LexBob2

I agree. They deal with pricing and customers all day, every day vs. the average buyer who's in the market every few years. If you find a deal/pricing that you are at least comfortable with that's the important thing no matter how one goes about it.

Toys4RJill

^ well, I can see your point of view, but people IMO don't like to haggle because more often than not, people do not know what goal they are trying to achieve. There are so many factors involved that a set price just will not work. Would you not agree that it is a social norm to haggle on cars?

And technically, a car already has a fixed price in the MSRP. Consumer demand and what consumers are willing to pay for the car are how the true price of a car gets established.

Doesn't SCION have fixed pricing? How successful has it been for them?

tex2670

Haggling is definitely part of the car purchase culture--but most people don't like it. It's like a form of confrontation. When you negotiate a purchase price for a house, it's not usually face to face--most people go through a real estate broker and have them do the dirty work.

You definitely have a point on the "goal" for car negotiation--even 5 years ago, if you didn't know about Edmunds or have a AAA membership, knowing what was a "realistic" price to negotiate down to was more of an unknown. TrueCar has really made it easier to get that info--that's what AAA uses now for it's car negotiation service.

SW17LS

Yep, its similar to Fitzgerald. I've never bought a car at Fitzgerald, but I've found their marked pricing to be pretty good. Perhaps I can save another $500-$1000 depending on the model by shopping it and negotiating hard. To a lot of people though, the negotiating makes them so crazy the $500-$1,000 is worth the better experience.

For instance on the LS, the marked price was already $9,000 off, and was a little better than what I got from other dealers in my first email round.

Arty101

Agreed. IMHO, most people don't like to haggle, especially with cars. Outside of car forums, I've read one of the least liked activity for the general public is the car purchasing process, including the price haggling.

Perhaps that is why AAA, Costco and some of the other fixed price buying services are doing so well. Maybe this is Lexus method to preempt those services and get a piece of the action directly with the customer instead of giving it to the car buying service.

RNM GS3

Again im very curious - Since more than 50% of Lexus are leases, how are the dealers going to market those cheap payments of $299 with this dumb no haggle pricing???

Honestly its easier than ever nowadays to haggle, all you do is send emails and wait to hear back. I deal mostly with internet sales manager - never go to the dealer in person. Make the dealers bid against each other to get best pricing.
Unless ur very lazy to do 30min of research on edmunds.com

We also have leasing companies in NY everywhere so this idea by Lexus is a disaster.

Toys4RJill

I agree that nobody likes to haggle, but most people want a "deal" and if someone does go to a no haggle dealer, they will still want more money off the deal. Like I said earlier, moat people have no idea what objective they are trying to acheive when haggling.

Also, most people do not have the time or effort to go to ever single dealer that is close by to find the lowest price. They go to a few and that is usually it.

mmarshall

Not only that, but, while it's nice, of course, for the customer to get the lowest possible price, a lot of buyers forget that salespeople also have to earn a living, pay bills, and support their families.....and many of them don't get regular paychecks like I do. Their commissions (if they are not paid a straight salary, as at some dealerships) have to come out of whatever money the dealership makes on the sale. So, as long as they give me what I consider to be a reasonable discount (and they usually do...I'm not that hard a person to please), if the salesperson gets a few hundred bucks commission out of the deal instead of me haggling it away, I have no problem with that at all. I'm a firm believer in treating others like I myself would want to be treated.

SW17LS

The promotional leases are based on dealer incentives and "no haggle" prices...

spwolf

but lease promotions are exactly "this dumb no haggle pricing".

I would also suppose that no haggle pricing means some standard discount from MSRP, otherwise it wouldnt work.

Matador

It will be interesting to see how aggressive they are with pricing in order to remain competitive during the test period. Hopefully these 12 dealerships are up to the task... unless they're banking on it failing of course.

