• MSNBC, Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:43 AM

Toyota president Akio Toyoda made headlines at the beginning of the month when he let loose with a profusion of apologies for his company having lost its way.

Last week, at the Toyko Motor Show, the company showed off a $400,000 muscle car called the LFA that's powered by a V-10 engine. Inexplicably, according to writer Matthew Debord, it bears a Lexus nameplate, which he describes as the "preferred brand of Midwestern dentists and junior-grade Hollywood agents" with its crossover SUVs appealing to "the soccer moms of northeastern New Jersey." (Give him credit. He didn't go the easy route and pick on tax attorneys.)

But with the auto industry in the pits, Debord says that the LFA "looks more like a grand folly, the kind of arrogant gesture made by a car company that has lost its way." And exactly "how did this monumental expression of ego manage to emanate from the staid environs of Toyota City?" he queries. Well, turns out "it's the pet project of Akio Toyoda."

We're waiting, Akio. We're waiting.

Read the whole story at MSNBC »