SonyHome

Does anyone know how to lock in the LFS Finance rebate for DTR before your car arrives?

Originally my car was supposed to arrive by 12/23 but delivery date has been kept getting pushed back and just today sales rep said new ETA is 12/31 - 1/6 and if the car isn't here by 1/2 I will not get LFS rebate of $750 even if I go ahead and pay for the car and process the purchase! WTH!?

Anyone have any more detail around this and how I could lock in the rebate before my car arrives at the dealer?

amoney805

iTrader: (1)

Tell them you'll walk.

corradoMR2

^^^ Agreed. That's bs. The rate/rebates/incentives are locked in at the time you sign the contract.

SonyHome

That's what I was thinking too but sales rep kept saying car needs to be here and rebate is only given if car is on the lot. I'm planning to call Lexus to see what's up with this crazy policy that penalizes the customer for things that are no fault of the customer. I was pretty unhappy about not having my car for the Christmas and now this which is making me pretty frustrated with this whole order process! Car was at Portland port on 12/6 and we are talking ~4 weeks to just get it to dealer lot!

Bass Mech

tell them to discount the car by 750 if it doesn't make it on time. not the dealers fault but dealers responsibility to make you a happy customer.
heres your leverage, the dealer rurally really wants you to fill out your customer satisfaction survey with everything checked excellent. if you have even 1 box checked that way it will seriously affect your sales persons commission and the dealer gets a black mark.
they value this survey like gold!
tell them either give you the rebate that was lost, or you give a negative review.
i bet you i know the outcome.
also if you can't get any agreement there, threaten to walk without buying the car. trust me they do not want a RWD car sitting on their lot in the middle of winter.

don't worry man it will all work out.
if they are upset they can be upset with lexus!

SonyHome

I'm hoping there is much more civilized way to lock in this rebate without any ultimatums since I really want the car and get this whole process over with. Sales rep has been trying to get this car here on time but I'm not sure how much he really can do. All I know is I really want to lock in the rebate since I already filled out the application, got preapproved, and rates/terms were agreed upon verbally.

I just can't understand how Lexus can have policy such as this where customer is getting penalized because they can't deliver and he's waiting longer for the car then originally stated. I feel like I'm getting screwed twice!

Bass Mech

i know its hard to deal with, but trust me, you'll see it will all work out. as you know my car was delayed and i know how frustrating it can be. but you'll get a good deal and just keep in mind 750 bucks is probably about 10 bucks per month in payments.
after you get the car you'll be so happy with it you seriously won't give a rip what you paid or what your payment is. IMO i would have paid more than sticker for it anyway.

Slust

I am in the exact same position as you, except you probably have more negotiating power than I do since I am currently without a car and in their loaner. Though I am still going to use this as ammo to negotiate a better deal. Though being in the position I'm in, I really don't like my chances.

The $750 rebate was active last month too. It's not specific to DTR. Though obviously no guarantees that it will still be active in January. One thing in our favor is that there ARE always deals going on at car dealerships. The only true "best time" to buy a car is at the end the month.


I will go in armed with forum posts, USAA (or TrueCar quotes for non-military) quotes and Edmunds fair price quotes.

CtSFox

Actually, I'm pretty sure that you qualify for incentives in effect at the time of delivery.

Endaar

I was told that with Lexus Financial, the rate and residual is locked in for 30 days from approval. In theory then you should be fine in that respect. But I can tell you from experience in the business, rebates (which are independent of the finance company) are processed based on when a car is reported to the manufacturer as delivered to the customer. Since the vehicle's status will be something like "in transit to dealer" until it's actually received at the dealer, there's no way they can report it delivered to the customer. (i.e. it's impossible) Not to mention there's likely a violation of their franchise agreement in there somewhere as the car has to get a pre-delivery inspection before delivery.

This is one case where the dealer is caught in the same bind as the customer.

SonyHome

I'm sure this is the situation but under my circumstance shouldn't Lexus make exception so customer can get the rebate considering it's caused by them being late in delivering the car. Really it comes down to their (and their shipping vendors) inadequacy to get the car delivered in the stated time frame. Issue would be resolved if they can acknowledge the situation that my car should have been delivered on 12/23 and honor the rebate.

I'm planning to contact Lexus on Monday to see what they say.

Endaar

I agree with you, but that's an argument that you and your dealer need to make to Lexus Corporate. The dealership itself isn't in a position to honor the rebate outside of its stated terms.

To be blunt though, all these programs are designed to move IN STOCK vehicles. When you order a car you're at the mercy of whatever is or isn't in effect at time of delivery. I'm dealing with the same situation now; trying to negotiate terms that allow me to order a vehicle with some sort of protection that if the lease rates go up too much I can walk away.

Endaar

semoquer

Yeah.. I really cannot blame the dealer for a late delivery. It's not up to them when they get the car. It is the holiday season, and the port processing is probably slowed down because of that.

You can make a complaint to Lexus about their port processing process/ delivery times to dealerships, etc. But I think it's unfair to blame the dealership when they have so little control.

I have waited over two months and still have not gotten word on a build date, etc. I'm not even mad, because they don't have my money yet. The car is not one of a kind, I can always get a 2015 if anything goes wrong with this order. I can even consider another car!

Basically, the dealership is at YOUR mercy. You can use that as a bargaining chip for this late delivery. However, I must say again that dealerships are not in control of this situation. If they could deliver the car sooner, they would! Who wouldn't want to get paid early??

AdvanSLF

I'm running into the same problem. It's so frustrating knowing I can (and will most likely) lose $1750 in rebates (1k for grad, 750 for LFS) just because the car is not physically on the dealer's lot by 1/2. I'm not sure what my options at this point, but my last resort which I plan on taking this week is calling corporate (if somehow possible) to get them to let me lock in those rebates for me, even though the transaction is not going to process until January.

To a couple others' point, using this as leverage has no impact. The dealer will simply note that they are not responsible for the schedule and delivery dates/times. Secondly, you also can't use it as a bargaining chip to bluff your way to another dealer who can have your business instead. Particularly if the car you want is rare (e.g., white on red with x configurations). Lastly, it also depends on your location and how many surrounding dealers are available at disposal for you to do business with. I know it's extremely hard for folks on the east coast to get a good price as oppose to folks on the west coast because Lexus dealers are kinda scarce in my area. With my experience, the only two dealers who have allotted the car I want is a good 30 miles a part. So as you can see, when your options are limited, you're basically SOL.

SonyHome

I called Lexus financial today and they are clueless which make it even more frustrating! Who are you planning to call and could you provide the # to me?

I still have slim hope that my car may show up by Thursday but considering how slow my car has been moving from Portland it will be very slim chance. Sales rep is really clueless to tell me where my car is currently even 2 weeks after it left Portland!

Way Lexus has this setup it's in their interest to not deliver the car on-time!