AJA

I would appreciate if you could tell me the best Lexus dealer in the Greater Vancouver area to deal with regarding the purchase of an IS 250 AWD. Also, would appreciate how much discounts you got off MSRP? Is there a way to find out the Invoice pricing of all the IS trims? Thanks.

Jet006

hey, I'm also planning to buy an 07 IS soon. I have been doing some extensive research and I'll share with you what I've gathered/heard from other friends.

First, Northshore Jim Pattison Lexus has the best deal around out of the 4 dealers in the Lower mainland. I had a friend that bought an 06 IS 250 and he got around 2500 off MSRP. Of course I haven't gone and asked for any deals directly yet. (Talk to a salesman named Leo if you go there and tell him that someone named Denny recommended you.)

The best deal I've seen is from another friend in Toronto who just ordered an 07 IS 350 all options and they gave him 6% off MSRP ($3588 discount) + Free Stoneguard clear bra protection (installation included) as well as free mats.

O and don't go to Richmond Lexus.. their the most expensive. If your willing to invest a little. I suggest u to check out the real wholesale/invoice value of the car at www.carcostcanada.com. The membership is 40 dollars but you might be able to get 3 to 4k off MSRP in the long run if you show the dealer their report!!!

Finally, I hear that dealerships usually have about 10% to play with on the MSRP price. They usually wanna earn about 2k in their sale. So for the price of an IS that would be giving us the buyers a 3k to 4k discount range leaving them with around 2k for themselves. Makes sense. (Real life case 2 paragraphs above ^_^)

Hope this gives you a clear picture of what your heading into. Happy haggling. And lemme know what happens!!

AJA

Jet006 - Thanks for the advice.

Based on what you said I will surely deal with Jim Pattison Lexus North Shore when it's time to purchase.
What about Open Road Lexus in Port Moody and Regency Lexus? What are your comments/thoughts about these two dealers?

Aside from an 07 AWD, I'm also thinking about an 07 350. With the 350, I would get an extra 100hp but less traction on the road during the winter season. What 07 IS trim are you planning to get? Do you know what IS trim is selling the most in the Lower Mainland?

Jet006

dunno about your questions regarding the other 2 dealers as I have not been there myself. But my friend probably did his research already based on the 4 dealers and found that the North Shore Lexus gave him the most discount.

And on the IS 350. I'm definately going for the most bang for the buck. Though I wouldn't recommend using it during the winter IF/WHEN it snows. But come on man.. how many times does it snow here in the winter season? And if your doing most of the driving in downtown Van most of the major streets will be cleared/sanded/salted anyways.

I'll be gettin the one with the LUX/NAV package with the 18' trims. I know for a fact that the target quota for Lexus IS series is selling mostly 3/4 IS 250 and 1/4 IS 350.

JLSC

The North Shore Lexus parts and service departments are probably the best overall out of all the dealerships. However, they've had some turn over of staff in those areas so I haven't found that they are always very knowledgeable. Regency Lexus seems to have the most knowledgeable parts and service staff.

Benjamin T

iTrader: (2)

i second what was said above... northshore (jim pattison) lexus is best for sales. i also agree with what was said about regency's service department... they appear more knowlegable than northshore, but i had a bad service experience with regency and i've been going to northshore ever since... nothing has happened to me... yet?

i wasn't happy with richmond lexus at all. sales department was courteous, but the prices were off the scale. service dept. was crap. parts dept. wasn't too bad though...

i haven't been top the lexus dealer in pt. moody. not even sure what it's called... open road lexus? it's just too far away for me

as for awd... i drive a rwd gs400 and used to own an awd wrx. it dosen't have to be winter weather that justifies awd... consider the miserable autumn weather we're having right now. i have to keep lifting off the throttle and fight with my traction control... probably would be much easier with awd

AJA

Guys, thanks for all your inputs.

Off topic question - I know the four tires that comes with the 250 AWD have the same tread/section width. I guess this has something to do with the AWD system. However, is it possible to put wider rear tires for this trim? Would this affect the AWD system?

Benjamin T

iTrader: (2)

from my experience owning a wrx, staggered wheel sizes/offsets on an awd car is a no-no... it would send whatever traction control/differential/whatever you have that runs the awd system into a frenzy and cook itself

UberNoob

Port Moody Open Road Lexus is pretty decent, very friendly folks as a lot of their staff came from the Richmond Lexus branch which is also owned by Open Road

i find that Open Road generally have very good service but prices are not friendly enough

there was a parts guy at the north shore lexus that was not courteous to me to put it nicely
so i havent been back there since
but im sure that was just with that guy

Faymester

I've been to open road in pt. moody ... but when I asked them to check why my engine light was on they wanted to charge me $100 JUST to plug my car into the computer ... I wasn't too happy with that so I got my tuner shop to try and figure it out by process of illimination ... conculsion: oxygen sensor (but not 100% sure)

Does any one know what the other Lexus dealerships charge to run a diagnostic?

Benjamin T

iTrader: (2)

when my parents' rx300 threw a code northshore lexus charged us the same amount for the diagnostic, but they could not recreate the trouble code during the test and waived the fee. i ended up diagnosing the problem here on clublexus and fixed it myself