coolsaber

If your in the market for an L, I`d wait till the inventory levels go up. Its a sellers market right now with supply being soo loow

jhook16

I can completely agree with this. Gave up on the Chicago dealers (the two you mentioned plus Naperville) and ended up buying in Dallas. Brookfield was a very close second, and I almost spent a little more to go with them in exchange for less hassle traveling. Not sure of your experience with them but I also felt treated better by them than my own local dealer - that alone would make the deal for me.

mitigator

Looking to purchase a new 2018 Lexus RX 350 with Executive Package. The Lexus Dealer in Manitoba, Canada -there is only one dealer- has agreed to go with a 5% markup on dealer invoice which is approx $65K - MRSP is $72K. However the dealer wants an additional $1100.00 for the mandatory Cargo Mat as well as including free pickup and delivery for warranty work - they call it Valet Services. I know the rear cargo mat is only worth $179.00, my question is, is the Valet Services worth the Dealer marking up the price an extra $1100.00? Do other Lexus Dealers also charge an extra $1100.00 for these Valet Services or is this a way for them to claw back more cash?

jaymk

They are definitely trying to make it up for the discount they are offering off the MSRP.
If there is only one Lexus dealer in your vicinity, that can make things a little difficult to negotiate.
Just for knowledge, try to contact other closest dealerships through internet department and see what they have to offer.
Atleast you will be able to compare and make a decision.
Thank You.

mitigator

Thanks for the reply jaymk. The brochure for the Valet Services states: "We will pick up your Lexus from your home or work, service it and drop it off when complete". It also states its completely free for life!! Unfortunately this Dealership is located in a Huge Automall with 9 other Dealers way on the outskirts of the city here and is a 45 minute drive for me, so maybe that's a reasonable price to pay for the lifetime of ownership of my RX?? That's a big difference from my Toyota Dealership which is just 8 minutes away where I purchased my Venza that I'm trading in 9 years ago!

jaymk

Just for reference, we dropped my wife's Lexus to a dealership that is 2 hours away for service and they delivered it back to her work place next day. No charge.
It's whatever that makes you feel comfortable. Just be very careful of the dealer's tactics to get extra money out of your pocket.
Also get to know their extra charges like dealer fees etc.
Thank You.

coolsaber

Tell em, you`d like to pass on the cargo mat, and valet services but give the old johnny if they agree on the 65K + taxes and title.

Whatevrr those services are, its some ingenuity at work at increasing dealer profits

nukezero

Just got a new 2018 Lexus RX350 FWD MSRP $55914 and got the cap cost as $50,000 even. That's 10.57% off MSRP. That was the best I could find in socal. Nobody could beat that. Car had 3 miles on the clock with the plastic white sheet all over the exterior. I could tell that nobody test drove the car. I'm happy with that. A true virgin car.

I went to Longo El Monte and they were SHADY AF with the numbers. Newport and Tustin were MUCH more upfront when they simply told me, sorry, we can't beat that, just go get it from them. Sounds good to me!

frazierwa

Did you lease or buy? If it was a lease, could you tell us your MF (money factor) and residual percent?

nukezero

We're leasing to buy because buying would have been 2.9-3.9% spread across 5-6 years. Whereas leasing gets us the lower rent charge for the first 3 years, then we're going to pay off the balance with earnings from stock and avoid interest altogether. Calculate your entire cost of the car after a 5 year finance loan and then calculate it if you lease for 3 years + 3 yr refinance at a different bank the remaining value. You should come out on top with the overall total cost.

MF was .00065 or 1.56% at both the shady dealership and the dealership we bought from. It's rare for MF to be significantly different from dealer to dealer as this is set by the bank.
Residual was 59% for 10K miles or 58% for 12K miles. This comes out to about $559 for 3 years, divided by 6000 more miles = 9.3 cents more per mile to pay after 30k miles. Good price when you pay up front so we took the 58% residual hit.

BTW, my belief is that this is Lexus. It's very reliable, unlike a BMW (which I owned a twin turbo N54 335i in the past). If you don't buy the car afterwards, it's a waste of money. Buying it and then driving it for a few more years gives you more value as the depreciation curve slows down at the 4th to 6th year mark. At that point, you can sell it private party for a good deal and your total cost per mile over the time of the vehicle will be better than the numbers in the 3 year lease. Of course, if you hate the car, then yeah you take the hit and turn it in.

We also looked at a 2017 model that was loaded to the bones with triple LED which I really liked. But the MSRP was $59K. Cap would be $51.5K and residual on that was 53% which I thought was crap! The MF however was superb at .00001 or 0.024% but then you get screwed on the much lower residual and still the cap cost was too high even though it was 13.2% off MSRP. Payments came out to even higher than 2018 above. The only way to win this one was to get the car at $46-47K but I doubt the republican dealer was going to let it go, that's why it's sitting on the lot for a year.

frazierwa

I was going to compliment you on such a thorough and thoughtful analysis... but then I read this:
Now I know your reasoning is quite likely flawed.

nukezero

frazierwa

I don't get it

nukezero

I see that you're from Colorado. That's why you didn't get my joke. Southern California is divided between the GOP and liberals in certain counties. South Orange County (where i live) is predominantly pro-GOP, thus pro-Trump. The median household income is also much higher. Los Angeles County is more democrat and more blue. Hence, the dealership I bought from is in that area. Basically, I meant to say that the dealerships in the GOP counties were unwilling to budge on price; which is understandable because orange county has a higher living cost. The LA county dealerships are more negotiable.

Relax. It's a political joke. Nothing to get upset over.

Enjoy shopping for your car.

frazierwa

Not upset in the least. It looked like a capricious 'cheap shot' initially (lower case 'r,' and all), but I now understand your reference. I am a refugee from So Cal so I understand the demographics well and have selected dealerships there based on locale, but the political spin I had not heard previously.