bostonsnow

I have tried a couple of times to convince dealers to give me a new model service loaner for a day or two (even though I'm not getting my old ES330 serviced), without success.

However, I am undecided between getting an ES300h vs an RX450h and really wanted to have an extended time with each in order to assess long term comfort in each car. The standard 15 min salesperson test drive is just not adequate for me.

Luckily I came upon one of the new "peer to peer" car rental websites. I used Turo.com

These seem to be be set up only in certain cities, and tend to be larger cities. In the Los Angeles area, there are many cars listed, and most of the Lexus fleet is represented.

So I was able to rent a 2015 RX350 for 24 hours, and a 2016 ES300h for 24 hours. I picked days when I had a lot of driving to do, in order to get a lot of driving time in. It cost me about $100 for each day, but to me this was very worthwhile. The owners of each car were very pleasant and made the process easy.

litesoarer

Seems kind of expensive.

I'd rather just find a dealer that's loosey goosey with demo or loaner cars.

bostonsnow

wish I could find such a dealer. I'm sure it helps if one is a regular service customer, but I'm not. For the past several years I have been using an independent mechanic. But in the past when going to the dealer for service, I bet I could have talked them into it - had a pretty good relationship with the service rep. But that dealership is 3000 miles away from where I am now.

dchar

I heard that many dealers are more strict about lending their loaners for extended test drives. I was told that their insurance require dealers to have repair orders when giving out loaners just in case the driver totals the vehicle. In the event that happens, the dealer either has to either eat the loss or go to court, which may ruin the relationship with the customer.