I "ordered" a Lexus RX350h from the local dealership. I gave them $2000 and they said they would order the car. Ever since then, I have been asking for confirmation of what they ordered to make sure they got it right. They keep telling me that Lexus needs to "approve" the order. Meanwhile, Lexus has not approved or disapproved the order. Nobody will tell me when I will get an answer.

At the same time, the dealer is offering me the same car, in stock, with more options than I want or care to pay for. Are they scamming me by stalling the new order and hiding behind an excuse that it's up to Lexus to approve my order?

 

It's difficult to discern exactly what they mean by "approving" the order, but, in some cases, orders for new vehicles are sometimes placed that, in time, cannot be met on production schedules or other factors. For example, one factor often occurs when a manufacturer shuts down the assembly-line for the current model-year line of a vehicle to prepare for the start-up of the next year's run...tooling revisions and other changes have to be made. Depending on just when order for the RX went in, Lexus may or may not be able to fill it for the current model-year. You may (?) end up being told that it could not be built for the current model year you wanted, if there is too long a back-up on orders. Ford ran into that problem the last few years with the extremely popular Bronco, Bronco Sport, and Maverick crossover-pickup....they filled out the production orders for the assembly-line for that model year way early, and had to stop accepting orders.

It's also possible that the dealership just stalling because they want you to help clear them of inventory (and get their monthly check from Lexus) for moving by taking home a vehicle off the lot, perhaps with more options than you wanted. This helps them meet their monthly sales-goals, and get that check from the manufacturer for doing so, and moving X-number of vehicles off the lot. I don't particularly like that system of doing business (IMO it can be unethical), but, unfortunately, it is sometimes a reality.

 

My guess is they are waiting for an allocation on one to be built to your specs. From what I’ve been told from local dealers, those allocations are released at the beginning and middle of the month.

Patience young grass hopper and get exactly what you ordered.

 

If ANY of the above scenarios were what was going on, I'd be ok with that, if the sales people would simply tell it to me like it is.. But by just stringing me along with the ostensible "factory approval", I feel that they are lying to me. I think I'd rather buy a different car and deal with honest people rather than deal with people who can't tell me the truth.

 

This is why I will probably never order a new car customized the way I like it

If it requires me to prepay a deposit, no way!
I've been burned by dealers wanting a deposit to "hold a car" and they never held it for me.

Then I had to beg to get my money back.
The only thing I will ever put a deposit down on is for my utilities or something like that

Or maybe escrow if buying property

Other than that, nobody gets a deposit from me anymore, for anything. 🫸🫷

 

Except for certain low-volume models (LFA, LC Bespoke Edition), Toyota/Lexus does not do "factory orders" at all. The factory determines its own mix of configurations and builds them without any direct input from dealers at all. Regions do get to decide how certain features will be bundled for every vehicle of a given model bound for that region, but they cannot decide how any individual car is optioned.

Dealers then try to build their stock or fulfill customer requests like yours by watching for a particular configuration to be in the pipeline, and swapping one of their existing allocations to lock that specific car to themselves. Your "order" has not been "factory approved" simply because: A) that specific configuration has not made it into the build schedule or B) when one did come up, another dealer grabbed it before yours did.

 

My recent experience buying a Lexus is that I had to select the vehicle coming to the dealer that came closest to what I actually want and was required to put down $1K to reserve it. Having one built to my exact specs is not an option. Car buying isn't what it used to be.

 

Canadian here. I put down a deposit for a 2025 USB and white IS500 back in November. I asked my sales rep just before Xmas about the allocations and he said that's not exactly how it works, but assured me I'm in the queue and he would let me know timeline once the vehicle is in production. Now, he could be doing what geko29 is saying, watching the production line and then trading an allocation for the configuration I requested.

That said, in Canada, the only option for the IS500 is Premium+ (panoramic camera and parking assist) besides the special appearance package. And the Premium+ is pretty much required for any color besides Caviar.

 

Very New to this forum ! Early December 2024 my wife and I test drove a Lexus NX350h.
Which would replace my wife's MB GLa250. We both agreed this was to be the replacement car.
The dealer wanted to sell me the one we tested but color and had way to many options that i would never use.
I supplied them with the options I wanted and they looked at all incoming NX 350h's none matched exactly.
There was one that had everything plus 4 more options which i didn't want. They told me they would try to
change a allocation that wasn't built and would let me know by Jan 9. Well Jan 9th came and was informed
that they were unable to make the changes. They also told me that Lexus never take orders from customers.
I made them an offer for the one that had 4 options that i didn't want. Lower the price of the car by $1100 (the cost of the options).
Later that day they called me and excepted my offer in writing. Car should be at the port Jan 20 and we should have it around the 27.
By the way we neer gave them any deposit.

Randy

 

Great info geko

To add my recent experience. I was at the dealer this past Sunday and put a deposit down, reserving my place. Left with a worksheet based on a like car and a sale figure. The dealer will ask Lexus for this car and we'll see if they can allocate it. They had a total of 6 new vehicles, all of which were in the showroom. The days of bloated inventories and discounts are fading. Limiting inventory will yield a higher sell price, too bad from a consumer standpoint but from a business perspective I understand. If this is the new norm I'd like to see Lexus expand their ordering process to be more customer friendly like BMW and Porsche. Would love to see a customization program like L-Select here.

 

This is spot on. When I was shopping for my CPO 2015 GS it was very hard for me to find certain colors on the East Coast. They were mostly allocated to the West. It's very frustrating even in the used market. I was lucky enough to find one in Atomic Silver eventually.