saff_cossie

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.

You should post it earlier mate. <_<

My IS came from there and echo entirely what you have just written. Every comment I can relate to and was given the same speels. A lot of initial problems caused by poor sales people but fortunately the car has made up for my poor experience with them. B)

Hi all

Just a post to say Hi and introduce myself. I am live Bayside in Melbourne and drive an IS200. I dont drive it much and have owned it a year. Not really sure whether to hang on to it or sell it so have joined this forum and the US one to see if I can get some inspiration for it. I found lextasy.com earlier in the year which seems to have a very good selection of bits and pieces.

Cheers :)