.jpg)
.jpg)
Australians certainly love performance cars and this has rung true for Lexus’ latest high-performance offering.
The LBX Morizo RR is the Japanese luxury carmaker’s new pocket rocket and a personal favourite for Toyota Motor Corporation chairman of the board of directors, Akio Toyoda, whose nickname and pseudonym as a racer is Morizo.
It’s understood only 100 examples of this hot SUV were allocated to Australia for the first year of production and all of them have sold.
Speaking to Australian media, including CarsGuide, Lexus Australia CEO John Pappas said the wait time for this vehicle is currently around 12 months.
“We’ve already pretty much taken up all our stock, and now we’ve already got a 12-month delay,” said Pappas, adding that this car is a “real passion product”.
“It’s all about communications through the dealers. I’m big on the whole customer expectation side [of] communication and engagement with our dealers, and they’re very good at it.
“We hold a lot of town halls with our dealers very regularly [and] they’re kept abreast as to what’s going on, and then they can communicate to the people that are waiting for an LBX Morizo.
“[Prospective customers] are very passionate about that sort of performance line. The feedback we’ve got on that car at the moment from the market is extremely positive.”
At the heart of this hot, pint-sized SUV is a 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine that produces 206kW and 390Nm.
This engine also features in the Toyota GR Yaris and GR Corolla but it’s detuned. They produce 221kW and 400Nm.
Globally the LBX Morizo RR is offered with a six-speed manual, as well as an eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission. However, the latter is only offered in Australia currently.
Pricing for the LBX Morizo RR is currently $76,490, before on-road costs, which is $23,500 more than the highest-specification regular LBX. It’s also $7000 more than the GR Corolla GTS automatic.
