I am wondering if anyone has experience with a Lexus dealership that utilizes the "Real Pricing" or "Transparent Pricing" model?

My wife is looking at buying a CPO'd Lexus and has a trade-in. Normally, when I purchase vehicles, I give an OTD price for the vehicle after doing research on the vehicles value and include my trade-in with my offer as I don't like to haggle on the sale of my vehicle plus the purchase price of what I am buying.

This has always been effective for me in the past, but the sales associate at our local Lexus dealership informed me that they use a "Real Pricing" model where their price is firm on Lexus vehicles. They took the sticker price (their transparent price) and subtracted the value of our trade-in to get the OTD price on the vehicle of interest. Has anyone had this same experience at a Lexus dealership? Is there really no flexibility in their OTD price or are they playing a game of chicken with me seeing if I will come back to meet their price?

I know I left out every detail of the vehicle, but I don't want to provide too much information in case employees of my specific dealership are in this community.. AKA, I am using my "(lack of) transparency" model.

 

Go somewhere else. The "value of your trade in" is not a fixed price determined by a dealer. All they are doing is making you pay MSRP, and probably screwing you on your trade.

Go to CarMax and get an appraisal price for your car to set the bar for your trade-in.

 

I went to a "One Price" dealer to buy a model that was in high demand with long waitlists, on which many dealers had ADM. It was a good experience. I would not go back there for a model that I could reliably get for 8-12% off MSRP elsewhere.

 

Edit: Meant to reply directly to a post above.

 

Thank you for the response! The trade-in value is actually right in line with what I am seeing on KBB and Edmunds. Their listed price is roughly $4,000 over the KBB "very good" high end value. I've just never experienced a dealership that absolutely won't budge because they have "fixed, transparent pricing." My OTD offer was $1,500 over that KBB "very good" high value plus my trade-in value, but all they would do was subtract said trade-in value from the listed price.

 

This is where I am at right now, it sounds like a dream to not have to haggle, but, in reality, they just mark up the vehicle and bake in all the additional fees to their sticker price and tell you that it's transparent pricing.

 

So, it sounds like there is still room for negotiation - just not on the price of the vehicle you are trying to purchase. You could negotiate fees and trade-in allowance.

I like the idea, but like others have mentioned, there are bound to be other better options if you're not looking at a highly sought-after car that carries markups at other dealerships.

 

Edit: Didn't respond to actual poster's reply (again!).

 

I'm looking into the other fees today, but two days later and they still haven't budged on the price (after subtracting my trade-in value). I believe you're correct, my only option for negotiation is on my wife's trade-in value which is already minimal as she likes to drive her vehicle until she almost has to get rid of it.

 

Again - all they are doing is selling you a car at MSRP. There's nothing "transparent" about it; that's just marketing speak.

Call other Lexus dealers--not all of them use this sales tactic. Don't be afraid to travel 25, 50, 100 miles to buy a new car from a dealer.

 

I agree with others that you should also get a price from Car Max and add Carvana. When I was thinking of selling one of my cars the offers from these two were generally higher.

 

Our search is up to 200 miles away, we're definitely looking at other options outside of just the Lexus dealer. I appreciate the feedback on this!

 

I think a real winner would be a dealership that refuses to apply markup to the vehicles but has no other sales gimmicks, like where I got my IS 500. I refused to pay markup, so... lo and behold, I found a dealer that never applies markup to any vehicle and did business with them.

Now, did they initially low-ball me on my trade? Yes. But we worked it out in the end, and they even bought us lunch because of how long that process took.

You want this kind of dealer. Transparency is something for you to decide and experience, not for them to tell you in an ad.

 

I could see it being of value when things were still supply restricted, but now there are only a handful of 'normal' vehicles that are that hard to find

 

Every dealer is free to sell cars at whatever price they want. That doesn't make it "transparent".

Dealers that add on ADMs are being "transparent" too-- Here's the MSRP, and here's our $5,000 ADM, and here's our $2,000 mandatory "Accessories Package". They aren't hiding anything - it's right there on the window sticker.....

Using the word "transparent" appeals to customers who don't like the negotiation process in buying a car; it has nothing to do with the actual selling price. It makes people "feel" like they are getting a good deal. Looking for a car years ago, I contacted a Toyota dealer that had "no-haggle" pricing; their "no-haggle" price was the highest of 6-7 dealers I contacted (before any haggling even took place).