metrathon

In this article they talk about a program where the dealer will not negotiate the price and will let the customer to walk away.

The last paragraph also mentions two more cars getting turbo engines by year end. This coupled with the inexplicable delay for the '16 GS makes me think of a turbo charged GS.

I apologize if this has been posted already, I searched for it first.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/car...s-rx/31164277/

RNM GS3

GS200t and RC200t should be the other 2 turbo models they are referring to.
Lexus has trademarked those names.

Unfortunately there seems to be no update for the 10year old 3.5 V6 in the current GS350.

BMW is on its 3rd Generation of its inline 6 turbo engines - Lexus hasnt event started.

BTW MB and Jaguar are going back to Turbo inline 6s to replace the current V6s; hopefully Lexus will not come to market with a weak turbo V6 which would be already irrelevant.......

ItzFilyO

They should be turboing the 3.5L too not just making smaller turbo engines, we want more power on the 350. Making 200t is good for entry level cars but what about the top of the line ones?

Even with the dealer setting fix pricing, we still need to shop around for better deals unless they set their prices like Apple store where everything is set to the same price wherever stores u go in the US.

Michael3UZ

mmm they're seems to be a bad balance of small turbo cars vs non turbo larger engine cars.

Why can they just make an efficent mid-large size turbo motor. Done right that will be far more desirable than the small ones.

metrathon

I test drove the X3 28i back to back with NX 200t. Roughly same power and torque, but the X3 was significantly faster.
No bias here, if I would have to choose, I would get the NX because is so much cheaper. What I'm saying is that the performance gap was pretty significant and I don't understand why.

Michael3UZ

The NX is a nicer looking vehicle than the X3 IMO too.

Why pay a premium price for a BMW, especially a weaker model like the X3, they are far from an X5!

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Isn't the 'Supra' supposed to get a BMW I6? If so Toyota/Lexus is already on 3rd Gen

LexBob2

The X3 does seem to be the performance and fuel efficiency leader in this segment.

metrathon

Not sure what your point is. Esthetics are completely subjective, and I just said that I would buy the NX over the X3 just because it is so much cheaper. But that aside, the NX it's thirstier and slower, so Lexus' application of the 2.0T is not as good as BMW's.

X5 doesn't have anything to do with the X3/NX.

malba2366

The Germans have huge incentives to make Turbo engines due to displacement based taxation schemes in Europe (its no coincidence that all their engines are 2, 3 and 4 liters). Also they are makers of larger performance cars so they needed to go turbo to meet CAFE standards...Toyota doesn't need to because of all the Praises, Corollas and Camrys they sell.

dchar

Like others have said, I hope they update the 3.5L with a turbo rather than slotting in a small turbo-4. It is fairly slow in the upcoming IS200t (0-60 times around 7 seconds), so it would be painfully slow in the heavier GS and RC.

In regards to no-haggle pricing, I read in that Lexus isn't forcing dealers to do this. They are rolling it out to a few dealers throughout the country as a trial. Doubt it'll work, especially in crazy competitive SOCAL. If they don't make it mandatory, people are going to the dealers that aren't doing this program since the discounts for this program probably isn't very much (probably a few percent below MSRP).

Vladi

Negotiation-free dealerships? Yup, lets see how is that going to workout together with the dealerships that want to negotiate. What does that even mean? Carmax? You either gonna do the sales promotion or not, that's the bottom line not the negotiations.

Its either going to be lower than MSRP dealership or its going to be strict on MSRP policy which then asks two questions: 1. Would majority buy there or would they go thirty miles down the road and get a better deal? 2. What is going to happen with left over inventory, they will still have to reduce the price which means wait for the deal which in the end beats the purpose of negotiation-free concept which only hurts the dealership. Unless Lexus takes all those cars back in for the credit.

And then there is a question of all those dealers being in sync with each other price wise cause if you have two close by negotiation-free dealers I cant see them having different prices.

I'm not saying there are no people who don't like to haggle, there is an opportunity for something like this but it's such a niche. I'm the first one that hates to haggle, whenever I'm selling something I'm selling it for the best price I can, I've never put larger amount then desired only to drop it down, I simply hate that, its unnecessary stress if you ask me. Even with that reasoning I still think this is a stupid idea to begin with. Its going to work either for remote Lexus dealerships or for some dealerships in high-end fancy areas where people want to get shopping done fast.

I can't even imagine this happening in South Florida dealerships unless they all go on board with the policy and then they gonna get devastated by BMW, Audi and others really quick, and there would be even an opening for cartel law suit as well.

KOOLFELLA

iTrader: (34)

I have a friend who is a now a Lexus Exec on the East coast who was telling me that they have/working on turbo's for the V6's, & the V8's & a possible Hybrid Turbo....
as far as the non haggling, not @ my dealership.... Not yet anyway... Hopefully not till after i buy a GSF....

Well will just have to wait for the next 4-5 years to see them all.....

JDR76

BMW's turbo is great, and definitely faster than the NX, but I don't understand your claim that the NX is "thirstier".

EPA ratings:

X3: 21/28/24 mpg
NX: 22/27/24 mpg

So NX is 1 mpg better in the city, X3 is 1 mpg on the highway, and combined mileage is the same. I'd call it a wash.

In the Motor Trend "Big Test", they achieved the following numbers:

X3: 18.7/27.2/21.8 mpg
NX: 21.5/27.7/23.9 mpg

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...s/viewall.html