OK, I'm just curious.

A salesman told me that Lexus charges him a fee for placing a special order. So his actual "cost" (not including holdback cause dealers don't want to even discuss that as part of the price) is invoice minus this "special order fee". I think he said he was gonna call the port to find out how much this is.

Has anyone else heard of this? Can anyone confirm or deny? Does anyone know how much it is? Is it different from dealer-to-dealer or region-to-region?

 

There is no such thing as a "Special Order Fee." There is no reason why a dealership should increase the price of a car because you want specific options. That is like having a dealer charge you a fee for checking with other dealerships if they have a color option you want.

Tell your dealer that there is no such fee according to Lexus Headquarters. Any excessive fee by a dealer should be immediately addressed by Lexus HQ.

 

Yea, I'd call Lexus of NA if I were you.

 

Dealers will do whatever to get extra bucks out of the consumer and this is one of their scams.
In November of 2003 I was told by the Nissan dealer that if I wanted my Titan to be ordered the way I wanted, there was going to be a order fee. At which point I laughed at him and went to a different dealership who gladly ordered what I wanted and I paid a little over invoice[mind you this is in 2003 when no one even knew what a Nissan Titan was.].

So basically you have to shop different dealers to get what you want for a fair price. Sometimes it's even more feasible to order through a dealer in a neighboring state and just drive it back than to stick with the people you're dealing with.

 

Which dealer was trying to charge you a fee for a special order.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, guys. It was Ray Catena Lexus, in Oakhurst, NJ.

 

Thanks. Just to be clear though -- he wasn't necessarily going to charge this fee to me, but he was going to take it into consideration when telling me what his cost for the car was. Basically, I asked him how much over invoice he could sell me the car for, and he said "we don't normally discount specials orders much, because we lose a car from our allocation for 3-4 months and we get charged this special order fee."

 

That fee sounds fishy, but I know I've been having problems getting a dealer to special order a car. They lose that car from their allocation so they keep trying to get me to buy one from their current allocation. I don't see what's the big deal tho. They lose a car to a SALE! Isn't that the whole freaking point?

 

IS350 with just Sports Package. Well, the car ideally should be graphite with a black interior.

Having a real tough time finding a 350 with sports package around here. I know from here that not many got sent to the West Coast. I keep getting the "let's see what next month's allocation is like" from one dealer. The other keeps trying to sell cars with the wrong options. Thousand Oaks has been nice, but gets really evasive when bringing up special ordering. Beverly Hills has the annoying guy who keeps trying to sell either any 350 they have or pushing 250s. Only limited contact with Santa Monica.

 

Codex,

You've read that different regions get different options in their allocations, right? And that you can go online to "build your own lexus", plug in your zip code, and see which options are available in your region, right? Cause if you don't see the sports package available there, then you're going to either have to special order, or work with a dealer in a diff. region.

 

Yeah, trying to special order. Problem is, I'm having trouble finding dealers around here willing to special order. Getting some good recommendations here though.

 

no extra charge here for my special order.

 

I'm curious to know how long is it going to take for your car to come in. I'm from Hawaii too, and last time I went down there to pick up my dad's car, they said, they can't (or actually won't) do special orders. Like someone said up top, I just want the 350 w/ the sport package.

 

i ordered my 250 mt w/ sport package back on 9/5. the car arrived on 12/1 and i take delivery this saturday, 12/10. i dont see why they're not taking special orders. i do know that there are two shipments of ISs coming in this month (early this month--i'm guessing 12/1, same as when my 250 arrived--and later this month) per my sales rep. who are you dealing with over there?

 

I'm gonna deal with Sandee, I need to sell my car before I go ahead with my order though. Thanks for the info.