Well, I'll say this.
My local Lexus dealer, Lexus of Northborough, MA, is full of sales people who know little to nothing about the cars they are selling.
One sales guy claims the new '07 IS is $1,500 more than the '06.
The Internet Sales Manager also told me that the '07 will no longer offer the backup parking sensors.
I cannot confirm either of these facts yet.
Other than that, I have no info on what the car in '07 will offer or include.
But I agree... it's a lot of coin once equipped the way I like it.
Adding another $1,500 brings it way over $40,000.
That's why I started thinking on the lines of the '07 ES350, or the very affordable, fun to drive TL.
I'll have to drive the ES once there's one on the lot to play with.
In the meantime, I may take a TL for a torture run. B)
I have to say, Lexus Carlsbad has very knowledgable sales reps. There was no pressure whatsoever and when we test drove the car he kept telling my wife to floor it to see how powerful it was.
Even after we agreed on a price he took my wife over to this kiosk and started going over the safety features of the car. I almost said to him, "hey, we already agreed to buy it, you don't have to sell us on it anymore" but he was on a roll so I let him go. Learned a few new things about the car that I wasn't aware of too. Our saleman actually owns the same car we bought though so I would have been surprised if he didn't know everything about it.
When I stopped in there a few months ago I had a different guy let me take out both the 250 and a 350 for about a 10 mile test drive and he also encouraged me to get on the throttle to see what they could do.
Acura was also very gracious with test drives on the TL though. I have no complaints with them on that.