Just received my 350 which I ordered from Kuni Lexus and had shipped to Texas.

From my personal experience, I would not order from Kuni Lexus again. I'm sure the experience would've been better in person, but their remote sales is the worst.

Everything was fine during the negotiation process. HOWEVER, once they received my payment, the service completely stopped. I'm not sure if they were upset because I refused to sign the credit aplication or what.

Since my payment was received:
1. Salesman never called me back, finally got a hold of him after 3 days
2. On second day of not hearing, left message with Sales Manager and he never called back
3. The dealer sticker I asked them to remove was still attached
4. Never received a follow-up call after I received the car

I don't regret ordering from out of state, just regret it was with Kuni Lexus. I should've went with Stevinson Lexus who had the same car and same pricing.

As far as the car, I'm very pleased and came in perfect condition. Just not pleased with their customer service; I just feel they had no desire to provide any customer service once my payment was received.

 

i bet that since you were out of town they wouldnt see you ever again so they treated you half assed sad to say. If you were local to Kuni I bet you wouldve had totally different service levels

 

evotolexus - sorry to hear about the problems. That was my main fear in ordering from a different state...

To that end I have the car in my sig on order with Kuni (should be in in 2 weeks). They have been nothing but nice to me, but they have not got my payment yet .

I have decided that I am going to fly up to Denver (up and back on a Saturday) and do the deal in person and then put it on a enclosed trailer to Houston. I have a pre-approval check from NFCU and I don't feel comfortable sending it fed-ex. Plus, this allows me to inspect the car before I pay for it. I was afraid to the exact situation you ended up in i.e. they get their money and no longer have an incentive to help me.

So, it is a $200 plane ride and a $750 truck ride and the car is all mine.

 

Unfortunately, most dealers (Lexus included) are run the same way. Once they get paid for the vehicle and you take delivery, they hope to never see you again. Sad but true. After taking delivery, I received a followup letter (very impersonal) about 3 days later from my salesman and the general manager. But I was surprised that they sent me a birthday card on my birthday. Oh boy.

 

Doesn't Lexus corporate send you an evaluation of your dealership experience a few weeks after the purchase? I think I got something like that when I got my 99 and same with the new 06 Mercedes. That is where you should put the negatives of your experience in. Not sure about Lexus but at Mercedes, part of the sales commission for the rep is not released until they get a good rating sent received by corporate. Maybe Lexus doesn't do that.

 

Sorry to hear that evotolexus, I am still waiting for my new IS, I ordered mine for Sewell Lexus of dallas. I have been very happy with the customer service and the sales person is very nice, got referred by my boss at work. Just curious as to what you paid from Kuni Lexus. I think I got a good deal, 1500 off MSRP and free tinit, Black 350, nav., ML, luxury pack. $42015 is what I will be paying.

 

Is that $42015 including tax and title?

I was just wondering because i ordered the Tungsten 350 with premium package, no nav or ML and in the end it came to about $42K with tax and title

 

Although I haven't received mine, the salesman did tell me to keep an eye out for such a thing from the mail and mentioned that his evaluation is indeed tied to the commission he'll be getting.

On a side note, I just saw this reality show called King of Cars on A&E...kinda scary to find out what goes on behind the scenes at car dealerships.

 

It's so unfortunate that so many times experiences as such wreck the ownership experience for some buyers. Some people won't ever buy a Lexus again, thanks to the dealer.

However, this is a pretty rare occurance as Lexus is usually top-notch for customer service. Never had a problem with over 10 separate vehicles from the same dealer (Woodfield Lexus in Schaumburg).

 

After contacting many of the dealerships in Texas, with most of them not budging much from MSRP, my dealings with Sewell in Dallas as well as Ft.Worth were less than stellar to say the least. I almost purchased out-of-state. I was working with Kuni Lexus, as well as Lexus of Nashville. My main concerns about an out-of-state purchase were the following:

-In the very rare chance I had a lemon, the lemon laws would probably be difficult to enforce cross-state

-Having the car shipped meant a few hundred dollars in fees, but more importantly that I couldn't see the car until it arrived. Flying in also had disadvantages, if the dealer changed pricing at the last minute, I would be at their mercy. Driving the car back would mean that I would have put on several hundred miles.

I ended up getting a very good price from Park Place Lexus in Grapevine, they actually beat the discount that the out-of-state dealerships were offering. I worked with the Internet Manager (Pat Lafferty), I told him exactly what I was looking for (which they didn't have in-stock), within a day or two he had located the car in their incoming inventory, with the options and in the color combination I wanted. We negotiated on pricing over the phone, and he invited me to come to the dealership to place a deposit and to look at a similarly optoined car (which was sold, but so I could get an idea of what it would look like), but was also willing to do take the deposit over the phone. We gave them a deposit and they provided us with a sheet showing the final selling price as well as the VIN. I was a little apprehensive, thinking that maybe they'd change pricing or add bogus fees before the deal was over. Pat called me a few times letting me know where the car was, and it ended up arriving about a week sooner than expected. We picked up the car with absolutely no hassles whatsoever, no discprencies in price, and no surprises.

I received a follow-up call after 2 days asking if we had any questions about the car, and another follow up call a week later again to see if everything was as we expected it to be. Overall I was extremely happy with the whole transaction. While I was there, Pat also mentioned that a few people from Houston had purchased ISes, and those were being shipped out.

After contacting almost every dealer in Texas, I was extremely happy to get a reasonable deal locally, and was very happy with the whole transaction. If anyone in Texas is still shopping, i'd suggest contacting Pat at Lexus of Grapevine. Feel free to PM me for more info regarding pricing, or any other details.