jboomznh

I am still patiently waiting.
From what I understand the dealership can not see any change until the vehicles status changes to "transport" so from the order date till then is basically a black hole and they are unable to track the vehicle status.

My sales guy did check in with me last week, just to let me know things are still on track and the production date was still showing for 3/30. He expected it would be another 3 - 4 weeks after that for the vehicle to arrive at dealership.

Dave Mac

I received better info from that right from the start but this might be the way it is going to be for KY built cars.

Dave Mac

StevenTodd

I placed my order on 15 January and still have heard nothing from the dealership. If I have not heard anything from the dealership by 22 April which will be 14 weeks after the order was placed, going to call them and cancel the order.

jboomznh

Interesting. What better info where you getting? Please share with the rest of us...
Thanks

Dave Mac

As soon as the order was "accepted" I started to receive confirmations, production date, ready for shipment date, shipment date, port arrival date, ready for delivery etc. The dates changed just slightly occasionally but stayed very close all the way through the process. In 2010 and 2013 I also received the "vessel name" which allowed me to track the car across the ocean - if you have time for that - but I don't believe I received that info for 2016. Having this info allowed me to correct/delete some port-installed-options that I did not want before the car even arrived at the port.

I would be interested in hearing how this process differs now that almost all ES350's are built in KY.

Dave Mac

jboomznh

Thanks for the info... I have the production date which is today.. I am hoping I will get additional updates from my sales guy early next week. Wish I knew the full process also, like why it takes 3-4 weeks transport time from KY.

bc6152

Frustrating, I know. However when you go to pick up your new beauty you'll forget all about the long wait and enjoy your new ride. GOOD LUCK!

StevenTodd

When did you place the original order? I placed mine on 15 Jan and still have heard nothing from the dealership after almost 11 weeks.

jboomznh

Time line below..

Feb 4th - Placed order deposit
Feb 25th - Vehicle secured on dealer allocation
Mar 30th - Production date.

You should give your sales person a call, 8 to 12 weeks (3 months) seems to be the average time frame to what others have posted.

StevenTodd

My salesman called today and said it just showed up in the system with a Status Code of A. Told me it would probably be sometime in May before the car came in. Since I ordered the car on 15 January we are talking around 16 to 17 weeks for delivery. That is totally unacceptable. At the time I placed the order the salesman gave me a time frame of 8 to 12 weeks.

lesz

I think that I would be inclined to cancel the order. If you ordered the vehicle in January, the price that you are paying is likely based on prices relatively early in the model year. May prices should be somewhat lower. Plus, vehicles that are ordered typically come with significantly higher prices than vehicles that are already in a dealer's inventory. I would expect, thus, that the price that you are paying for a special order vehicle in January would be a lot higher than the price that you would pay for a vehicle bought off the lot in May.

Unless there is something that you can not get in a vehicle bought off of the lot and that you can't live without, I would guess that you would do much better with regard to price by buying one out of dealer's inventory, and, as a bonus, you would not have to deal with the frustration that you are experiencing now.

Dave Mac

I agree - that is not acceptable without some further explanation. I suspect that for some reason they did not submit your order timely, maybe thinking you would cave and take something they had in stock or just to move your order to a later allocation for whatever benefit that might provide.

The first time I truly placed a special order was in 2007 - my salesman who had been selling for over 20 years told me he had special ordered many cars but never delivered one because of the long wait. I waited and it wasn't that long. Now, 9 years later he was almost encouraging a special order over some kind of dealer trade and in fact special ordered one for himself at the same time, and they both arrived on the same truck.

I guess it is possible that start-up issues with the KY plant might slow things down for a little but I thought faster delivery was to be one of the advantages of US assembly.

Dave Mac

StevenTodd

They required a $500 deposit at the time of order which I would not get back. They did not have that many 2016s on the lot that met my requirements. I really have no choice but to put up with it. One thing is for sure, I will never buy another car from this dealership. Since this dealership is the only one within a reasonable driving distance from my home, it will be my first and last Lexus car.

jboomznh

Wow that's not ok.

Some suggestions for you.
Like others have suggested see if you can find a vehicle that's the closest match to your specs sitting on the sales lot.

If there are other Lexus dealers in your area talk to them as well (which is a good idea anyway to compare prices)

Your sales person should be able to check inventory in the region and if there is a match (or close) to your custom order do a dealer inventory swap.

Make it very clear to your sales person that you are frustrated and not going to wait 16+ weeks. If he cant do anything sooner you are going to start shopping other dealers and most likely cancel your order with him. Get an explanation why its taking so long..

Why did you have to do a custom order? ie what options did you want that where not available on an ES your dealership had on hand?

bc6152

It's easy to say just cancel the order but what about the $500.00? I would think they'd be inclined to say tough noogies buddy. I think at this point you're locked in. Les made a good point on the pricing. Maybe if you looked around and found another car - for at least $500.00 less - the deposit wouldn't matter. Very disappointing, but don't blame the car, blame the dealer.