billy44bo

We order ours at the end of October. The car is black forest pearl, with Navigation System/Mark Levinson package, without the back seat DVD system. So you can see they had to build it just for us. No dealers would order one like this for his floor. They made the car in Japan. Therefore, I think what option packages that are in your car determines where they build it.
Of the eight new cars that I saw at my local dealership lot in LA (Lower Alabama), all were from Canada. None of them had Navigation and they all had the sorry 18" Goodyear tires. Which in a city that has over 70 inches of rain a year are about as good as racing slicks in a snowstorm. Now I did ask lexus of New Orleans about putting Michelins on the car and when we came to pick it up michelins were on the car. Dont know if it came that way or not.

Legendman

Excellent points on both accounts. As to Consumer Reports (CR), I find it amusing when people denigrate the magazine and it's editor's conclusions. As Harrier points out, CR is reporting what actual owners have reported; not the "driving impressions" of a car magazine, a magazine that is largely dependent on the advertising revenue from the very manufacturers whose cars they purport to review. I put a lot of stock in CRs reliability reports. And it's worth noting that when the reports for Japanese cars in general are excellent, and those about Lexus are superlative, everyone is ready to accept the high marks as gospel. But let the slightest critical observation be made, and low and behold, relying on CR is somehow "risky". You can't have it both ways folks. If you want to bask in the usual glowing accolades for Lexus, you need to be able to accept the occasional observation that quality may be slipping in a few areas.

As someone who has actually run a manufacturing plant, I know how hard it can be to build a new plant, install new equipment, work the bugs out of that equipment, train and motivate a good staff, deal with local unions and work ethics, and so on. While the new plant may be stellar by all appearances, it cannot be a carbon copy of the established plant in Japan (with its established manufacturing lines and equipment, very experienced and culturally motivated staff) on day one or even a year after starting operation. I am sure Canada is a good plant and may become a great plant, but I don't believe the product to be identical anymore than the Honda Accord's built in Marysville, Ohio were identical in quality to the ones made in Japan (they weren't -- I know-- my brother owned one from Ohio and I owned one from Japan).

If CR has picked up a trend, it's good that both we the customers and Lexus know about it. If it's out in the open there will be greater emphasis on correcting whatever problems are cropping up -- in either plant.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Lexy GS430

My question is wether RX is build at canada or in japan does it matter? and is the parts made in japan or canada? I think the material to make the parts in japan is alot better. I am trading in my 05 odyssey touring next week for 05 RX330 AWD, i think i'm going to lose alot of money on my odyssey. I plan to put down $5,000 plus my trade, and asking $42,000 not including tax & title
what do you guys think? Or can i do better any feed back would be great.

Legendman

You didn't indicate which RX you were interested in. The short answer is that they are made in both plants -- Japan and Canada. It is my understanding that since Lexus has gone into full production of the hybrid 400h -- in Japan only -- that new manufacture of non-hybrid RXs will come out of Canada alone.

Some perceive a difference, others do not. I went with the Japanese plant product because I knew that it (the plant) had been up and running since the late 90s, had worked out most manufacturing line bugs, and likely had very experienced employees with a strong work/quality ethic. Time will tell whether Canadian workers can match that duty to company and dedication to quality. It certainly was not there in nearby Detroit for a good many years.

As for parts, i can tell you with reasonable certainty that they are coming out of Canada and North America now. Toyota policy requires foreign parts and raw materials sourcing when they are producing in a country other than Japan.

If you want to know whether your RX was made in Japan or Canada, ask the dealer for the VIN number. If it starts with "J" it was made in Japan; if it starts with "2", it was made in Canada.

Hope this helps.

Ps. Be sure to check out the road noise/wind noise of this vehicle at highway speeds, and note any difference in tire noise when riding on the Goodyear's vs. the Michelin's. My salesman told me that it was windy the day I test drove the car (it was) so I wrote off what my ears had picked up on. My ears were right.

Moral: Always trust your instincts & never, ever believe a car salesman!

rxdriver

Lexy GS430 - there are a lot of threads about pricing on the forum. The short answer - there is about $5,500 between sticker price and invoice cost. Based on other posts, that means you could get as much as $4,500 off of sticker on a unit that has a very common set of options (such as a Premium Plus / CD Changer / Heated Seats / Rain-Sensing Wipers), or about $3,000 - $3,500 off of one with navigation. Thundercloud will be discounted a little less because it's a limited edition.

Legendman

LexyGS:

For what it may be worth I just bought my 2005 RX AWD with the "full spec" (fully loaded) package, which included Mark Lev Stereo/Navigation/RearDVD/Tow Pkg, et all -- and got $6300 off sticker --$571 below invoice. That required some rather heated haggling but in the end they took it. They really don't want to lose a sale, even if they are making crumbs.

