2013 and earlier Lexus IS 250 / IS 350 Prices Paid and Buying Experience

bhuwan

Boston MA area.
Wilde in Florida offered +690 higher than the pricing aobve.

carnivore1

I called the dealership where I ordered my IS350 and told them of the deal I could get at Wilde. They said that deal was crazy and they weren't going to go below MSRP. I gave them the opportunity to match and they wouldn't move. SEE YA! Told them to tear up my deposit check and ordered the car through Wilde and saved $2500. As was posted before the internet salesman at Wilde was very competent and friendly. No hassles! Would recommend them. I figured out what the dealership that I originally oredered the car from stood to lose. They wouldn't give me the $2500 off, but now that I am not buying the car, they lost $2500 in profit over the invoice of the car. Knuckleheads.

outwest1

It will cost between $1000 and $1300 to ship the car to Washington State.

Good Luck.

spyder52

Hello everyone, I've read many of your emails regarding frustrations in dealing with the so called "dealers" with poor customer service in non-competitive markets. I have seem folks getting upset too quickly, haven't think it through on strategies, and too willing to cave in. Any deal is possible but you must overcome these weak emotions.

Here are my thoughts:

First, you need to understand ANY deal is possible given the right time and place with the right sales person. Secondly, I would highly recommend you don't waste time with an idiot sales person or dealer, if your initial feeling is this is not a decent place to do business with. You will know this simply by observe how they treat you the minute you walk in the dealer. Are you respected or abused? If an idiot salesman talks like a jackass with clue why would you deal with him. Hint: WALK and get a different sales person. If the dealer is rotten, WALK, always have a back up plan and secondary choice of car on your list. Do not act like a wuss and drool all over the car, the larger you hang around the car they see you are completely under the spell, ask yourself why would they give a SUCKER a good price? No need, the car is pratically selling itself. Don't worry we all make this mistake.

This is what you do, get your finance in order, walk in, pick a car you like. Know your dealer invoice (true cost), forget all the BS, and decide WHAT YOU WANT TO PAY, not what the sales idiot trying to ask you to pay, remember NEVER trust a salesman he is out to making a killing. Simply write down the figure you want to pay give to the person who you feel respect you. Now, you are done! Ready to walk do not sit and wait, get your stuff get up be on your way. Do let them know here's the best offer, you are ready to make a move NOW. If they come back say NO, ask if he is sure, if they give you BS, ignore, and repeat your offer ask to speak to Sales Manager directly. Any decent dealer will immediately have a manager come over, if they refuse, this is NOT the dealer or the game you can handle. Do not play with the player, house always wins in this situation. Anyway, when a manager come over, repeat your offer, do not ask what they will offer, this gives away your desperation to buy and you won't get a good pricing at all. Let the sales manager tell you what's up, he is either going to tell you no, which is by the way dumbest move by turning down a profit on the table for the sake of pride. Or he may give a counter offer, if you get a counter offer, tell the dealer to leave you alone so you can review. Decide, go with your gut feeling also your research work. If their offer is nowhere near what you offered, WALK, decide later. The biggest mistake in business is making a quick decision, which is by the way what dealer love you to do. If you are unsure, WALK and then think about it. Go see other cars, take you mind of it for awhile.

Bottomline, deal with dealer tough but fair. Don't insult them, unless they give you in your face lies. In that case, make it clear you've been give BS you don't appreciated and tell that sales idiot you will not deal with him.

IS pricing will come down, it's a matter of time, it will happen sooner rather than later. Keep in mind today's economy will recovered from still weak, people don't just have free cash to throw away so make your dealer earn it.

Right now dealer is experiencing renewed interest on a newly designed car with positive review, production simply hasn't caught up, so few are on the lot, however, it will change soon as factories ramp up production. Once you see several local dealer have 20-30 IS on the lot they will try to move them. But forget about dealing when they have 4-5 IS on the lot and 10 pairs of young couples checking out the car every 5 minutes.

It's all about timing, your preparness to strike a deal, and your willing to deal hard but fair. Once you make dealer realize you are fair in what you offer, and they decline, it would be obvious to both parties that they simply don't want to deal. If they don't then punish them by your most powerful tool, MAKE THEM WAIT for your sale or tell them they are not flexible and they lost your business for GOOD.

In my mind, IS is worth at least 1k off base model and more off top model. This is NOT a limited production car, and simply isn't good enough of a car to justify MRSP. Very few car can get MRSP, mostly driven by hype than actual value. Mini is proably one of very few cars can demand MRSP.

I also recommend you cross shop BMW 3s, sometimes it's about who treat you the best. My local So Cal BMW dealer told me they would offer discount on 3s, I like their attitude even though I know 3s has been out awhile longer than the IS.

