I have a good friend who is buying a new Lexus. He tried buying locally but none of the 3 dealers would "deal". Ended up finding a car about 300 miles out of town. My question is what about service on the new car? I doubt that he even thought of it but I wonder if the local dealers are going to "welcome" him with a car purchased elsewhere. Anyone have any experience with this type of situation?

 

never a problem. it's money to them, they aren't stupid enough to drive that away

 

its no big deal. I've purchased 6 different lexus's over the years and only 3 were bought locally..they claim there is a special advantage but its all bull...dealer repair shops are about volume and making money for the owner...there were times when i couldn't get a loaner on different services when i purchased at that dealer and times when I didn't buy from that dealer that i never had a problem. the pricing is the same no matter what so truly your friend did the right thing in saving money on the purchase. he can just lie and say he just moved to the area if he feels the need to justify why he didn't buy the car from them..
I just purchased my 06 gs430 in atlanta off the internet and paid $350 to have it shipped 350 miles on a big semi to Jax Fl and had them unload my car at my driveway in my neighborhood...it was sandwiched between $140,000 worth of 2 Mercedes Benz on the rig....loved seeing this thing barreling down my neighborhood and dropping my car off.

 

Tell your friend to go to his local dealers with the out of town deal and ask them to match it. They may take a day to call him. Worked for me.

 

I bought my 350 from a dealer 40 mi away. My local dealer would not match it. They have treated me like gold when it has been in for service.

 

It makes absolutely no difference to the servicing dealer where you bought your car. They make more on service than they do on sales. I have purchased all my previous vehicles (Honda, Acura and Lexus) from faraway dealers. My GS450h was purchased from a dealer 400 miles away. Never a problem with service.

 

Picked my GS350AWD 200+ miles "out of town".
Have no problem servicing it in a local stealership, incl. loaner cars, free first service etc. etc...

 

Honestly, service is where the money is. At the right time, the dealer might make $1-2K per vehicle sold, but if you're someone that goes back for basic maintenance (oil change, transmission, etc.) and also for the big ticket items (water pump, 60K maintenance, etc.) over the life of your car, then you're someone the dealer wants to keep. From my experience, with my Hondas, but I'm sure it applies to Lexus too, if you service at the dealer and it's time to buy again, go back to the dealer you've done maintenance, and they'll be more than glad to deal you a good buy on a new vehicle because they know you'll be back for maintenance there.