By the way, I don't think that the Mark Lev is really worth the extra money, nor the quirky adaptive headlights for that matter. If i had it to do all over again I would have bought the car for less without these features and saved the money

Hope this is helpful.

Lextranny

Forget Canadian built.....Go for the Made in Japan! There have been lots of posts and complaints/recalls on Canadian built RX330's. Canadian workmanship is terrible!

Lexy GS430

Thanks guys on your thoughts, and input on this matter.

rxdriver

We just started this thread over!

Let's see some facts that support the statement "Canadian workmanship is terrible".

On page 1, I posted that there were 3 recalls of 2004's - one for Japanese-made units, one for Canadian-made units, and one that affects all of them.

Many of the service bulletins also affect all of them, especially the first 40,000 made in Japan. The Canadian plant can't be doing worse than the Japanese plant - they copied the dash rattle perfectly!

HarrierAWD

Read my previous post regarding CR's reliability survey on the Highlander vs. RX330.

Rockville

and we like being able to customize the cars in a few weeks time instead of a few months. There are a few options that are not available from the Cambridge, Ontario plant. The extra large sunroof and the performance package with the air suspension. The RX400h Hybrid is strictly a Japanese sourced car for now. The consistency is very good from Canada and just shows that robotics are more important than worker abilities and they never go on strike either. Design of both the car and the factory are more important than the location.

As far as Consumer Reports is concerned, they are an excellent source of real life experience and actually go to a dealership and purchase the car as anyone else would. They note their experience while owning the vehicle. They amass a lot of data from the service records and it is a significant indicator of quality or the likelihood of problems. I can't find fault with their methods or explanations. Much better than the Car Magazine hacks that drive a car for a week and try to entertain us with their critiques. The only thing better is Club Lexus which is international in scope and travels at the speed of light.....

Legendman

Last time I checked, manufacturing robots were designed and installed by people. Painting robots are installed by people. Robots are maintained, adjusted and calibrated by people. Moreover, a great deal of the car interior is installed and assembled by people. Quality control, including statistical sampling and end item inspection is done by people. The idea that a factory is little more than a row of robots is simply inaccurate.

There is also the question of raw materials; where they are sourced from and who inspects them as they come in. That is not done by robots, I can tell you that much. The parts for use in assembly were likely not made by robots, but by area factory workers.

I am not knocking Canadian manufacture; I am merely expressing a concern about a new plant and a preference for the original factory product.

Lexusfreak

It's been up & running now for quite a while .......calling it a 'new plant' is inaccurate! Do yourself a favour, contact Lexus Canada & request a plant tour of the facility, I did & I'd buy an RX or any number of Toyota's that are also built on the same plant site anyday of the week & twice on Sundays!

HarrierAWD

Just curious, have you visited other auto plants?

I've visited the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, KY and the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, TN. They both look impressive, but the quality and reliability of their products are subpar. Proof that a nice looking plant is no guarantee for quality product.

Let's hope things will improve. Also to be fair, the non-Japanese plant gets most of its parts from the U.S.

Lexusfreak

As a matter of fact, yes I have .......one of the major GM plants in Oshawa Ontario (Buick Century, Chevy Impala & Monte Carlo which has also one many JD Power awards & let's not forget the dozens of awards the Cambridge facility both Toyota & Lexus have earned for outstanding quality & reliability since the original plant opened back in the 80's)........didn't even compare to the Lexus plant & I got a totally different vibe from the plant workers for the worse at GM vs the folks at the Lexus plant (perhaps that was the unions doing? ). Of course the plants 'look' impressive, I am not refering too the cleanliness of the plants, but more on the quality of their work........which is easy to see & the efficiency this well oiled machine works is very impressive! And actually the non Japanese plants (at least the plants here) get 'some' of their parts from the U.S. but most of them from local Canadian suppliers

The Georgetown Kentucky plant was seriously considered for RX btw, but the Cambridge plant beat the Kentucky plant out by a large margin simply because of it's overall better reputation.... At least according to the Japanese Lexus/Toyota brass & that's good enough for me!

For some reason Harrier it seems as if you have something against Canadian built vehicles in general (or that's the vibe I am getting, or perhaps it's just that your a "glass is half empty kind of guy all the time anyways"? ). I doubt aside from reading some of the members problems with their vehicles (of which 'some' were built at the Canadia Lexus plant, not all! which we both know) you really don't know that much about us up here north of the border, how we build things or much less about Canadian culture in general or how we do things up here (besides the stereotype 'Hockey, cold, snow & Mounties"!.....I'd be impressed if you did). Were world class I'm happy to say. And for the record, things have improved vastly since they started building the RX in Canada! Try & get a tour of the plant yourself & see.

If only they started building the ES here I just might be an ES owner for life.......