skingsland

Well, I finally placed my special order last Saturday. Now, like everyone else that’s special ordered recently, I get to sit around and wait patiently till Spring. Here’s what I ordered:

IS 350
Smoky Granite Mica, Black Interior
Luxury Package w/18” Wheels
Navigation & Mark Levinson Package
Spoiler

What follows are my notes from various dealers I talked to in the DC/NYC area…

I ordered from Bernie Kitts at Rockville Lexus in Rockville, MD. I highly recommend him to anyone planning to order or buy a Lexus in the DC area. He was easy to work with, patient (I PM’d, emailed, called, and talked to him in person for over a month before I ordered), and he gave me a good price. I’ve got his contact info if anyone wants it, or you can just PM “Rockville”.

Anyway, I worked with a complete idiot at Pohanka Lexus – Dave something (can’t remember his last name). Originally I had Shane as my salesman, but then he was busy w/customers when I came back, so I guess I got pawned off on this guy. I wrote another whole thread about my experience, and don’t wanna get into it again here. Suffice it to say, if you deal with Pohanka, don’t use this guy, he absolutely sucks.

I read some not so good things about Lindsay Lexus, but the person I spoke with on the phone – Lata – sounded reasonable enough, perhaps a bit aggressive. Anyway, they were willing to come down about $1000 off MSRP on an IS 350 special order, and this was over a month ago. I’d imagine someone could do even better now, especially if it was a car off their lot or an IS 250.

Didn’t hear good things about Lexus of Silver Spring, and I had everyone up to (and including) their GM call me for my business!! He backed off when I said I had developed a relationship with Rockville and Pohanka, and that I had no reason to switch at this point. I get the impression their salespeople are pushed pretty hard to pursue leads.

For those in the NYC area or willing to make a drive, I had a great experience talking to Eric Saltz at Warnock Lexus (in Livingston, NJ). Super easy going, good price, low pressure, I would have felt totally comfortable ordering from him despite only talking to him on the phone (about 3 times). The only reason I didn’t is that he’s a 4 hour drive from me, and I had something similar locally at Rockville Lexus.

Catena Lexus (the one in NJ) is supposedly the 3rd largest in the country, and sounded like a contender until Joel said they usually get $10 - $15K deposits on special orders!!! There were a couple other things he said that seemed weird to me, but other than that he seemed like a reasonable guy to work with. Joel Cohen is his name.

Rallye Lexus in Long Island, NY has a good rep, but the Corp. Sales Mgr (John Cuozzo) said I wasn’t “allowed” to special order a configuration that’s sold elsewhere in the country! I posted another thread about this… basically, he’s wrong (or at least, confused).

So... it may take some research, patience, and willingness to work with a dealer hundreds of miles away, but you can get a good deal on an IS 350 (even Special Order), and not have to pay MSRP. Also, I found out that it really does depend on who you work with at a dealership. You can be told totally different things by salespeople working at the same dealership (especially when it comes to price), and treated completely different from one to the next. This happened to me a bunch of times, and was a real eye-opener.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out over the last couple months I’ve been posting & reading about the IS 350!! I’ll be signing out for a while, but back in 4 mos. to post pics & initial ownership impressions…

Oh, and if anyone in the DC area knows someone local (Arlington, ideally) who can do a super job of washing, shining, waxing, and buffing the hell outta my VW Passat, I’d sure appreciate their contact info. I’m gonna need to sell or trade this thing when I get my Lexus, and right now my offers are coming in about $3K under KBB (partly cause of the paint).

Steve

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

damn, that's top of the line. expensive but... for you

skingsland

Well, it's about the same price as a BMW 330, which was what I was PLANNING on buying up until about 3 months ago... You decide what you're willing to pay, then you find the best car out there for that price.

Still, I never planned to drive a Lexus before I was in my 40s, or at least late 30s. (Same goes for MB.) Oh well, there goes that stereotype...

diablo1

Same with me, I didn't even consider Lexus until I saw an add for the IS350 on Yahoo Finance. I'm glad they make a car I actually wanted, because they are a fantastic company. I hope they continue to make cars I want, so I can continue to buy them.

skingsland

I agree with you 100 percent! Having a sporty, reliable car is going to be like having my cake and eating it too...

kensteele

Congrats! That's exactly the car I have now, you will love it!

