Anyone have any experience with dealing with any dealerships in NC? I go to college in NC and plan on getting my car here instead of my home state of CO. I know there are like 4 dealerships, but I just want to know if anyone had anything to say about any one of them. If you know about the CO dealerships please let me know about them as well in case I look at getting it there.

 

I know something about three of the dealerships in NC.

The one I know most about is Hendrick in Charlotte. I've got nothing but good things to say about these guys. My service advisor (Rob Moore) is exceptional at communication, followup and taking care of me in the rare case when something isn't done to my satisfaction. I bought my LS400 from them and had a very good buying experience (used). If you're going to buy something there let me know and I'll get a salesperson recommendation for you... the guy I bought from has since left and is GM of the Maserati / Ferarri / Aston dealership down the road.

I bought my GS400 from Flow Lexus in Greensboro area in late 1999. I didn't spend a lot of time at the dealership and have only been back once for service immediately after (to get spoiler I worked into the deal installed). Sales guys were ok and semi-knowledgable, but I knew more about the car than he did (and I didn't know all that much about it back then). Had a good selection of CPOs at the time, which is why I didn't buy from Hendrick (they had none). They may have updated them (very likely have in 6 years), but the facilities seemed more Toyota than Lexus.

With Johnson Lexus in Raliegh I have two minimal data points. Based on conversations with a salesperson I set up an appointment and drove the 3 hours to look at (and purchase) what sounded like exactly the GS I wanted to buy. When I got there the salesguy was evasive and tried to steer me to other cars on the lot. Told me then that the car I wanted was 'still in transit'. After a couple more hours of waiting for the truck to arrive I finally learned the real answer that the car was stolen off the dealer's CPO lot (broke into key box) and was driven at extremely high speeds to Miami where it was left in the airport parking lot for three weeks. It was just being returned. The salesguy neglected to tell me this, knowing I was making a 3 hour drive to the dealership. I've never quite forgiven them for this, although it was probably the action of one salesperson vs an issue with the entire dealership. A buddy of mine (and former mod on CL, Dex) parent's have bought and serviced three Lexus from Johnson with good results. Second data point is that the son of the owner of Flow saw my car being worked on at my bodyshop and knew all the parts I had on it, etc. Very knowledgeable Lexus enthusiast - he came up and introduced himself to me at Hot Import Nights in Charlotte. Nice guy.

 

Thanks for your insight.... I actually contacted each dealership over the phone to discuss some things with the new IS about a month back. I honestly got the best feeling from the dealership in Charlotte. They seemed much more knowledgable and willing to help me out more than the other dealerships. The other two, hearing a 20 year old on the other side of the phone, barely gave me the time of day to help me out. The dealership in Charlotte is a good hour and half from my school, (Flow in Greensboro is the closest), but the way they are treating me and the way the other dealerships do not want to deal with me at all makes that long drive worth it.

 

Interesting. We have been dealing with Flow there in Kernersville, and haven't had a reason to leave yet. They have been nice, called us to come down to the IS coming out party.
They let us drive the wheels off a 350 and fed us Bar-B-Que. We then went down a week later with some CD's and they let sit in a 350 with a ML and listen to them, in the show room,, for about 45 minutes ! It was fun. Drove them crazy.
You need to talk to Scott Barwick. He special ordered a IS350 and let us change the color 2 weeks after ordering it ! No problems so far, has given us the (new) order confirmations from Lexus. He seems quite knowledgeable and if he doesn't know the answer, he calls the service guys to get a correct answer instead of making something up. He's not twenty something either very professional.
We live in Virginia, but Flow was the closest. They have valet service to Roanoke Virginia, (Like you would care ) and the loaners are those little RX mini van looking things.(at least a Lexus vehicle).
I'll tell you what I did do. While my wife kept the sales people busy I sneaked back to the service area and just asked a couple people that brought their vehicles in for service, what they thought about the place and if they could recommend these guys? All three individuals had good thing to say and like the service provided and the cookies they gave them. One said they bought a RX from flow cause they had loaned it to them when they had the oil changed in their other Lexus.
I hope they turn out to be OK. We almost went down to Charlotte, but thought 300 miles was a little far one way. Its only 129 to Winston Salem.
I have to wait another 3 months for IS350, Scott says its suppose to be a enjoyable journey.we'll see, All the paper work seems to be ok so far. I have a lot of anxiety about dropping $42k for a car. I ordered shop manual for it, and they are suppose to put a spoiler on it in Jacksonville at port. So were going down there Monday to get some seat time again in a IS350 . Need to get re-acquainted .
Call Scott and tell him, his friend that restores old Cub Cadet tractors up in Virginia sent you. If he still doesn't remember say, they ordered a IS350 from him, he'd better remember that !

