excellent post, thank you!!!! good to know lexus sales in the SE where i am it not controlled by SET!

have to say lexus letting 'dealer councils' decide what's available is letting the inmates run the asylum, seems like a truly terrible idea. or maybe because i'm not the industry this is the norm across most brands.

since dealers can more easily sell ES than GS for example, no doubt the 'dealer councils' contributed to killing off the GS.

 

Did you get what you wanted?

 

i had to buy my car from a dealer 900 miles away because of so little availability in florida.

 

But that is the way it goes for a car like yours. It’s not the fault of Lexus or the distribution. It is whether you want to wait? Or compromise for something else like colour etc. When I got my 21 4R, it had to be blue and limited. they had everything else available in grey or black in the 20 MY, so finally Toyota in Toronto said, you will have to get a 21 and when they become available....you will get it. 12 weeks it took. This is after waiting a few months to see if they could find a 20 MY

I theory, your Lexus dealer should be able to easily find you a specific model....but it likely will have to be a wait for that request. Or they don’t even have to try

a car like the ES, should be a lot easier to get. An RX should be even easier.

‘’a fully loaded F Sport ES I think would be harder to find than a fully loaded luxury model.

 

One thing I love about the ES is that if I can't fall asleep, all I have to do is read about and see some pics of any ES😁👍

 

Dealers loved the GS. It's TMC and the product planning team that decided it would be better to kill off the GS and offer an ES F SPORT. I gave my opinion about this to the product planning team back in 2012 at the 2013 ES Global Press Launch in Portland, OR. They asked me what I thought of an F SPORT version of the ES. I told them no way...that would overlap into GS territory and the ES is not a sport sedan. Look what happened, GS fell off and the ES has more interior volume than the LS for half of the price. Sure sedans are losing out to SUV's but I think it would have been better if Lexus focused on what put them on the map from a global standpoint instead of appeasing the Chinese market.

Because China was a huge influence on why the ES grew to Avalon size, they decided to consolidate platforms to the new global architecture. I think ES was perfectly fine on a Camry wheelbase. I think the GS didn't get a fair chance from the start because it started off with a bang in for this last generation, and they made it a dud by not updating it or keep it competitive with the E-Class and 5 series over the lifecyle of the car. GS 350 should have gotten more tech and better powertrain options while the GS F should have had at least 500 HP to be taken seriously. Oh well.

 

I don't buy this. The ES became Avalon-sized with the 2013 MY, at the same time a brand new GS was unveiled. This was years before the move to TNGA.

I'd be very surprised if dealers liked the GS when it was so slow to move off lots. It is not a volume product, which is what all dealerships love because it helps meet their quota.

 

great post. no doubt all major car makers are basing a LOT of their decisions around china.

 

This isn't true. This IS the fault of Lexus and their distribution. When you go to ANY other luxury brand you can get exactly what you want and there is way more variety in what they stock vs Lexus, where you are basically forced to limit what you want to what the region orders. EVERYBODY does a better job at this than Lexus. I tend to buy from whats on the lot, but walk into any other dealer and say "custom order" and walk into Lexus. Everybody else has a program in place for doing special orders and they are supported and encouraged, Lexus looks at you like you have 5 heads. Lexus actively discourages any kind of special orders, and if you can get them to do one it takes 3 times as long as anybody else. BMW or MB can get you a US built car 100% custom to your spec in 3 week. 3 WEEKS. German made? 8-9 weeks. Lexus on a custom US built ES? 8 months. No joke.

Choice and customization is a huge part of luxury. When I was shopping for cars, at BMW they just assume you're going to order a car like a 7 Series. The fact that Lexus just expects you would suck up whatever they have on a special $100,000 LC is absurd.

 

Although this was 20 years ago, and may not apply to the Lexus of today, I really lucked out when I ordered my 2001 IS300 from Pohanka Lexus. I was a sucker for that bright Solar Yellow paint job, chrome-ball shifter, and chronograph gauges...I fell in love with it at the D.C. Auto Show that year. Pohanka had several IS models in stock, in the base trim I wanted (no sunroof, cloth interior, easier-riding 16" all-weather 55-series tires), and I kind of liked the Auburn Sky Metallic color, but I decided to hold out for the yellow (I really wanted the yellow with the wood-trim package inside, but Lexus would not offer it on the yellow as it did on all the other IS colors). They tried all afternoon to talk me out of an order (they obviously wanted to sell what was on the lot), but I held firm. So, I signed the order, gave them a deposit, and left. The next day (or was it the day after....I don't remember)? I got a phone call...they said that one was on a ship headed to New York, just like I wanted...yellow, base trim, 16" all-seasons. It was either unspoken for or the previous order had been cancelled...they would divert it to Pohanka. I went up and bought it as soon as it came in and it passed my test-drive/inspection.

And that's how I first joined CL, for those of you that have to put up wth my nonsense every day..........(just kidding)

 

You did get really lucky. But you see my point. They exhausted all avenues of talking you out of an order, and the guy who did order your car waited so long he gave up. Had that been BMW you could have built it on the website, sent them the code and they would have ordered what you want. Exactly.

Other luxury carmakers make it a fun experience where you can go over materials and track the car in its production and its a really enjoyable event. Thats a huge area where Lexus is behind where its competitors are.

 

With Buick, that's more or less what I did with both the Lacrosse and Encore GX (The Verano was bought right out of the showroom, after they removed it for a test-drive). The Lacrosse had to be re-ordered three times, though, LOL, first, because GM cut off orders for new 2017 models just as the dealership told me you could still do it (if you remember, we talked quite a bit on a 2017-vs.-2018 and rebates), and then, right after it was re-ordered, the bozos in marketing changed the base engine from the nice V6 to a four-cylinder hybrid (which NOBODY wanted in a Lacrosse LOL), so it had to be re-ordered again....with the V6. That was a trip. I waited four months for it, just like the Encore GX.

I can't speak for BMW dealerships, because I never bought a vehicle from them. But I once came very close.....I REALLY liked the last-generation 335i with the hydraulic power steering, before BMW converted to the low-feel electric units. The chassis/steering/suspension tuning on that car, even with the Sport Package and 35-series rubber-band tires, was absolutely superb....at the time, IMO, BMW had what was arguably the best chassis-engineers in the industry. The Ultimate Driving Machine moniker, back then, was not just ad-hype. I came very close to buying (or ordering one)....but decided that they were just too expensive (45-50K, which was more than I wanted to spend), and BMW dealerships, at that time, tended to be snooty and aristocratic.


Anyhow, sorry, but we're getting off topic. Back to the new 2022 ES...I'll take a look at it at Pohanka (or maybe Lindsay) just out of curiosity....but I wasn't very impressed with the last major redesign (2019), and I understand this one is only a mid-cycle refresh.

 

I never liked the rear end of the new ES.

 

GM is better at the ordering thing than Toyota/Lexus too.

But, again you waited 4 months for a US manufactured car, and the same time for a car manufactured in Korea. BMW will build you a custom order on a US made vehicle in 3 weeks. WEEKS. A german made car takes 2 months. Porsche is the same way, Mercedes is a little slower. The Germans are just much better at customization, which is a big part of luxury.

 

BMW is 4-5 weeks for US made models. 10 weeks for models outside of US. Not sure if that also includes Mexican made models. It is also from the start of production and not time of order. So it is longer than weeks.

Lexus has never really been where the German brands are. Always been that way. Not that big a deal. Lexus builds their cars differently.

Ford and General Motors used to do special orders...not sure if they still do or when they stopped.