Hope this helps! YOu can always get the deal you want, if you REALLY want it. By cave in to dealer's BS is not the way to go.

nadiyah

Hello, I'm glad that I stumbled upon this forum as it is both interesting and informative.

My question, I recently got a quote from a local dealer here in Las Vegas for a IS350 w/Nav for $39,909. They want $3,500 down for a lease payment of $600 per month for 48 months? I think I can get a better deal, or does this sound reasonable? Anyone know of any dealerships dealing on the west coast?

spyder52

I never quite understand how anyone can justify a deal like this. First, lease is NEVER a good deal, never, you can't afford the car, you are renting a luxury car at VREY high cost without ownership. YOu are better off buying it if you can afford it. To me if you can afford the lease terms you can probably buy it at same rates.

Your down payment of $3500 plus lease payment of $28800 over 48 months is $32300 total, that's a little less than the near $40K MRSP (assume it's MRSP).

Here's the kicker, milage limitation, penalty, NO ownership, plus a high residual value. You are probably looking at about 20K to buy it at the end.

Lease is horrible horrible deals for anyone who wants something now, you'd better offer get yourself a starbucks coffee instead.

To get the previliage of dricing a luxury car, you are willing to pay well over sticker pricing if you buy at the end or pay about 80% of price to drive 10K miles a year, so you can turn it in later instantly not have to deal with resale. Makes no sense!

If you buy a lexus you will have no problem selling it later. It will sell in a day!

If you can't afford a couple hundred more a month in payment to buy, then trust me you can't afford it. Not trying to offend anyone here, speaking strictly myself, I would be embrassed if I am driving something I can't afford.

c0ttager

For the forum's reference:

http://wardsauto.com/ar/auto_early_lexus_sales/index.htm

alexwalex1

Here in CT, I went to Lexus dealer in Hartford to just check IS out and ended up negotiating a bit. Well, I was lucky they had one IS 250 with 6 speed manual trasnmission which I test drove. I liked it a lot, but my lease is not up for 3 more months, so my negotiation was more for fun. It ended with an offer to lease this $32K and change car (MSRP) for $350/month, 12K miles a year, total $3000 down, which I would not have agreed upon even if I needed a car that day, but the selling price on the lease (gross cap cost) was $28,400 (essentially at invoice) and I could buy at this price too. Too bad it was a bit too early for me, but I felt almost like buying since I did not expect them to sell the car at the invoice essentially. I doubt they would have given me the same price if I was shopping for an automatic.

stickguy

you still might have been ahead of the game buying it now, and just paying off the remaining lease. It seems odd that they were offering you invoice. If true, and you were paying about 300/month now, look at it as buying 3 months from now for 1K over invoice, and having 2 ccars for 3 months!

Sure the 28.4 wasn't after the cap cost reduction?

intence

Keep in mind that many of those sales would have been people on had put deposits on the IS, so the initial spike should be high, and should level off.

I'm not sure what Toyota's timeline is, but there are two plants capable of producing the new IS, Tahara and Kyushu. From what i've heard Kyushu may be acting as an overflow plant. I'm not sure if it's online yet for full IS production, but once both plants are churning out the IS at full capacity, I don't think there'll be any problems meeting demands (and consequently getting better pricing on the IS).

chrisaz

While I agree with your view of leasing from a personal standpoint, leasing is the only way to go if you are doing it through your company - the tax benefits can't be beat on a lease.

[Deleted User]

Has anyone in Texas received a car from Wilde (Sarasota). If so, what were you charged for shipping from FL to TX?
Also, how did you work out your taxes?

wantrx330

I just signed up for a IS250 RWD auto with premium package no Nav for $31,300 plus tax,title.

What do you think? Is this pretty competitive pricing?

alexwalex1

You are right, may be I should have gotten it though it was blue color that I was not crazy about and I haven't looked at all my possibilities yet for next vehicle.
Yeap, pretty sure that it was the selling price since sales manager had me in the office and was showing me the computer screen with all the details. Obviously $3000 down included some cap cost reduction in it, but I swear $28.4K was their buttom line ( and we started the process from $420 a month with the same total $3000 down). I am currently driving 2003 MB C230 Coupe that I got for $300 a month on $3500 trade-in and that payment is hard to beat, you know.

