BabyMamaCT

This is my husband's and my first shopping experience with Lexus.

We come from BMW where if you can get $100 taken off the sticker price you consider that a HUGE victory.

We are toying with the idea of trading my 2008 X5 3.0 (dark green metallic with tan leather interior w/ Nav) for a 2010 RX 350. We drove the car on a whim and honestly did not expect to seriously fall in love with it. This car has everything from Nav, vented seats, cargo net..it even comes with the cross bars for a Thule rack (which we would have to buy anyways).

Sticker price:
34.9 and the car has 25k on it. It's dark Gray with the light gray interior...really pretty combo if you ask me..in fact the lighter interior makes the vehicle seem more spacious than it actually is.

The salesman without much hesitation dropped the price of the car down to 30,000.

IS THIS NORMAL?!?!

My husband and I almost fell over.. We didn't seal any deals since they only were going to give us 20k for my Bimmer which was 3k less than they really should have so we walked out not wanting to play "the game".

Thank you!!!

kitlz

Welcome to CL. It's not unusual to get a discount with Lexus. You can read through this thread to see what people have been paying for their '13s. And that's brand new. There could be a few reasons the dealer dropped the price. My first thought, it's the end of the month and they want to get the RX off the lot. It could also be their way to make up for the low trade-in. I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you love the RX, sign on the dotted line. You wont regret it. BTW, sounds like a beautiful color combination.

ecr72

I'd be a bit concerned if they dropped the price like that prior to discussing the trade in.

Was this at a Lexus dealer? If so, is it a Certified Pre-Owned?

It's hard to get what you feel your car is worth trading it in at a dealer. They will play games with the trade-in vs. vehicle price so that could be why they dropped the RX price so much but to be honest, $3K less than "expected" on a trade in is about right in my experience. I now go to Carmax and get better offers when looking at a trade in.


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Cruiter

When I was trying to trade my 03 RX on my 2010 450h I wasn't happy with the trade quote. They came up a little but not enough. I went to Carmax and when they offered $2400 more, I said "show me the money". They did and bought the car .

BabyMamaCT

Ecr72-
Yes, this was at a dealer and it was Cert Pre Owned. That's why I was like what the...? We were also thinking of taking our X5 to Carmax just to see what they would give us as well. We did that with my 2008 Volvo XC 70 when we traded that for the X5...worked well for leverage.

deilenberg

The question you really have to ask is the difference between your current car and the new one if you're considering trading it in.

$30k sounds cheap for a 2010 CPO with those options (most of the ones I looked at about 2 months ago were in the $32-34k range and not a lot of dickering room.) I'd guess that price came up after you told them you were going to trade in the BMW and they figured to lowball you on trade-in.

You might check around a bit at some BMW dealers. There were a number in my area that had an on-line trade-in tool, with a guaranteed price for the trade-in (of a BMW against another BMW.) I printed this out and used this value to bargain with the Lexus dealer. It helped that there was a BMW dealer right across the highway, with an X3 that we were considering sitting right in the front of their lot facing the Lexus dealer. The Lexus dealer finally agreed to match the deal BMW would give us on the X3 with a trade-in after several comments by SWMBO along the lines of "we probably should go over to BMW and let me drive that one.." and pointing at the X3.

ecr72

I'm assuming it's not AWD. Their $34,900 sounds a bit high but to see them drop it almost $5K right of the ba makes it a great price for a CPO. I'd see what Carmax would give on the X5 and wither use it for leverage or sell the vehicle to Carmax and buy the RX for $30K. Now if that $30K was only valid with the trade in, then it's a whole new ballgame and as you say, you'll have to play "the game".

Good luck. Sounds like you have a nice deal working either way.


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kitlz

FWD RXs around the northeast are pretty rare. More likely it is AWD. That and being CPO would make it a pretty good deal. Only thing I'd check is if it's one of the pre-Enform models with a sunglass holder. I prefer Safety Connect and Destination Assist.

dwlink

30k sounds like a great deal for a 2010 350 with 25k miles! As long as there haven't been any accidents and its received all its scheduled maintenance, you should be fine.

