SFocLA

Just wanted to share my buying experience on my 2nd 2016 RX350 F Sport. It was my first time buying a new car and a learned a number of things about deals and the transaction itself. It is a lengthy read, maybe someone in the same situation can find it helpful.

Back in Dec I bought my 1st one Northern California because no one in Southern California wanted to discount the white F Sport.

Today Lexus of Escondido dropped off my 2nd one at my work in LA about 100 miles away free of charge and the experience was night and day compared to my first one.

How I found the best deal:
1) Cars.com- Went to build out my F Sport, on the website they allow you to contact 3-4 dealerships at a time and also include a memo. I did this about 5 times with different zips so I could touch all of California because I wanted white/red F Sport. First time around I got white/black, so I regretted not getting the red.

2) Memo section- I clearly stated the best offer I received which at the time was $1k below invoice, which more or less is $4500 off MSRP on a F Sport. Let them know you are serious. FYI I didnt let them know what color I wanted, my strategy was to see how low they can go before showing my cards. If they know youre set on a color, it could be a disadvantage.

3) Phone calls/emails- Once you submit your info you basically become a internet lead and the calls are popping off, just be prepared your email and phone will go off. You should not mind this if you are serious about buying one. If you are window shopping this could get annoying.

4) Objectives on the phone call/email - get confirmation of the best pricing via email. Most sales folks maybe reluctant but once you get a better deal confirmed via email then you can start the bidding war, which sales will hate but thats fine. Determine which sales folks are willing to work with you, they will request the email copy so they can show their boss to approve to beat. That cycle just continues.

5) Phone call- just cut to the chase politely, ask them 1) what color are physically at the dealership, and make sure its not already sold. If you get a rookie they might give you inaccurate info 2) what colors are incoming and how far down the line. Couple dealerships didnt tell me what exactly was coming down the line and I found out through other sales people from the same dealership later on. Perhaps they want to sell what is in stock immediately, keep that in mind when you are letting them know what colors you want. It could be good or bad thing.

6) Confirm everything through email: VIN, MSRP, Invoice, price you are paying, OTD price etc. Make sure they are not sending you a link of the car, you want a email breakdown and attachment of the car specs. One dealership sent me a link and the price. They then sold the car and the link no longer worked so I could not use that link/email to confirm what they were going to give me.

7) do not get discouraged, if there are no hits the first time around, wait a week, or may take a month who knows but its worth the time to get the car you REALLY want at a price you are happy with.

My experience:
1) I was talking to Lexus of Beverly Hills who had a white/red. He confirmed the deal of $1k under invoice and I was stoked. I asked to make a deposit, he said no need. Two days later when I was going to go in to pick up the car he had a family emergency and he would seal the deal the next day nbd. The following day I get a voicemail saying the car is sold. I was bummed as I knew white/red were so hard to find under MSRP. So I did the whole www.cars.com routine again. Same dealerships hoping for new luck. I had previous emails saved from 2 dealerships with the pricing so I was shooting that out left and right.

2) Sure enough I got a bite from Lexus of Escondido for a white/black. The first girl that helped me on the phone told me sure come on in and we can match the price, but I was not satisfied. I needed someone that could confirm the info via email before I travel or waste time. Eventually I met Stefani who was amazing at sales and customer service at the same dealership. She was fast and effective at emailing me all the way up to 9pm. Then the next day she followed up with me at 8am. It was my type of communication. She said she could beat Lexus of Beverly Hills's offer at $1k off of invoice, so I said ok!

3) Then long story short I got super lucky and was notified white/red was incoming, however I was stoked but she said she could only do invoice. Which is a still a great deal considering at the time only 3 white/red f sports were for sale which were all in norcal. Norcal dealerships also like I mentioned cant compete with socal. And on top of that Lexus of Beverly Hills calls and said the white/black that they didnt want to budge at first when I lost the white/red, they were now willing to go $2k below invoice. That would be more or less $5500 off MSRP! But I didnt go for it because of 1) white/black 2) they screwed me over the first time, then denied me on the deal white/black THEN finally a day later said ok. Screw that!

4) confirmed the vin, pricing everything. I then threw a hail mary out there to see if I could get the car delivered to LA and she said yes. Maybe she felt bad for me since I totaled the 1st RX or the fact that we just clicked and she was a great person at heart. Stefani saved me 5 hours at least of traveling.

5) today a product specialist named Rich came to my office with my car and walked me through the specs once again which I enjoyed and within 20 mins I was done.

-found the car
-confirmed del and specs
-made deposit over the phone
-got bank of america loan approved online within minutes
-sent loan docs, insurance cards, and other docs immediately
-car delivered 24 hrs later to my doors step

First buying experience I spent 1.5-2 hrs at the dealership just doing paper work. I did 20 mins with Lexus of Escondido.

$60,474 MSRP
($3,400 savings)
$57,074 Invoice (price paid)

$62,233.07 OTD (Thank you 9% CA Tax)




Jon

aznkorboi

This should be stickied for car buying tips...

sirtiger

thanks for the write up and sharing your experience.

If Stefani was great, I highly recommending writing a short letter praising the salesperson's service to the general manager. I usually write a 2-3 sentence letter to the dealership about my experience. It cost you nothing and its will be greatly appreciated......also builds repoire when you are in the market again.

SFocLA

Yes I did that as well as Yelp review which her manager Lisa really appreciated.

JermG87

Thanks for the information. I had looked into TrueCar before, but I like the cars.com platform much better. I am looking for the exact same model, and color as you did. I'm hoping I can save that much off MSRP, as I will be using your tips. Thanks again.

SFocLA

You are welcome. The challenge I found with True Car is the F Sport build they give is like $50k MSRP, which is no such thing. Long story short you I was not able to find a realistic build at the time when I purchased mine F Sports.