Lexaus

As we all know, when a new model hits the market it comes to supply and demand... If we look to the past it will show us the future.. If you wait you can and will get your discount... Brighton tend to stand firm Melbourne a little easier.. Blackburn new to the lexus team are hungry for a position.. Wyndam was the place to buy, alais no more.. my suggestion wait if you can...... I agree, which is why Blackburn will earn marketshare and the arrogance of Brighton will be its downfall

What some companies will do to increase sales. The word on the street is Lexus of Brighton flew in "two deal closers" from the USA to negotiate with clients who showed interest in the purchase on a weekend where they had to lift their quota. (a few weeks back). The bottom line was about half a dozen bought from the yanks (ie: were bullied into the sale) and more than a dozen walked away disgruntled by the hard sell. I can't believe Lexus corporate would approve of such a technique. It is extremely bad form and bad business. Does anyone else have further info on this?

Anyone know yet what RX350 models will be available and what price they are coming in at?

Any figures for 06 yet and how do the dec 05 figures breakdown across the 3 models?

Hi Lexaus What is your current ride? I'm still with a IS200 because I can't find anyone in Lexus Melbourne or Brighton who seems to have a brain capacity capable of comphrending how to keep a previous customer happy. While a fan of the cars, I am not a fan of their customer service. The way people who have $80k to spend and can't get a deal are treated is laughable. That being said, I seem to have come across one honest salesman at Blackburn who is prepared to work through my issues (and hey this is 80k it aint chicken feed) and I suspect within the next month or so he will get the business. I'm happy to raise my offer in 06 for an 06 plated car but buying a 05 car in November 05 or worse still in 06 is like ripping up bills in the shower. The problem with the November release ... that car lost maybe $6k in tradein value. If you bought an 05 in Nov 05, it lost a grand aweek. If you bought an 05 plated car in Jan or Feb 06, it was already worth 6k less than you paid purely on plate date. Did someone say I was a BMW salesman earlier? Thats funny. No, sorry to disappoint. I'm just a previous Lexus owner looking out for the bull*BLEEP* sales pitch I got with the last buy. What a shame Lexus sales people have such a terrible reputation.

Ha, I can assure you that I am very much a buyer, not a salesman but funnily enough got told by a Lexus dealer to go t BMW cause "you'll be back". Unknown to me at the time, he quoted a higher speced BMW against the Lexus IS250 I was after to buy. What a sneaky trick. As a consumer, my personal liking is the IS250 but I won't fo a deal based on emotion. It has to be a good deal or they can F off. It does concern me that Lexus sales people have to revert to such tactics to get a sale but in my experience, sales service does not improve with the cost of a car. In fact, in my dealings, I've found the more expensive a car, the more arragant the sales person and the lesser the market share, the more desperate the salesman. In this area, Lexus sales people are well below the pecking order of BMW, Merc and Audi and therefore need to be treated by the consumer accordingly. Me a salesman? Ha, ludicrous. But you do come across as a Lexus salesman trying to justify his existence.

I too have not seen many on the road which is not a good sign. Car dealers often say the more cars on the road, the more they will sell. People seem to trust volume. Lexus seems to have a problem in Australia with the IS250 and that is because it is way over-priced in this market compared to the rest of the world. While the price remained stable in the upgrade from 200 to 250 in other markets, for some reason Lexus Australia thought they could get away with a fairly sizeable price increase. I've heard their misreading of the market has seriously impacted on the initial sales.

I'm interested to hear any examples of the flexibility of Melbourne's Lexus dealers when it comes to negotiations. Melbourne has four - City, Werribee, Blackburn and Brighton. Do they all operate independently or is there a cross over in ownership with any of the franchises? My experience with the ones I've dealt with is that they will jump at the chance to bad mouth the other dealers with very little prompting. Is any one of them better known for doing the deal that the others and if so ... who?

The RX was the previous "no room to negotiate" model. A friend of mine just bought one last week in Melbourne and surprise, surprise, managed to negotiate it down around $10,000 from the on-road price from just 4 months ago. We aren't talking Picassos here. We are talking a mass market car with a premium price tag for Australia. There is a lot of room for Lexus to move with the 250 and if they don't, it is because they won't, not because they can't.

The BMW sat nav interacts with the iPod to bring your playlist up on the Sat Nav screen. I see IS250 also has an iPOD jack. Is it as functional as the BMW?

I, unfortunately, got nowhere with Brighton, and as a previous customer took my business elsewhere. Beware the sales people who will "sell you are car" instead of letting you "buy a car". There is a big difference. You are doing this for your satisfaction, not their commission and I found Brighton to have inexperienced sales people who were only interested in closing the deal and had little interest in my needs. Having a salegirl actually say to me, the customer, that she "likes it when Asians come in because she can sell them anything" turned me right off. Also beware of the closing date of a deal. My previous car through Brighton was meant to be delivered in the first week of the month. The sales guy had the car (and lease) registered in the last week of the previous month to beef up his commission for that month. That had consquences for me later that I was not aware of at the time. Also, that old chestnut that you are "making an investment"... what a load of rubbish. All cars depreciate and with Lexus and the new IS250, on the sports luxury expect to loose $20k as you drive it out the door and a total of $50k in the next 4 years. That is fact. Given that they are not discounting right now is all a matter of supply and demand. It works the same with seats on a plane. Right now demand exceeds supply but after a few calls to some insiders at Lexus I learned that Lexus currently has problems with the Aus dollar vs the Yen and that they "aren't selling many cars right now because of it". That should be useful when negotiating price. The $85k IS250 is worth $65k as soon as it walks out the door. The $85k IS250 is worth $30k if you keep it for 4 years. Also top of the range IS250 in the USA is driveaway US $38k or around $55k AUD. Driveaway top of the range UK price is $65k AUD. Australia is about $20k overpriced compared to the rest of the world which is ridiculous considering they all come from the same place. Lexus it would appear has inflated the price of the IS250 in Australia to create a perception that it is equal to a BMW. However, as nice as it is as a car, it is still a Toyota and mechanically nowhere near a BMW in performance. Just some food for thought.