Weird. Dealer called me to tell me they had the blue GS that I wanted. Debated it, convinced my wife, called the dealer to say I was coming in on Saturday. (this was Thursday or Friday) Dealer told me they put a sold tag with my name on it and would have it ready for me Saturday afternoon. No deposit required. YMMV, I guess.

 

I've had dealers tell me that the car is still available even though it has been sold already and only wait until I get there to tell me that and try to sell me on another car. Some dealers just try to get you in through the door by lying. I got to the dealer within 10 minutes of the call.

 

My hunch is that some of the dealers owned by the larger conglomerates are all about moving as many cars as possible. Smaller dealers can still be about service - can being a key word there.

I do have a hunch that one of the cars was actually sold days before they called to tell me but I'm not sure. I still had the link to the car fax they sent me and it had updated itself and seemed to indicate the car had sold on Monday. I had been in contact since the weekend before, got preapproved for financing through my credit union on Wednesday and they called on late Friday evening before I was heading up (it's a three-four hour drive and the weekend before they claimed they couldn't show me the car because it was still off site being prepped for certification) Maybe something got backdated in the CarFax? Maybe it was an error, I don't know but my guard is definitely up with them. The problem is, they seem to have the best supply of certified GSs any where around.

I am definitely more the type to get to know a sales person and work with them. I did that with the local dealer but wasn't super impressed - he's supposedly sold Lexus there for well over a decade and I knew the GS so much better. I get sales folks not knowing some of the minutia - I don't remember all of it about everything but still, you should know the big things. I had one try to tell me the F Sport had a higher horsepower than the non F sport of the same model year. (yes there was a bump in 16/17???ish) but he was saying F Sports always had higher HP than non F sport.

I did call another dealer a couple hours south and they seemed great but they have a very small market for GSs. I asked directly for the sales manager, spoke with him, he was excellent, and ended up putting me in contact with a sales person who followed up later that day with a quick intro. If they manage to get what I'm looking for I'm definitely going to them and I'm half tempted to drive the 2 hours for service - at least the major ones.

Sadly I think car dealers that actually care are becoming a thing of the past. Service is a thing of the past. It's all about commoditizing the purchase of a car to an online transaction with no human interaction necessary. The old model of having to haggle wasn't great but generally with a decent dealer and some knowledge you got a decent deal. Ultimately a dealer is not going to sell every car at a loss - they have to make a profit, but they don't have to be greedy or a**holes about it.