[Deleted User]

I beg to differ... There is a substantial amount of $s diverted that you can invest to earn a minimum 12% or better. Additonally, one may not want to keep the car beyond two or three years.
Smart people let their money make money... it's not about what you can afford but how little out of pocket you can work with so that you can put the rest of your money to better use. And let us not forget the tax benefits of leasing...

christosintpa

Personally, I'd be more embarassed by poor spelling and poor financial savy.

bhuwan

Special Ordered the car for an OTD of 41,500;
now the 3 month wait :-)

spyder52

You just gave perhaps the biggest piece of non-sense from a saleman. Making minimum of 12% or better, may be in a strong bull market with everyone buying stocks. Reality check most people would be happy with 6-8% return over lifetime of their investment. What you say may be true on business investments but when comes to buying a car, sounds like money is tight for you and you just CAN'T afford it. Tax benefits only make sense for company lease cars not personal. You would lost all the money including down payment and monthly plus penalty on a lease car, NONE of it goes toward your equity, so say at the end of a 3 year lease on IS you've paid 33K total, how much 12% return would you need to make the 33K back in investment?
Do you work at the dealer at a saleperson? No one is going to fall for your logic. YOu are dreaming if you think you can make 12% consistently in this market when many are shorting stocks.

spyder52

Oh yes sorry I was trying make my points and typed to quickly but my points are valid and sound. You lease right, fine, you can't afford the car then.

Anyone savy would not lease, that's a fact. You should read some articles on lease youself. You made your point come across real clear, it says I am poor and can't afford the car but still want to pretend like I can afford it.

david1973

Leases can make sense in a few cases other than business use. If you trade ever 3 years, if the lease is subsidized by the manufactor by a low money factor/inflate residual and no option for rebate, and so on. Articles on leasing are pretty clear about spelling out the pluses and minuses. In general leases are more expensive but you get slightly more flexibility.

jmos27

I just picked up my white IS 350 today from Tri-State Lexus. The MSRP on the car was $43,589 including destination. The options the car had were: Headlamp washers, Luxury package, Navigation, Intuitive parking, Preferred accessory package. My disounted price was $39,250. I dealt Mohammed from the internet department and feel I gor a great car at a great price. They even gave me over book value for my trade-in. Just about all the legwork was done by email and by the phone. Good luck.

dhamilton

I'm trying to compose myself and come up with rebuttal, However i can't stop laughing at your hilarious spelling.
I take it you graduated with a degree in finance? Is your name in the back of your underwear typed or sewn?
Your posts say I'm poor and can't afford spell check, but you pretend like you don't need it.

[Deleted User]

Have you taken delivery of an IS from Wilde of Sarasota? If so, I would be curious to know what you paid in shipping charges to Texas.

intence

Let's end the leasing vs. financing vs. purchasing outright debate. I'm sure we all have our opinions, but let's keep the focus on the overall price of the new IS. Who is getting great deals, and who is offering MSRP. I think that's the real information we're all after

digcon442

I apologize for no directly responding to your question but I wanted post this to any IS buyers in the bay area. I put a deposit on a fully loaded IS 350 in white at Serramonte Lexus is Daily City. I went back to pick up my car they was so hard to find (according to them) and there were 3 white IS 350 on the lot.

While my wife went for a test drive the sales manager grabs me and says lets talk numbers. Not giving him any information on myself I let him go ahead and tell me what he can do. He comes up with a monthly price of $750 a month and says its a great deal. Who is this stupid to believe this? Then I say what if I put 6K down and he says then it drops to $658? They must really think I am stupid. Then he starts talking about how this car is hot and its going to go right now. I remind him there is a factory in Japan pumping them out by the hour and tell him he is ripping me off. The moral is don't buy from Lexus of Serramonte. I am actually going to contact Lexus corporate and complain about them. He also told me know one buys Audi A4s (which I own and they out number old IS 8 to 1 in the bay area where I live). He told me Infinitis are bad and no one wants them when I mentioned my FX35 payment is less than $550.

Just don't deal with these people. They are crooks. :lemon:

nadiyah

Thus far I have received two quotes. The 1st was from Lexus of Las Vegas, a lease, for $600 per month, $3500 down, and 15,000 miles per year.The second was from Lexus of Riverside, $620 per month, $698 down, and $12,000 miles per year. Both were for IS 350's with Navigation. Problem is I have an Audi A4 as well that I need to get out of...=)

jc7098

Looks like you got an excellent deal on your 350 compared to what most are being offered. It looks like some dealers value their customers and others try to rip them off. I picked up my 250 yesterday from Sarasota and it was a great experience. They gave me a fair offer on my trade-in as well.

lefty4

Can Carman or anyone who has recently leased a 250 AWD let me know the money factor and residual for both a 36 month 15k miles and 18k miles for the month of December. Thanks in advance.

I dropped by the local dealer and was offered 595 per month with 15k miles per year with $1,750 upfront and 635 per month for 18k with $1,750 upfront (upfront money includes first month). The MSRP was $38,119 and the car was only being discounted $500.

I probably need the 18k miles per month but paying over $600 per month for a <$40k car seems crazy to me.

tonyguy2000

Have anyone in Texas taken delivery of an IS from Wilde of Sarasota? If so, can you tell what the shipping charge to Texas were?

Thanks in advance, Tony

audball

tonyguy2000, both dallasrunner and I have placed special orders with Wilde, but we're both a couple/few months away from delivery (standard lead time on special orders is 60-90 days, and we ordered mid/late November). I haven't seen any other posts on this forum that indicate others in TX who have ordered from Wilde...

tonyguy2000

Hi Audball.

