Is 350 Packages

[Vegas]

Live and learn.

I tried to place an order for an IS 350 2008 model. The Internet salesperson informed me that the only way I could get the VN (Nav. with Mark Levinson) and the ST (Sports package) would be to order the car from the factory. Not only does this mean a four month wait, but I would have to pay full MSRP.

I'm new with Lexus, but it does seem strange that a company would configure their cars to fit the demand in different areas of the country.

Was I being told a lot of BS, or is it really this way?

Any way around this?

[Meesha]

Live and learn.

I tried to place an order for an IS 350 2008 model. The Internet salesperson informed me that the only way I could get the VN (Nav. with Mark Levinson) and the ST (Sports package) would be to order the car from the factory. Not only does this mean a four month wait, but I would have to pay full MSRP.

I'm new with Lexus, but it does seem strange that a company would configure their cars to fit the demand in different areas of the country.

Was I being told a lot of BS, or is it really this way?

Any way around this?

I ordered a 08 IS250 with Mark Levinson Nav. Yes, it is a special order from the factory. But the price agreement was not MSRP. I negotiated down to invoice + 1000. This way, whatever the price increase, the dealer is safe. It looks like there's a little change in price anyway, which is about 200 dollars.

Also the dealer told me the wait is about 3 months. (most places would say 4 months though.) To get me ahead, he did a little trick. Instead of waiting for the "allocation" to come for the dealership, he did the "change" request on an existing car order. i.e. There was a RX (completely diff car) already in order to be built and delievered to their dealership. He simply filed a change form to make that car with my configuration. This way, there is no wait time for the "allocation", which can be up to one month.

[tex2670]

Live and learn.

I tried to place an order for an IS 350 2008 model. The Internet salesperson informed me that the only way I could get the VN (Nav. with Mark Levinson) and the ST (Sports package) would be to order the car from the factory. Not only does this mean a four month wait, but I would have to pay full MSRP.

I'm new with Lexus, but it does seem strange that a company would configure their cars to fit the demand in different areas of the country.

Was I being told a lot of BS, or is it really this way?

Any way around this?

I ordered a 08 IS250 with Mark Levinson Nav. Yes, it is a special order from the factory. But the price agreement was not MSRP. I negotiated down to invoice + 1000. This way, whatever the price increase, the dealer is safe. It looks like there's a little change in price anyway, which is about 200 dollars.

Also the dealer told me the wait is about 3 months. (most places would say 4 months though.) To get me ahead, he did a little trick. Instead of waiting for the "allocation" to come for the dealership, he did the "change" request on an existing car order. i.e. There was a RX (completely diff car) already in order to be built and delievered to their dealership. He simply filed a change form to make that car with my configuration. This way, there is no wait time for the "allocation", which can be up to one month.

Why would a special order need to be allocated? Isn't it specifically configured for THAT customer to deliver to THAT dealer? I thought allocations were just the cars that the dealer is given already configured per that region. All the dealers told me they can only see what they are allocated 2 weeks out, and if my car wasn't in that allocation, I'd have to wait another week, or they'd try a swap with another dealer. They even tried to swap a car as I wanted it, but it was someone else's special order.

[lexusaddict]

I work for an Audi/Porsche/Bentley dealership in South OC and just want to put some rest to it. NO you cannot just order a car out of the air. each dealership is allocated a certain number of each car for a particular time frame ie: 300 IS250 RWD for each 3months (or whatever the number is), out of those you look at how many orders you have and fill those then they order the left over cars the way they think their customers want them. If you do not get your order in before the building begins for that allocation period, then you wait for the next one OR sometimes they can do a change request if its not to late and change another car (ie: a GS for an IS), just depends on what the dealer wants to do.

also....MOST of the time if you special order a car, you do pay MSRP..however, so long as your request is not unreasonable such as an ordered car AT or $500 over invoice, most of the time they will still deal with you. HOWEVER, i am hearing that on the mark levinson cars they are happy to let customers walk away if they dont want to pay MSRP because they know that someone else will.

Happy hunting...

[Knightshade]

Find another dealer. I'm getting an 08 with ML and Sport Pkg (and NO nav, which is a lot rarer than even ML+Nav) for, well, a lot less than MSRP. There's simply NO reason to pay anywhere near MSRP on an IS350 anymore other than a crappy dealer.

And yes, mine is a special order since they don't make them that way from the factory.