Real Reason For The Delay Of The Rx400h

[LexRexBlue]

For months we've been listening to Lexus tell us that the reason for the delay of the RX 400h was to produce enough cars to avoid the backlog that occurred with the Prius. I accepted this, thinking that this would mean my car would arrive sooner. Yet when the 15th of April arrived the car was indeed delayed again. The dealers who were expecting cars didn't receive them. I was told that they arrived in CA and were being trucked or on freight trains to the east. So, why were they late again. Now, at the dealership I've learned that they have some cars designated to arrive on boats, and others to be MADE in Japan. In other words, they haven't built all the cars yet!!!

Reading reviews of the car, I did get the feeling that there were issues and I believe that they have taken care of some of these issues, but what was the reason for the delay? I wish Lexus was more truthful with us.

[patt]

It is hard to know when one is getting the truth. Here is what I was told:

Toyota/Lexus is being very careful because they don't want problems to show up after introduction that hurt the reputation of the car. A couple months ago, they found some problem (not specified to me exactly what the problem was). They fixed that. Then very recently they found a fit and finish problem with a dash board component that was standing slightly proud instead of sitting flush as it should. There was rework that had to be done to fix the problem.

The old plan would have shipped cars over to stockpile a bit so they could all be distributed and appear at the dealers in a nice simultaneous introduction. With that final problem, they ended up holding the cars in Japan while it was resolved.

Now that it is resolved, the logistics of arranging for the shipping capacity needed are slowing arrivals. The salesman claimed that the high cost of fuel was also interfering as they were trying to stick to the more economical ships. Supposedly, they have a big stockpile of cars over in Japan now in queue to get over here.

Except for the last thing about fuel cost, that all sounds plausible to me. I've been there from the development engineer side. The last niggling little bug that has to be resolved before product release. I can picture the meetings. It is a minor defect but people paying $50,000 and change for the car are going to expect it to be perfect. I'm glad I wasn't in the shoes of the guys who had to solve the problem. Once the problem was resolved, the logistics of shipping have to be tough - They have the cars made, they want to collect the money, but there is a bottle neck of ships, customs, car carriers, etc. to get them to the buyer.

But given that they have the cars made, storing them somewhere is probably costing money, there is the time value of money tied up in inventory, and these cars are going to sell for MSRP, it seems like they would be willing to pay some extra fuel costs to get the cars delivered and sold. So the one detail about "high cost of fuel" delaying things hurt the salesman's credibility with me a bit (by the way, this was not a salesman from the local dealership where I expect to buy my car).

My car is in the country having come in at a port about a day's travel from here so it is suppose to show up by Friday. Apparently even the logistics of arranging car carriers for 400 mile drives is bogging things down.

I'll be interested to hear what others were told.

[Husker4theSpurs]

In the past we'd heard something about having problems keeping the batteries cool.

[RX400h]

The only thing I was told was that my vehicle is due to arrive on April 25th, nothing more, nothing less. Any other info I gathered came from the internet and magazine articles.

[cruznroadking]

I was told by a friend that works at a Lexus dealer that the 400h was originally suppose to debut in March. However due to high interest in the new GS epecially for the AWD in the East Coast where winter lasts until April they decided to ramp up the plants for the GS's first. This delayed introduction of the RX. I heard also that there was an issue with a cosmetic trim piece on the RX which caused another delay,possibly the dash issue. Lexus had to wait for this vendor to reproduce all these pieces before the cars could be shipped. As Patt mentioned for $50,000 you want the car to be perfect & i'm sure this is what Lexus is striving for.

[SeaDuck79]

I'd rather wait for a perfect car than have a flawed one on the date I was told I could have it. I see too often in the software world the push toward delivering whatever it looks like on X date, rather than waiting until a release free of major bugs is ready, and anyone who even uses software does as well. Don't you wish Microsquash was quality driven vs. market driven? Why would you want to buy a car from a company that wasn't? I know I won't.

[scoobie]

I'd rather wait for a perfect car than have a flawed one on the date I was told I could have it.  I see too often in the software world the push toward delivering whatever it looks like on X date, rather than waiting until a release free of major bugs is ready, and anyone who even uses software does as well.  Don't you wish Microsquash was quality driven vs. market driven?  Why would you want to buy a car from a company that wasn't?  I know I won't.

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The software market, as in the wireless market, the first TO market usually gets most of the market. Perfection is secondary, and in fact, undesirable; upgrades generate significant cash. Furthermore, the technology changes so quickly in these sectors that "perfection" has no meaning.

[RX in NC]

"Perfect car" ? No such animal exists. The RX400 series will have it's share of bugs - all first-issue vehicles do regardless of quality control measures or months on the test track. For the sake of you potential owners out there, I hope that the bugs will be minor, not catastrophic. Only time will tell.

[obsidianr]

I'd rather wait for a perfect car than have a flawed one on the date I was told I could have it.  I see too often in the software world the push toward delivering whatever it looks like on X date, rather than waiting until a release free of major bugs is ready, and anyone who even uses software does as well.  Don't you wish Microsquash was quality driven vs. market driven?  Why would you want to buy a car from a company that wasn't?  I know I won't.

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I think most people would agree with you on that point. However, I think Lexus could have done a better job of conveying this message to their customers. Their customers would be much more understanding of a message telling them that Lexus is trying to ensure that they receive the best quality car instead of the various conflicting messages that have been coming from the dealerships.

[patt]

I think most people would agree with you on that point. However, I think Lexus could have done a better job of conveying this message to their customers. Their customers would be much more understanding of a message telling them that Lexus is trying to ensure that they receive the best quality car instead of the various conflicting messages that have been coming from the dealerships.

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I agree with that. The lack of information has been worrying at times.

But I expect I'll forgive them when I pick mine up.