New Lexus LFAs still unsold two years after production ended

Even today, four years after Toyota's Lexus division set out into the supercar world with the 552-hp, V-10-engined Lexus LFA, the car seems like a mirage. After a decade of planning and research, only 500 were built — meticulously, mostly by hand — with prices of $375,000 each. Able to be customized in 30 million ways, a special edition of the LFA lapped the Nürburgring in near-record time in 2011, and Lexus shut down production in 2012.

Two years later, Lexus still has unsold LFAs waiting as patiently as pastors in its U.S. showrooms. Last month it sold two; in 2014, it moved 17. Most new cars spend an average of just over two months on a dealer's lot; at this rate, the 2012 model year LFA might finally sell out in the United States right around Halloween. Why does such a fast car move so slowly out of Lexus showrooms?