 

Thanks for your thoughts. Flow was pretty helpful with me as well, I did not mean to make them sound bad. Are you saying their is a serious wait to get the IS (3 months?) or is that because you special ordered? I really want to get the car from Flow because it is only 20 minutes from Wake Forest (my school). Do you think I will be able to get one of them to give me a better deal than the other?

 

GH, I'd care Native Roanoker here (mom still lives there in Raleigh Court area). If you're in the area maybe we'll set up a Roanoke CL meet around late December . There are a couple of others on CL from the area. I'll have my LS there, not the GS. It's too low to make it up the driveway at home without scraping off my bodykit.

That's one thing I left off for Flow.... They also offered the valet service to Charlotte as well for service on the GS I bought from them, but I never took them up on it. Now that I think back a few years, the salesguy I had was relatively new and had moved over from another Flow car dealership (not Lexus). Two of my cousins work for Flow Acura... nothing against them, just my experience with Hendrick has been better.

 

what do you guys mean by valet service?

 

Just got a IS250 AWD from Stevinson in CO. My salesman was great and knocked a little off of MSRP. What kind of IS are you looking for? PM if you want details.

 

PM? (Does that mean post more? or something else?) Yeah I am curious to hear about your experience, specially the discount on the MSRP. I am looking into a 250 RWD, only option I am considering right now is Navi...(I know I live in CO so AWD would be key but the car would pretty much only be there in the summer).....

 

PM=Private Message

 

Yeah.....Im an idiot

 

Brewkp4: yeah we ordered. Slow boat from Japan. Three to Four Months ! Grrrrrrr.
I don't know about a cheaper deal. I kinda expected to get bent over on a Brand new model, that has high demand.
Sometimes, we can't wait when we read about other CL guys picking up their new IS. But I must remember, patience, research on accessories as more come out, try to save up some money, can't drive it in the winter. I can wait.

Hey DaveGS: Small world. Guess you know where Blacksburg is then. CL meet, Thanks for the invite, but I'd kinda not feel right, since I don't have the IS yet, and showing up at CL meet in a Jeep. I had better wait until I have a ticket to get in. I do have a Lexus key ring
That's pretty wild your from Roanoke. How long have you been a NC transplant ? You have cousins at Flow, do they read any of this stuff up here, you know to help their dealership? Scott is our sales guy, but a guy named Tom went with us on the test drives. He knew a lot about the car. Flow was the first dealer we showed up at, Lexus corporate site said the were the closest and they had won some customer service awards. Then we saw pics of Hendrick and thought , maybe we should have shopped around. I kinda felt Flow could use our business. They have us for now, but if they jerk us around the least little bit, I'm out of there. They have kept their promises so far.
I appreciate any advice and appreciate you making me feel welcome here at CL.
Thanks !

 

Yep, know it well. Most of my HS friends went to VA Tech so i spent many a weekend up there. Showing up at a Lexus meet w/o a Lexus is just fine. In fact we have one Saturday in Charlotte if you wanted to go to Hendrick and then come to the meet, just a 2 1/2 road trip in the Jeep

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185208

My cousins are at Flow Acura, I never got the sense from them that they cross-pollinated their dealerships (and think its in a different city too).