We bought ours (2010 350 AWD) last August from an Audi dealer who obviously didn't know Lexus's too well as it had 36k miles and was listed for $30,800. Car has all the goodies with nav, heated/ventilated seats, xenon headlights, tow prep, backup cam, woody wheel, etc. It even had aftermarket headrests w/ the built in DVD/multimedia player.

Needless to say that when the sales lady asked if the price was OK, we agreed right away as long as the few minor dents and scratches were taken care of.

BabyMamaCT

It's absolutely AWD.

And it does indeed have the Sunglass holder...so what exactly does the mean by "pre-Emform"? I'm such a Lexus newb.

kitlz

Lexus Enform was added to RXs built from August 2009 onward. It includes Safety Connect which is similar to GM's OnStar system for emergencies and Destination Assist where you can call Lexus to find a place and have them download directions to the RX while you're driving. There is also the ability to enter destinations in your computer and download it to your RX. Annual cost ranges from $150 to $260 year based on whether you want Safety Connect alone or both Safety Connect and Destinaton Assist. You can't have Destination Assist only. The Safety Connect button replaced the sunglass holder. It's a quick way to tell whether an RX has Enform or not.

So the presence of a sunglass holder would make the RX you're looking at close to four years old and almost at the end of the basic warranty. This is probably one of the reasons the price dropped. But being CPO will cover you for a few more years and many more miles.

UCSB

Sometimes when Lexus introduces a newly redesigned vehicle they go on sale before the normal model year would normally start. This happened in 2009 with the 2010 Lexus RX. I can't remember when they started delivering the 2010's to customers (perhaps in April 2009). Because of the slow economy in 2010 the 2011's did not show up until late in 2010 (November 2010 perhaps). The result was that the 2010 model year is much longer than normal. I purchased my 2010 450h in September 2010. But, someone could have been driving one for almost a year and a half at that point. On top of that, Lexus added the Enform capability to the car after they went on sale. Enform is Lexus' subscription based service that is like On-Star on GM vehicles.

What does all of this mean? Perhaps nothing. Each used car is unique. Since the car has the sunglasses holder, it was one built before August 2009 (when they started putting Enform in the RX). The lower price may reflect the fact that regardless of the vehicles mileage, it may have been in service for longer than you expect. The lower price may also reflect the fact that it does not have the Enform system. Whenever you are buying a Lexus you can view the maintenance records. These will tell you when the car was manufactured, delivered, sold and its history. This may be a little of an overstatement, but the earliest 2010 RX's were actually purchased during what most people would have thought of as the 2009 model year.

Yurka

its pretty common i think, i got 2010 rx two weeks ago, sales rep dropped the price for about 3.5-4.5k which is really good, i got it with 17604 miles on it. i got certified pre-owned fully loaded ,car is even starts itself which is pretty cool.

ecr72

What really matters is what you paid, not what they dropped the price. Some dealers keep prices high so they can make you feel like you're getting a great deal when they lower the price. Some come at you with a "True Price" and play hardball. Most around here (Club Lexus) have not seen a Lexus dealer drop the price of a CPO by over 13% right off the bat as the OP mentioned. To compound things are regional differences where some competitive areas have the vehicles well priced right off the bat and don't have much room to move. In general though, it doesn't appear very common to see this amount of a discount on a CPO without a lot of work.

I'm curious to know the details of how your vehicle is configured, asking price and what you actually paid before tax, title, license. It may help the OP as well.

I do think the fact that this was an early build, pre-enform, is making this dealer motivated to move the vehicle. Anyone shopping around is going to ask where the SOS button is if they've seen others in person or online. What they may not understand is the expense of the system. If you don't think you'll pony up the $150-250 a year, then the sunglass holder is a nice feature to have. We wish ours had one up there since we don't subscribe to the service.



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ecr72

I wonder if all the owners of 2012 F-Sports would agree. LOL


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