I ended up buying a new 05 ES330 from Longo Lexus in El Monte. I solicited bids from several dealerships in So Cal and Longo was offering by far the best internet prices. We got the Level 3 trim (navigation system w/o Mark Levinson) for $31,879, which is $1000 below invoice (MSRP = $36,919). Also got them to throw in a set of the Exact Mats and some other goodies. Pretty much a no-hassle deal, although we had to wait a long time to sign the paperwork and take delivery since there were tons of people there.
For the base model, Longo was offering it for $29,000, but we wanted the navigation system. Cars were rolling off their lots like hot cakes due to their aggressive pricing in December in order to hit a sales target of 800 cars. Lexus of Westminster quoted me $29,799 for a base model - they were the only dealership other than Longo that quoted below invoice.
So how did I do on this deal? Anyone receive a better price quote than this?