I've placed my order for an nx 350h Lux all the way back in jan 2022, and have yet to get a vin or even any information about when i can take delivery of my car. I've seen so many nx350h on the roads driving having a good time, meanwhile im still here calling my dealership asking "when will my car be built?". At this point I feel like my dealership sold my car to someone else for above msrp.

Is the dealership allowed to sell the car that i bought to someone else? I mean I signed the contract and paid the deposit. So technically i did purchase the order, i even have the order number and purchase number.

What's funny is that the dealership offered me someone ELSE'S CAR, which might be the same specs as mine. But like come on.... that just shows that the dealership can sell other people's car. How can i find out if my dealer really did sell my car to someone else? Is there anything i can do at the moment besides wait

Any help would be much appreciated. TYSM

 

Why don't you take the other vehicle that was offered to you? I am also waiting with no ETA in sight, ordered in April.

 

I mean.... I could and check that the specs are the same as mine. But then that means the car I ordered in jan is already built right? They wouldn't build a car that was ordered after January before my order.
So, if that's the case, why would the dealership offer me someone else's and not the one I ordered??

 

It's completely possible that they gave your allocation to someone else to make a higher profit. Dealers can also enter "fake" customer orders and get random allocations from factory. It's hard to say what they are doing unless you know someone on the inside. Personally, I would just focus on taking delivery if the model being offered is what you are after.

 

You're right, I'll probably just check the offered car and pray that its got the specs that i wanted, if not, I'm gonna be waiting alongside you LOL

 

Wow that’s a long time to be waiting. My dealer doesn’t take a deposit until they have a VIN number. Otherwise they just put you on a wait list and are upfront that they will charge 5% ADM for 350h and 10% ADM for 450h+. I have been waiting close to a month already. Almost anything non F Sport in white or atomic silver with interior other than rioja red seems to be in very high demand.

Do you have something in writing stating the agreed selling price? If so, that may be a problem because a car with those exact options may never show up. For example my dealer said all cars are coming from the factory with the 2000 lb towing pack, something I would definitely not have on my order. So other than drivetrain, color, and package, one has to be flexible on other options.

 

It could be the other car purchaser is walking away and got their deposit back due to many reasons ie: Interest rate not good enough as part of the written deal.

Check the spec and color. If they match, I would take it as the waiting period is insane this year

 

Local dealer has 350h luxury in nori green/crème and Grecian water/crème. I don’t like the 2-tone crème nor the exterior colors. I could probably consider grecian if the interior was palomino or black.

 

What trim did you order? I am in Ontario and got mine (lucked out - someone canceled their order and I got it). I see a lot (aka some) of Signature or Premium 350h (can't tell from the exterior), a few 350h Luxury (you can tell by the wheels, 20" silver).
I have not yet seen a single Ultra Luxury trim (with the tri-beam headlights) and only one Executive Trim (that was sold at the lot, you can tell by the wheels - 20" black non-gloss ones)
Mine is the Executive Trim, and my dealer has said that they have had only a handful of them ordered/come in. This is supposedly due to Mark Levinson audio shortages (?).

When I originally ordered (the Luxury trim) - on February 2nd, I was told that end-of-May was a feasible date. Then came the shortages and delays: Panoramic sunroof, production delays at the Cambridge Toyota/Lexus plant, and more. Just before I picked up my Executive Trim, I was told that the car (my original purchase) wasn't even in the system yet - meaning that the production hasn't even started or scheduled, so that was at least 4-6 months out, maybe even more. I think the last update I had was "between 12-18 months" - but not sure if that's true.

 

You have a complete misunderstanding about how Lexus sales work.

1. You did not "technically purchase the order." Not even close. A deposit is not a guarantee of delivery. It's a good faith gesture made by you and the dealer that you can cancel at anytime for a full refund.
2. Lexus and Toyota have never built custom orders in their entire history. They get an allocation and if one matches the one you requested at the dealership then they'll call you. Inventory shortage was never an issue before so it just looked like they built what you ordered just for you. In reality there were just a lot of cars to choose from. Not anymore.
3. The dealership is not selling you someone else's car. See #1.

