Unlike in the USA where you select a vehicle that is already available in the inventory, each Lexus order in Japan is a custom order. Instead of waiting the typical 90 days for a custom order, a customer in Japan receives their order in a month's time or less. As you can see in the photo below, you can spec your IS to your own specifications unlike the "what you see is what you get" approach here in the USA.



via: NOVEL Japan

 

That would be nice

 

i like that a lot better :-).

You can order custom order worldwide but you got to find dealer that wants to do it and wait for 4 months, right?

If they lowered that to 2 months :-)

 

No too surprising considering it's built there.

 

Of course that's obvious but Japanese consumer is different from the American consumer. Unlike here in the USA where Lexus sells in volume, the Japanese sell their Lexus by special order appointment. Over there, everything is explained in detail from exterior to interior. Over here, you pick the color and package you want. If you want something more than, you have to wait 90 days for a special order.

 

I think too because buying a luxury vehicle in Japan is a bigger deal than buying one in the US. Only the really wealthy can afford a luxury vehicle due to how expensive it is to own a vehicle particularly in Tokyo. When you take in how much it probably is for a parking stall in the city and vehicle taxes, that ownership cost can grow substationaly. Point is I can totally understand why they get the full treatment and how detailed their car purchasing procedures are, if I was one if the elite who can afford I would expect nothing less from the brand.

 

Waiting 4 months for exactly what you want isn't a big deal. If you are going to have a car for years who cares about an additional few months. Audi and BMW do a great job with special orders. Lexus is not special order friendly unless you are very patient.

 

That hella nice customize in japan before USA.

 

But why does it only take BMW only 1.5 months for a U.S. customer to special order a car and have it in hand while Lexus can take up to 4 months. There's something wrong with the special order process with Lexus for U.S. customers.

 

Toyota Production System & Just In Time (JIT) philosophy of vehicle manufacturing couldn't allow the disruption of the vehicle production process. TPS is a lean manufacturing process which is an efficient way to build a car with the least amount of resources and energy.

This is one of many reasons why LFA was so expensive to build. Ever LFA order was custom, but it cost Toyota more to put each car together in which they lost money in every unit they built.

 

So their production line is optimized for bulk production that is probably based off the statistic numbers. I wonder how hard is to implement individual orders in that system and how much it disrupts it.

 

That's nice! I wish the Northeast dealers were more open to doing special orders. Even something as simple as finding an IS with ML around here seems undoable without a special order.

 

it is not based on statistics, but distributors and dealers also order 3 months before... so they can build very efficient business model around that.

Lexus in Japan has different strategy, but their cars are more expensive probably due to that and they sell a lot less too.

 

European dealers have no problems with special ordering... But the problem in US is that you have to pay for the car in advance - or rather, dealer basically orders the car and they cant cancel it. In US, it is policy that deposits are refunded no question asked, unlike in Europe, so in the end, you get less options because of that.

 

Most of how the USA dealer builds are allocated, are based on the statistical sales trends for that region...

District Regional Sales Managers basically package the car "as is" and then tell the dealerships to "Sell what you get..."

Pretty much ALL of the dealers allocated orders are "prefilled" 60-90 days out...

So when you walk in and ask for a "Special Order", they would need to have an available allocation to "give up", then a special order can be placed and should arrive in approx 90 days..

If they don't have a slot, it takes much longer...

~ Joe Z