Vladi

No one knows for sure what they want to achieve with this practice. They will have to make a lot of adjustments to make this work. First all of the dealers that are close by will have to be in sync cause if they offer different deals then there is no stopping them to negotiate since they are still competing on the price level with each other. If they all decide to go with strict MSRP then competition would devour them and there would be no point of having middle man dealerships at all, especially not 4 or 5 within 30 miles radius like in S.Fl but I doubt that its going to be MSRP kind of a thing.

If this policy is to succeed they will have to have a sale every other week like the Guess store. I see no other way around it then becoming a clearance brand where customers will go in only once they see the sign or get the email.

I hate haggling much as the next guy cause its a emotional burden that you carry alongside a purchase with your hard earned money. Sometimes you feel great cause you think you made a deal and sometimes you feel played out cause you think that you might have done better for your earned money, completely unnecessary if you ask me. If people and business were not greedy to the bone by trying to be like greedy big daddy at the their block who they admire and want to become like him everyone would be happy. But we made a society where we all throw in fake smiles while being worried that the stranger we are dealing with is going to rip us off and vice versa. So primitive.

But since it is what it is the proper way for Lexus to do this would be to let customers win the haggle. You go in you ask for the deal you get the best possible deal and move on. That way you didn't invest yourself intellectually and endured all the stress of one upping someone and you still got what you wanted or close so you leave happy.

mmarshall

While I certainly agree that we shouldn't let ourselves get taken advantage of, I think that "greed" is sometimes mistaken for a salespeople just trying to make a living for themselves or their family. I don't want to get ripped off any more than anyone else, but there is nothing wrong with a dealership making a reasonable profit. They can't stay in business unless they do...and if you like the vehicle and/or the dealership enough, you'll want them to still be there if you want to make any future purchases.

Now, of course, that is no excuse, in my book, for obvious rip-offs like when hot new products debut and dealerships charge way over list for them because of high demand and low supply. We saw that with cars like the PT Cruiser, Mazda Miata, Nissan 350Z, BMW Z3, Camaro SS, Plymouth Prowler, Dodge Hellcats, Corvette Z06, and others. I myself would probably not pay more than list for any car, regardless of who was selling it or how much they needed to make a living.

Vladi

Oh no I wasn't referring to a salesman let alone car salesman, they are the ones that go home with dimes and nickels compared to what management walks away with which is again nothing compared to what corporate keeps. That's all fine and good and I am the first one to tell you that each link in a chain should get satisfaction in order to keep the success harmony.

What I was referring to as greed is very complex issue, state of our society and we have all been guilty at praying at the lesser and weaker when we see it. Im talking about one-up game when you negotiate. Its a struggle between your terms and mine terms and what's gonna go down into an agreement but that's not even a whole story. Most of the time people want to bank it big and fast by skewing the wording in an agreement and just waiting for opportunity to say "Hey you did it! It says right here in the contract!! So pay up the penalties!" and the worst thing is you never even discussed it, it just slipped under the radar. That's the kind of a thing that irritates me, you constantly have to be cautious for something like that, for being played out. That's what I call greed and some might call scam. And then we have bullying like paying less fortunate people less amount of money for the same quality work you would get from Silicone Valley where you would have had to pay fair and reasonable amount. Apple is one of the worst offenders when it comes to devious business practices like that and so on. There is a lot more money in this world then happiness and satisfaction and if we distribute it properly and deservingly more people would have a chance to share the same feeling, no need for dog eats dog business environment in this day and age.

Anyway this has nothing to do with Lexus no-haggle policy but sine haggle reminded me of one-up game I kind of had to let the steam out.

tex2670

But you are arguing in circles. The key to no haggle pricing for those buyers that don't like to negotiate--i.e., most buyers--is that the dealer shows them how much the "save" with the no-haggle pricing, and now they "feel" like they have gotten a deal--and suddenly, they have figured out their goal, and accomplished it all at once. The anti-haggling crowd doesn't call around for prices all over town to verify if this dealer's no-haggle price is the best price. In their minds, they got a good deal, without the stress of the car-buying process (thereby accomplishing another goal).