We are looking to buy a 2025 RX350h premium+ AWD. With the color and options we want I don't see any close to what we want. I don't think we are going to find one. Has anyone ordered aRX350h from Lexus. About how long does it take to come in.

 

There is an allocation process (in fact, someone had posted it online when many of us here were trying to get 2023s). Unless you really want some offbeat combination, eventually a matching car/trim/color will show up on that list and if you have a deposit someplace, your dealer can maneuver to get that car assigned to them.

 

It took us about 6 weeks to wait for the right color / extra combination that we wanted to become available, then 2 month wait until final delivery. Not very efficient or customer friendly in my opinion.

 

Initially I ordered my 2024 RX350h to 'my' specs and color. After three months I gave up. The dealers don't know what they're getting until 3 or 4 weeks before it arrives, or so I was told. I'm in AZ. I thought of buying from a CA dealer but they ALL wanted a $5k surcharge for the privilege of buying any color or model combination I would be remotely happy with. No surprise, hybrids are very popular in CA.
F-that!!

I ended up buying a car in NC and driving it home. The East Coast was the easier to deal with and there were no "shortages" of hybrids as I was told by CA, TX and AZ dealerships. I almost gave up completely and bought a Range Rover instead! As problematic as those cars can be, there was no shortage of models to chose from.

 

Lexus would deliver them tomorrow if it could. Supply and demand. They can only build so many, so fast. You are wanting a highly in-demand vehicle which generally means higher prices and longer wait times to get the exact configuration you want.

 

They also (Lexus) enjoy the constrained supply model, not a ton of wiggle room on price. The days of going to a lot and seeing 300 news cars are pretty much gone, at least around here. Very very few end of the year massive discount situations, it's not what they want.

I heard a radio ad the other day for a Toyota dealer saying they had 65 Tacomas for sale. Sounded preposterous to me, so I got on their web site...I think 50 were "in production," a dozen or so were "in transit," so maybe they had three on the lot.

 

The dealers use satellite off premises lots to hide their inventory now. The largest Lexus dealer near me has 11 350hs in stock.

If you want to see big inventory - the largest Land Rover dealer near me has 88 Range Rover Sports in stock. 88. That's a $100K+ vehicle, imagine carrying that floor plan.

 

I never heard of "satellite off premises" inventory. Sneaky b-tards. But no, there is no wiggle room on price on these. Even buying cross country they knew they had me over a barrel so I paid sticker price.
My last LEXUS was the GX460. Not as capable as Range Rivers but it could do off-roading in style. I miss that. The 350 RXh is strictly a city-car.

 

Oh yes, around long island - the shopping mall parking lots are filled with new cars. The big malls have large unused parking grounds, so the dealers lease them and store their inventory there. And they have satellite lots in other places as well.

 

I placed my order with a deposit and the dealer told me to expect 6 month wait. It arrived just as I ordered after 5 months.

 

For those of you who have reserved a Lexus RX with a deposit, did you get to negotiate the price of the car? Or was it basically this is the price of the car, take it or leave it. And its usually the MSRP?

 

we gave a deposit on a car that was coming in about 8 weeks later. 63k msrp bought for about 61k. They said no haggle on a hybrid, I said bye bye and they wouldn't let me leave.

 

Both our 23 NX and 24 RX left deposit with credit card which they did not charge. Negotiated the price when it came in.

 

The fact that they can't easily custom order a car is an issue with their ordering system, how the specs flow through to the factory. BMW is the best I have experienced, you can custom order anything you want with a few weeks lead time to the build, and track the car from Germany all the way to your dealer. Toyota simply hasn't invested in that kind of system, which is why it takes 5-6 months.

 

I believe this is not a "bug" but a "feature" in Toyota/Lexus process/systems - "lean" processes to keep costs lower. In other words, accommodating customer-ordered customizations lead to more complexity in the manufacturing and supply-chain. They have to keep inventory and/or have smooth flow of all possible parts, if they don't keep pre-set and predictable customizations to the cars - therefore the customizations are "boilerplate" decided by Toyota/Lexus ahead of time. Hence Toyota/Lexus are cheaper than comparable "luxury" brands like BMW, Audi, Mercedes - for almost equivalent features.

Did I love my Audi's exactly customized purchase ? Yes.

Did I love my Audi's reliability and ownership experience and costs ? Hell, no.

So I swallowed the fact that Lexus sold me those "illuminated door sills" or "Triple-beam headlights" when I couldn't care less for them, because Lexus configure the car for me. Matter of trade-offs. They also sell in volume and there is much demand, so they don't feel any pressure to do otherwise.