I would definitley shop around and wait. Dealers constantly get new inventory every month. You will be fine. Plus you live in Cali where there are many lexus dealers that are willing to negotiate due to competition. I waited to find the Tungsten Pearl AWD with black interior and the Premium Package. It was worth me waiting two months.

 

I would ALWAYS get the options over the color. It's rare that there is one single color that I cannot live without. However, I think I would refuse a GFM--I think that's a love it or hate it color. It took my dealer 4 weeks to find my car, and I gave him 3 color choices.

 

Color is very important to me.
I'd search the US and find the exact car I wanted,buy it and then have the car shipped.

 

Do not know about the rest of the members here, but I am not that crazy about the factory sound systems in general, no matter who's behind them (BOSE, RF, ML, blah, blah, blah). Prices for those system are gonna always be very high. With that said, of course my opinion is pick your color combo and pick the NAV (no ML) all together. You will see later how your sound system can be even better than ML without spending that much! my .02 cents.....

 

Special Order it dude. It will be worth the wait, and you will be happy in the end.

 

I didn't care about the color when I went to go order the car. I said anything is fine except green, red, and black. After seeing more of the GFM, I have to say I am not a fan. Looks like an after-market paint job where they haven't quite finished yet. Not a "Lexus color" to me.

Then again, I didn't care about the ML either, just NAV...

I say go for the car that you can get the better relative discount on.

 

I am of the opinion that you should never try to fall in love with a color (unless you can really wait to have one special ordered)

ML was a must for me. I could find 15 Lexus dealerships in Florida that had plenty of IS350s with nav and no ML. There were only 2 dealerships (one each) with ML available for purchase when I bought mine.

Just to go to show you how rare ML is (except amongst the Lexus board members), my service guy at my local Lexus dealer commented just yesterday how rare these ML IS350s are....kinda makes you wonder when you hear it from someone who services these cars all day, everyday.

 

We were just over this in another thread- you can not replicate the ML system in the aftermarket for a lower cost.

But if you'd like to tell us how to get 7.1 channel surround from 14 speakers and a 6 disc changer for $752 installed, with a 4 year warranty, please do.

(Or $1500 if you want to go with the nav version and then you'll also need to add a 6-disc DVD changer to your aftermarket parts)


One major reason you can't do it cheaper is Lexus won't give you credit for the stock system if you plan to go aftermarket but you effectively -are- getting credit for it if you get the ML system (since they're saving the cost of those parts).


Now, I'll be happy to go on about how insanely overpriced and lacking in features the -nav- option is... but the ML sound option is a tremendous bargain.

 

I too wanted the the GFM color with black interior, and I settled for Starfire Pearl with Cashmere. I agree with those who said the GFM looks dirty compared to starfire, I park next to a clean GFM is350 everyday and almost everyone who walks up to my car says "hey, there's a car like yours, but it's dirtier than yours." In my opinion, both colors are very nice, but I made the right choice by going with the Starfire Pearl. On the other hand with the cashmere interior......that's another story.

 

Well, that's questionable, but let's get back to topic. I woud like to discuss this, but I see that we have different opinions about audio (which it is OK with me).

to the OP. Let us know what you decide!!

 

Well its true, my sales guy even told me that ML 350's are rare. He also mentioned that his 250 to 350 Sales ratio is like 20 to 1 so there aren't that many 350's around.

After reading all your posts im leaning towards the Starfire Pearl as it will have the options I want. Plus its a lease I can live with it for 3 years. I just gotta wait to hear back from my Lemon lawyer and how BMW is gonna take there TANK Back. The 335 is a great car the engine is flawless and the power is nice but the Electronics navigation and brakes well thats why mines a lemon.