IS 350
Black Onyx, Black Interior
Luxury Package w/18” Wheels
Navigation & Mark Levinson Package
Spoiler

Not sure if you're getting Park Assist, I have that too and I think it is worth it.

So I paid MSRP but if you can get it all for less

Sounds like you have a bunch of dealerships to go to in Nova, we only have 2 in the immediate area and they're pretty much identical.

skingsland

Only difference is, you got yours in Nov., I'll get mine in late March (if I'm lucky!).

I tried out PA in the dealer's parking lot by myself; it didn't seem to work too well for me. I pulled into a spot with a car parked directly in front of me; it didn't start to beep until I was about 4" away. (later I found out this is because the front center doesn't have a sensor, only the front corners do.)

Then I backed out of the spot, and turned to the left so my right front bumper would miss another car's rear bumper by about 6-8"; it was a solid beep by the time I was 8-10" away. So it's under-sensitive when I'm pulling straight in, and over-sensitive when I'm turning. Not something I really wanna depend on, and not worth $500 either.

(BTW my salesman was surprised at this, so I duplicated my findings and had him look -- same exact thing happened!) I would have loved this option if it had worked better; parking at work is kind of a pain in the ***, and I've brushed the concrete pillar or hit the bar a few times in the last 6 mos...

kensteele

Park Assist is for parking?

Yeah that missing front sensor is a big deal (but not a deal breaker); I wonder why it is missing?

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

so how much more for the luxury package?? how much otd with everything you got??

TimboIS

Cost. The LS had 12 total. IS gets 6.

Wouldn't surprise me if this is something they address next model year.

GreyHound

iTrader: (1)

March delivery ? interesting, Thats great Steve! Your delivery date is moved up to. I ordered in October and indications from my dealer is Feb/ March. I guess mine is on a slower boat cause I told them $590 was too much for destination and delivery charges. I hope it comes in earlier, if not I guess I need to start looking into new dealers again. That also was a good description of dealers, a very wide spectrum.

These guys I have been dealing with are real layed back, kinda scary. They keep assuring me that everything is cool, but I hate this black box thing. Give $500 and three or four months later , Poof! IS350 shows up.

Timbois:
Do you have the order /delivery date chart handy, you had earlier, I have been looking back in old messages for it .
Thanks!!

NotFatBoy

I know what you mean. I called my dealer to see if I could get a confirmation that the order was received at the factory in Japan and they told me they dont get that info but that my order was placed on October 26th. They said they havent forgotten about me and it will come. I just wish I had more info

TimboIS

From what I've been told and read, orders entered into the system:

before 10/20 delivered Jan'06
10/21-11/20 delivered Feb'06
11/21-12/20 delivered Mar'06

GreyHound

iTrader: (1)

Hey NotFatBoy:
Glad its not only me ! Only thing I have is a paper saying order confirmed and the car I ordered and the car they gave up in their allocation for mine. Its says IS300 but they say the model number hasn't been updated yet on the order form. Vote of no confidence there !

They(dealer) say you go to the front of the line on the production run when you special order .
we'll see, I always get in a feeding frenzy when I see other posters here say they have already received their ordered car. Sometimes I can't tell if it was a swapped around dealer car, or ordered from factory, or a car that matched their order and it happened to be already on a ship and the dealer plucked it at the port. I don't know. so many ways it can get here.

You let us (me) know if you get any progress updates.

I could have swore my dealer said they would let us know when they had a vin, when it's loaded on a ship, and arrives in Jacksonville. I think I'll give them a call tomorrow. They won't be too busy with this ice storm around tomorrow.

Hate to waste 3 months and have to start all over again on ordering a car. Thanks!!

GreyHound

iTrader: (1)

Thanks TimboIS, I will show that to my dealer . Just to make sure were on the same page.
I appreciate it !