My recommendation is to get on several dealership's list. Not just 1. Be prepared to travel to get a decent deal @ MSRP. I flew 800 miles to get my IS500 @ MSRP in January, despite having THREE deposits at local dealerships. Cancelled them all when I got home. It was one of the most stressful weekends ever but worth it.

 

If you didn't get a vin or VTN, you never had a car .

Toyota/Lexus don't do orders. They do allocation, dealers get whatever manufacturer gives them and they try to match what they're allocated to orders they have

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While things might well have changed since I ordered my executive trim 350h at the end of March, I was told that the top 2 trim levels could be expected to arrive within 5 months and the reality was that mine arrived in a bit less than 4 months. Other trim levels were estimated at 7-10 months back then. I'll check what they are now when I pick mine up next week.

 

I'd like to make a correction your point #2 which is partially incorrect. Let's begin by defining "custom." Lexus/Toyota have in fact never done what the Germans have done where you pick and choose every individual option regardless of whether it's a weird spec or not, nor have they allowed you to select one off paints like BMW with their Individual Paint line. They have however let you submit orders to the regional office who then passes it on to the factory as well as modify allocations. Ultimately the factory has the final say in what will or will not be built and if they deem that your specific spec / combination is a very weird spec (something like a base model with no options at all) they will outright reject your request. The common misconception is that just because you submit an order, it will be built. At the end of the day your order is nothing more than a request. As of the beginning of this year Lexus did in fact suspend all of these "custom orders" given the part shortages and how Lexus/Toyota operates on a lean manufacturing process, meaning they receive parts just in time to go into the car. You may want a car with ML and 360 camera but they may be receiving the corresponding components for each at a different time for example, and they will not hold up their production plans just to wait for both sets of components to arrive.

Your comment on the allocation is partially correct and varies by model. Certain, limited models such as the IS500 which was released during the peak of this part shortage, were always tagged with a status that prohibited custom orders from being placed to the factory. Tons of dealers took down people's orders but at the end of the day it was just merely a list of your preferences. Those who were set on a specific combination had to actively search where those cars were headed to and purchase from those dealers. For more common models, the first step a dealer will take is to try to get an allocation in their region that closely resembles your requested spec and then modify it to match your spec, assuming it is not too close to production, at which point you wouldn't be able to make changes. If nothing remotely resembles what you want or they can't modify it to what you want, it moves down to the next step which involves the regional office searching across all 4 regions and then trying swap a car from one region with another. In a way its a "I scratch your back if you scratch mine". The idea is that Customer A wants a car that the Southern region has, while Customer B wants a car that the Eastern region has, so they swap. Again, modifications can be done to these allocations to match the requested spec 100% or as close to it as possible. The final resort is the regional office submitting the request to the factory who will then try to match this request with their production plans. This is the most time consuming process as you are waiting for the factory to decide if and when they will build said vehicle. It can often times be weeks or months before the factory says that they will or won't build it. For me it took just over a month to have the order locked and confirmed.

In normal times when Lexus was doing custom orders, I would've advised customers to leave with a printed confirmation showing that their custom order was submitted to the regional office. This would be a simple paper where your car was a single line item with all the 2 digit factory option codes, 2 digit port installed option codes, 3 digit exterior color code, and 3 digit interior color code. A "contract" stating that you submitted an order would not be sufficient to guarantee that they did in fact submit your order. Some shady dealers would merely write down your preferences and then try to match you with a car in the pipeline as there are implications to submitting a request for an order. A dealer would have to give up allocations today, with the expectation that they will potentially receive a 100% matching allocation in the future. Some dealers don't really put the customer first and they rather make a sale today with a confirmed allocation, versus waiting weeks or months for a custom allocation during which time the customer may no longer want the vehicle or production plans may change. In today's times, if a dealer tells you they submitted a custom order, unfortunately they are just lying to you to try to appease you. They will all make claims that they will get you your car but there really is no guarantee. Take it from me: I ordered a Lexus IS350 before this part shortage kicked in, and since it was an actual order I got exactly what I wanted to the T. My parents however submitted a "order" for a 2022 Toyota Highlander Platinum AWD and we were promised that they would get black and caramel and after 7 months waiting they just told us the best they got was white with caramel. At the end of the day they know people will take whatever they can get due to the shortage.

 

As is further explained here.