I noticed today that the dealership where I bought my previous Lexus is no longer a Lexus Elite dealer.

How does a dealership loose this designation and I wonder what and how long it takes to get it back? Also wonder if it costs them any sales or service business, or if most customers don't notice.

 

iirc only Elite Lexus dealers can order an LFA

 

That's interesting. I wonder if it's a combination of sales and customer feedback. Maybe the dealer had a high number of complaints? How has your overall experience been there? It could be base on sales alone. The Lexus dealer where I bought my ES from was taken over by a Japanese investment group, sales have been slow. I wonder if they are still Elite?......

 

which are the lexus elite dealers?

 

How do they display this. Is there some type of plaque or display advertising the fact that they are one of the elite dealerships

 

i thought all lfa orders are through corporate directly

 

This about sums it up...

So it looks like if customer satisfaction responses dip below a certain level and/or the dealership doesn't exceed the standards of what Lexus has determined a dealership should be...the award is not given.

Complete list of the current "Elite of Lexus" dealerships:
http://www.lexus.com/dealers/elite_dealers.html

 

When I bought my previous car the sales experience was about what you'd expect. Nothing bad, haggling over the price of the car and then the trade-in, but overall OK.

Service experience was good, no compliants although I was fortunate to not need any warranty or service bulletin work while I owned the car, just routine service .

As Killa's post showed most likely poor customer feedback might have hurt them, It's a very nice facility built new a little over 4 years ago and ownership is the same.

 

Most of these types of "awards" are just about meaningless. I'd expect the word "elite" to mean exactly that. Instead almost 80% of all US Lexus dealers apparently have that "honor" based on the link above. Being in the top 80% doesn't make you "elite" in my book.

FWIW... the other automakers have the same issue with their similar programs.

To the OP: That's a bad sign if the dealership ends up in the lower 20% of all dealers.

 

There are 4 Lexus dealerships in the DFW, TX area and all 4 have that award. Doesn't make one better than the other. Now if only 1 or 2 dealers can get it out of 4, then we're talking.

 

That was my thought too.

 

lol that's pretty much what i took away from the first post as well.

i don't really care about those in the elite list, coz' there are so many so it's pretty pointless to me. but those who are not on the list, they must be very bad

 

I agree, to consumers, this award is pretty much meaningless. To the dealer, however, you can't imagine how coveted this award is. It is the exact same thing as Toyota's President's Award, and dealers work very, very, hard to obtain or keep the award. Most Elite dealers will do almost anything to keep from losing their Elite status, so in a way, the consumer benefits in the end.

 

 

So from what it sounds like, the award is not on a curve at all. Meaning every dealer in a region could hold it. What would it do for customer service if a dealership was graded relative to other dealers in his region? Now you would have dealers competing harder to be the best in customer service, so the customer wins.