kme19

What would you think would be realistic to expect off MSRP in the Chicagoland area? I noticed you're from IL, so wondering if you might be familiar with the area?
I'm debating whether to buy next month when the cash incentive hopefully increases or wait until December.

lesz

I am in Illinois, but I'm at the other end of the state in the northwest corner. When I bought my 2017 ES, I did shop the dealers in the Chicago area, but that was 8 or 9 months ago. In even a month or two, the market conditions can change significantly, and I wouldn't be confident in any guess that I would make now as to what a good price would be. However, you should be able to figure out where the market is right now quite easily.

Start by sending an email to the internet sales departments at, say, the 8 Lexus dealers closest to you. Make it clear that you are sending the same email to 8 dealers and that you plan to buy a car in, say, the next 2 weeks. In the email, give the major specs of the car you are interested in. For example, you could say that you want to buy a Luxury Package ES with navigation or that you want to buy an Ultra Luxury Package ES with navigation and ML audio. All of the dealers should have cars equipped the way you want it to be and with MSRPs within a few hundred dollars of each other.

When the dealers get back to you with a price, take the lowest offer and present it to the other dealers to see if they are interested in beating that lowest offer. Then, take the lowest second offer and, again, send it to the other dealers to see if they are interested in beating it. After you have done this a couple of times, it is likely that several of the dealers will have dropped out, but you are likely to have 2 or 3 dealers who are very much interested in competing for your business. With this approach, you should be able to find the bottom of the market within 24-48 hours.

When you get serious about possibly buying specific car,s the dealers will send you a proposal sheet. When you get those, you need to look at them carefully to make sure that there are no added costs for dealer add-ons, processing fees, huge doc or license fees, etc. If everything looks okay, you should be able to complete the deal before even setting foot in any dealer's showroom. If you have a trade-in, you should even be able to get a firm trade-in offer before you set foot in the dealership. Research what your trade-in is worth on Edmunds or KBB. If you need to, you can send pictures of your car to the dealer, and they will likely be willing to give you a firm and fair offer conditioned only by your car being in the condition that you described.

While pricing appears to be very good right now, I would be surprised if it doesn't get at least a bit better in about a month. Understand, though, that the longer you wait and as dealer inventories get smaller, you will have fewer choices with regard to color, options, etc. If you wait until December, pricing will likely be very good, but your choice of vehicles will be getting much smaller. Also understand that, when you buy a 2017 ES in December, you will be buying a car that is already "last year's model" and whose re-sale value has already taken a year's worth of depreciation.

Good luck.

irishbrahm

Lesz gives excellent advice. I essentially followed it earlier this week when I bought my '17 UL but I told the various competing dealerships that "I was going to by a UL TODAY from the dealership that gives me the best offer." That language, combined with my willingness to drive across town multiple times, let all of the know that I meant business. When one sales manager became frustrated with me, I made it clear that my goal was to watch out for my own wallet and not to boost his profits. He let me leave but called later with a great offer, which the dealership that I ultimately bought from immediately matched.

STRAN

Programs for Golden Opportunity are as followed:
$750 LOYALTY rebate
$2500 LEXUS CASH (if you finance, finance through your own bank, or use Lexus standard rates)
$4000 lease cash rebate

0% financing for 60 months on approved credit
1.9% financing for 72 months on approved credit

Please do not hesitate to PM if you have any questions in regards to your next ES!

PhillyPhan

I'm currently work on a deal for a 2017 ES 350 with Luxury package with a MSRP around $46k. I have one dealer dropping the sale of the car down to $41k, so $5k off MSRP. Waiting for a better offer. All the suggestions in this thread are excellent for a new car buyer. Thanks to everyone for the help for us potential new car buyers

PhillyPhan

Can you share where you got this deal at?

lesz

Understand that, when comparing deals, you need to be sure that you are comparing apples to apples. The deal that TxESDriver got was a lease deal. The goal of the dealer is to make a profit, but the dealer doesn't care whether that profit comes from the nominal selling price of the car compared to MSRP, from lease terms, from finance terms, from selling the customer an extended warranty, or from a variety of other sources.

TxESDriver's deal was a lease deal, and I'm confident that the dealer will be making a profit from the lease. Even though that deal looks to be a very good one, it could well be the case that, if it was a straight cash deal and if the dealer's sole source of profit was the selling price of the car, the discount offered from MSRP might not have been at quite the same level.

HunkaBLove

Sorry...cross-linked from this thread and putting here for other people:

Closed on 7/1:

ES350

• Blind spot monitoring
• 18” wheels
• LED/bi-LED headlamps
• Power Rear sunshade
• Luxury Package
• Navigation system
• One touch power trunk
• Parking assist
• Panorama glass roof
• heated wood/leather trim steering wheel
• cargo net
• key glow
• carpet trunk mat
• wheel locks

MSRP: $47,170
Discounted to $41,300 + TTL

At the time, they had the $1000 incentive (expired 7/5, and not as good as the current $2500 incentive that expires 7/31/17).

This was the first time in 20 years that I bought a new car. My, how things have changed with the internet and apps for your phone. Did all negotiations via email.

One additional comment: Similar to finding a job, the best time to find a car is when you don't need one. I was in a situation where I kinda needed one, so my objectivity was a bit compromised.