if it can't sell its Passats and Jettas outright, it'll at least be able to loan them out to people for a couple of years. Following a 21.4 percent year-on-year drop in VW brand sales this past October, the company is offering new, subsidized lease deals with the intent to stimulate a pickup in sales. According to AutoWeek it's a change in attitude from "profits first" to move some freaking product, now. The 39-month deals — through January 3 — are no-money-down offers with monthly payments set at $249 for the Jetta and $299 for the Passat.

Volkswagen of America subsidizes leases of new Passat, Jetta in effort to help stem sales slide [AutoWeek]

Related:
Is Volkswagen Pulling Phaeton From US Market? [internal]

A German court has released a 37-year-old man from his lease contract, after ruling his breakdown-prone Mercedes-Benz S-320 CDI should have been able to support the man's considerable bulk. The man, a hefty, 352-lb. insurance salesman, said, in addition to a broken seat, the car had to be returned to the dealership 12 times for various problems encountered during its first 12,000 miles. Mercedes had at first refused to allow the man to break his lease, claiming the malfunctions were unrelated to his prodigious bulk, but the court went on to find for the massively oversized individual, and against the bloated, unwieldy, quality-challenged carmaker. [Update: Props rightly go to eMercedesBenz, a new Merc blog whose tip we carelessly overlooked.]

Overweight Man Wins Case Against Mercedes [All Headline News via TransportTrends]

Related:
More weird stories [internal]