Buy Fron One Dealer And Service From Another

Aboli De · March 9, 2004

Hi,

This is for 2004 Lexus ES330.

One dealer who is 25 miles from where I live is offering for the price which is $900 lower than my local dealer (2 miles). The local dealer is refusing to match the price. He said he can reduce may be $200.

In your experience, should I buy from the dealer who is offering the better price but do all the scheduled servicing from my local dealer? Do you see any problems? Will Lexus allow this?

Thanks.

SW03ES · March 9, 2004

There is absolutely no reason to worry about servicing the car where you purchase it. In fact, there is no reason to service it at any Lexus dealer and pay their rediculous prices, as long as you keep your reciepts you can service it anywhere you want, or service it yourself.

I bought my Lexus at a dealer 40 miles away and either serivce it elsewhere or use Lexus dealers closer and I have experienced no difference in treatment just because I didnt buy the car there.

iammikey · March 10, 2004

Buy where ever you want, I'm for saving money. The service department is usually run separate from the sales- just like 2 businesses in one.

SW03ES · March 10, 2004

Well, not exactly. Sales isn't where a dealership makes money, its service. A Customer spends much more on service in their lifetime than the dealership makes off of them when it comes to sales. Dealerships are very concerned with keeping sales customers for service, thats why they scare customers like the guy who started this thread into thinking he can only have the car serviced where he bought it. Thats what I do for a living, I provide promotional systems for car dealerships that help them to convert sales business into service business. If a dealership didn't do any service business and they did all sales, even if they broke every sales record out there they would be out of business inside three months because the sales revenue hardly puts a dent in their overhead.

Thats why dealerships have so many service programs out now for people who buy their cars at their dealerships, free oil changes, point reward systems (I sell these), free loaner cars etc. Service is BIG business, bigger than sales could ever hope to be.