Hi, so today my son asked if I'd go with him to see a lightly used, CPO, 2015 Lexus. Liked the car and asked the price. He was told the price. He started out negotiating and the salesman said "Nope. We don't negotiate any more. We are like Car Max. We give you 'value pricing' and that is that!" Is this just a Southern California thing or is this the way of the future? I asked if they had "wobble room" on brand new 2016 cars and he said just a little but soon they will be sold like Saturn did when they were in business. Which means of course, this is our price, take it or leave.

Not sure what to make of this but........guess I'll just say, "Oh well".

 

Hi.

Some dealerships price their car already low (agressively) and are called ''volume sellers'' while others simply are more traditionnal and ask the actual market price that can be negociated.

For instance, when I bought my CPO it was already roughly 2000$ lower than the average in the area and I somehow managed to cut another grand after a few hours of negociation.

You just need to make sure the price is reasonable for the car you're buying. Did you check the price in your area for other similar cars?

 

Thanks so much for your answer. The price did seem reasonable for the car. But is was a used car and I"m just an old guy that has never looked at a used car that was priced "firm". Never in my 70+ years have I seen that. Always a first time. I gave my son a funny look and we left. Had a good talk about it and shared I with him that I'm just too "old school"! Of course the salesman didn't care one whit whether we bought it or walked.

Thanks again. Seems like I'm going to be adjusting my thinking a bit when it comes to working with Lexus dealerships.

 

That's the new wave of the future. They don't go back to ask their manager anymore and you write your price down in a piece of paper like those old days.

 

A lot of dealers these days are super competitive with the internet sales. They price their vehicles pretty aggressively to get people in and move them in volume, so they don't have a lot of wiggle room. I went through the same thing recently when I bought my Tundra, they gave me the old take it or leave it. It seems like BS, but they know if you leave it someone else will come right behind you and buy it....and let's be honest, I didn't drive clear across town passing 4 other dealers on the way because it was a bad deal.

 

Dealers really have their bottom price because of the aggressive competition out there. They'd probably go down $ 1,000.00 at most, but even that's a stretch.

In terms of pricing, I've seen MY15 IS250's w/ 20,000 miles go for as low as $ 25,000 + and 2015 IS350's with the same mileage for as low as $ 35,000 + .

It is what it is, pal.

 

Well, I am a Pre Owned manager at a Lexus store and I price the cars...

Basically, I try to price the cars, online, as aggressively as realistically possible from day one. It's my experience that if I price my cars, out of the box, ideally around 94-96% of comparable market that they sell quickly.

There are exceptions, but that's a general rule that we work with. I also have as my main goal to sell my cars, on average, within 30 days or less.

Some people will walk in and expect a huge discount, this generally isn't possible. However, with educated buyers these days, properly priced cars sell quickly.

 

articles like this have been going around for a while now: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...hips/31219743/

 

I like the idea of 'take it or leave it'. It's much easier, faster and waste nobody time.

 

Not to derail the tariff conversation, but my past car purchases were based on what I received for my trade while paying close to full price for the new vehicle. When I bought my NX recently, the trade-in difference between the dealer closest to my home and one 10 miles away was $7200. One of the reasons for the huge difference was the trade was an EV which are plummeting in value. I paid close to full price, but got the dealer to throw in weather mats and trunk liner along with the favorable trade.

As for tariffs, I’m sure they will affect pricing until car manufacturers can establish production in the US. Toyota already has manufacturing plants in Texas, Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Alabama. Do these plants have room for expansion to produce Lexus cars/suvs built on the same chassis (i.e. NX and RAV4 in Georgetown, Kentucky)? If so, it may only take a few years to establish production as opposed to acquiring sites and building completely new facilities which could take up to 10 years. Parts production and distribution will have to change as well. In the interim, how much can Japan increase production? It’s interesting that tarrifs were not raised on goods coming from Japan.

 

Wrong thread?

I am going to lock this one. Thanks.