They didn't tell you the shipping charges in advance?

Thanks.

audball

Nope. I got the impression the salesman would shop around the various couriers closer to delivery. I Google'd quite a few, and the price from Sarasota to Austin is around $800 for open transport. I'm hoping I can find something more economic before the vehicle arrives (maybe get a discount if dallasrunner and I get our cars onto the same carrier to the same destination), but even if I don't, Wilde's OTD price is way better than I can get locally within 300 miles.

[Deleted User]

Are you charged you any other fees besides shipping/delivery, tax, title and tags? Can you provide additional details?

five0_4tluv

Sewell in Dallas told us that shipping from Dallas to Austin would be $500. he said it's not the distance (?) but the space on the truck that they charge for.

1-way ticket to Sarasota is almost $300 and you'd get to drive the car all the way back.. i'm not sure what we are going to do, no dealer in Tx that we spoke with will sell under MSRP and will probably have to order.

dabigman

$650 shipping for my car from Sarasota as quoted by Wilde. I would guess the fee has a flat portion which is adjusted upwards by distance.

I can;t believe that none of the dealers in Texas are budging. I had deals set up in Indiana, California, and Florida....

audball

$500 from Dallas to Austin sounds about right -- that's exactly what I was quoted a few years back when I was thinking of purchasing an Infiniti G35C.

As for the fly-and-drive-back option, be sure you factor in incidental costs (gas stops, hotels if you're not driving 24 hours straight, etc.), and PTO you have to take from work etc.

Additionally, engine break-in is best performed with *varying* RPMs/load, not constant freeway motoring. Do you want to deal with varying your speed and/or gears all the way back to ensure proper break-in? (I did when I bought my MINI from Dallas, and won't do it again -- just not my cup of tea...)

intence

I'm in the same boat as everyone else in Texas, the local dealers will not budge from MSRP, and if they won't give me the price I want to pay (when I know others are getting it) then i'll buy from a dealer that will.

Audball, you mention factoring in the costs, that's a valid point. I was thinking that if I order in the spring, and pick up the car in Sarasota, it might turn out to be a nice short vacation ... Drive around the Tampa area for a few days (nice varying speeds) sightsee, go to the beach, etc. Then enjoy the car on the way back. Probably makes more sense to just have it shipped, but a trip to Florida in the spring sounds like fun too

mista662

Anyone in CA found a dealer that is going under MSRP? I oredered my loaded 350, and would like to pay less that sticker if possible when it gets here, so if I know of other CA dealers going under MSRP it may give me a slight edge when I take order of my car.

truckasaurus

I just ordered an IS350 from Lexus of Austin and they were prepared to deal. I got $1250 off sticker.

kyfdx

Do not post your e-mail address in your post.. If you want your e-mail address to be available, click on Preferences on the left hand side of the page, and mark it as "public".

But, don't ask for any information that isn't allowed to be posted in the forums.. or your post will be deleted.

Thanks,
kyfdx
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audball

Truckasaurus, do you think there was anything special about your situation that helped you get a decent discount, when the odds have been against others who have tried? (E.g. did you take a vehicle off the lot, have a trade-in, push the "December to Remember" event, etc.)?

dl7265

I would recommend Fort Desoto Beach :shades: , sure will be a long drive back home though.

DL

nadiyah

">You guys seem to be very knowledgeable in terms of money factors. Where can I find this information, or if you could tell me how often it changes? The lowest possible? And the current factor through Lexus Financial?

truckasaurus

It was a special order. It doesn't get here until feb 06. I knew the sales guy from previous car purchases and he plays fair. I certainly played up the "December to Remember" thing and exchanged emails for a few days until I got what I wanted.

icp_professor

Just got a quote for a base IS 250 with Automatic Transmission in Desert Sage Metallic with Black Leather - $30,899 plus applicable fees, which is $850 below MSRP. I am not sure if I should go for it or wait for another 2 weeks. My goal is $1000 over invoice. Is it realistic?

ricky6

I just bought an is 350 for $1000 under MSRP in Austin that is in transit. I checked all over Texas and no one would discount at all.

rxmedicine

I was just curious due to incentives through my company I work for...with a lexus dealer in the dfw area...I can purchase any lexus for between 3 to 5 % above invoice price...would that be reasonable for a lexus is????

kyfdx

Try asking your lease questions here:

Lexus IS 250/IS 350: Lease Questions

regards,
kyfdx
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rockylee

Park Place Lexus in Dallas ?????

Rocky

kenbt

Can you tell me how you liked the Desert Sage Metallic Color?

I was planning on getting the same color... but I have not
seen it in person or at a local lexus dealer near me in San Pedro, CA.