Mickeyc001

Let's help everyone out. There are folks just like you and I that are looking for their new IS250/350. They go to their dealers, just to have them run a Dealer Daily spreadsheet and it appears that their dream car does not exist. But then, you start calling different dealers in various regions (West, South, etc) and you find out that they do have the exact car you want in stock. How does this happen? Was your dealer hiding the truth. I suspect that is probably not the case at all. What happens is that Lexus gives dealers the right/ability to shield their inventory from other dealers. Some decide to shield and others do not. I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong, I'm just stating the facts so I can help you find your Dream Car. In my case, I had to go outside of Region to get the exact car I wanted. Since I was not hung up on tradidng my car in, the transaction was simple. Dealer "A" has the car, negotiated that he would pay the shipping, the car is delivered to me. I financed through my local credit union, who took care of the title work, collection of taxes and dealer envolpe/payment proccess.

I highly recommend that if the car you want is not in your area, call other dealers in other States and see what they have. You might be pleasantly suprised.

If anyone has helpful information, please post it. Do you know who is getting what/when...let us know.

Thanks

kensteele

I think I might be able to agree with most of what you are saying. For most everyone, the car you want probably exists somewhere. Since dealers just want to sell cars today not tomorrow....

I never would have rec'd the car that I ended up with, the car I wanted, if I had not literally drove down there several times a week in October and bugging them and pushing them and asking over and over and just about trying everything. They ran reports, called different people, ran some more reports, emailed and just about everything short of calling Japan. I'm sure they were tired of seeing me. Sales Manager found my car somehow got it done. Be persistent!

If you know the answers and the facts, I think the best approach is to show them how to get it done instead of working against them.

Mickeyc001

Kensteele, I can respect what you are saying and believe me, it was diffcult to decide to buy out of region, until I understood what was really going on. I had originally preferenced my car w/ a $500 deoposit. I waited week after week, until finally, my nerves were raw. By speaking to other dealers outside my region, I learned information that helped me communicate w/ my local guy better. I also learned that even though I had preferenced my vehicle, I would not get it for at least 90-120 days. The reason was super simple...They would not be sending cars w/ the options I wanted to my state until Feb or Mar of 2006. In the meantime, I had sold my wife's ES300 outright and could not wait that long as we were now down to one car. My salesperson understood. It was just simply a Lexus thing, where the dealers in my area just requested bare bone cars w 18: and some w/ Nav. The point is, I needed the car now and I had been strung along up to that point. Maybe not purposely...maybe is was a learning experience for everyone. Besides, I already purchased my last two cars from this dealer and I'll be trading my 2001 RX300 in on a new Rx330 sometime soon.

skingsland

Yeah, the only problem comes when your "dream car" doesn't exist anywhere. I challenge anyone on here to point me to a place in the country that can get a sport package IS 350 with Mark Levinson, without specially ordering it. The only dealers getting ML are in the midwest, and last time I checked, they only had the Luxury package, not the Sport package.

Though the wait sucks, at least you can get exactly what you want by special ordering.
Don't want to pay $500 for parking assist that you're just going to get annoyed with and disable anyway? Don't have to. Same for headlight washers, trunk mats, etc.

S2000toIS350

skingsland,

I appreciate your frustration with the imbalance of inventory to demand compounded by the regional configurations .

I worked with a broker to locate the incoming car I wanted.

Here is his contact info

Elvis Blohm
Fleet Manager
Office: 888-861-8080
Fax: 310-860-9395
Email: Elvis@FleetRates.com


It only costs $30 and you only pay if you make the deal.

Regarding the park assist, I thought it would be hokey but am very impressed with it in real life.

Regarding the trunk mats as part of the preferred accessory package, I just put my foot down, saying that I would not accept that junk and the dealer just lowered the price accordingly.

I would not have ordered headlight washers but for $100 they are a cool Euro type feature (that I doubt I will ever use).

kensteele

The park assist is definitely a nice to have and I would never disable mine. There's absolutely nothing annoying about it. Now I can take down that cheesy stop light (red,yellow,green) that I have pinned to my garage wall. Whenever I pull in, I wait for the sensor to beep, then I pull forward until the sensor beeps faster, then stop. It's great!

skingsland

Thanks, I emailed Elvis -- we'll see what he comes up with.

On the parking assist, perhaps I'll go back to considering this. I have to deal with city/garage parking, so knowing when I'm only 6 in. away could help. Though I've gotten used to figuring this out on my own.