According to Automotive News, times are getting tough for Toyota’s prestige arm Lexus. Slowing SUV sales, economic instability and an aging model line-up have reportedly spurred the manufacturer to put both the LF-A and the rumoured GS-F performance sedan on hold until conditions stabilise.

The LF-A is also rumoured to be in trouble for not being able to meet Lexus’s lofty expectations for the 373kW uber-coupe. Lexus wants it to be the fastest production coupe around the Nurburgring Nordschliefe and spy photographers stationed around the Nordschliefe test track have previously reported that it had successfully cracked the 7:24 mark, however if Lexus’s engineers aren’t satisfied with the car’s performance then the LF-A’s true lap time may not be quite so impressive. AN speculate that Lexus will delay the LF-A’s launch from 2009 to early 2010, however we just wish they’d hurry the hell up - the damn thing’s been around in concept form since 2005.

While the LF-A’s launch is merely set back a few months, the GS-F is apparently on much shakier ground. Fears of a global recession and uncertainty about the price of oil is apparently causing some jitters within Toyota HQ regarding the viability of a big, V10-powered high-performance sedan. AN say the GS-F project has been shelved indefinitely, although it may be reopened in the lead up to a proposed 2011 redesign of the mid-size GS.

Bad news for Lexus fans, no doubt. However, given the financial fortitude of Lexus’s parent company Toyota, the odds of both the LF-A and GS-F being dropped forever are fairly slim. Hang in there people, you’re just gonna have to wait a little longer.

[Source: Automotive News (subscription required)]
[Image courtesy of Lexus]