I've been talking with a few dealers in my area about ordering a GS430 with various options. One dealer said something in reference to ordering.

"I spoke with the sales manager. He will get his allocation in about a week. He can order your car then and we
should have it in about 4-6 weeks"

Refresh my memory on what he means by allocation. Also, I was always under the impression that it took like 90 days to have a car ordered.

Any ideas?

 

In the Lexus world there is a difference in definition of ordering a car. It is more like a request. When your dealer refers to an allocation...it is their allotment of cars from Lexus based on historical sales, demographics, meetings of the regional reps and GM's of the dealers in that region.

Lexus doesn't really allow "special" orders for cars unless you want something really unorthodox like no sunroof on cars that are 90% of the time equipped with one. ANd if they do agree, it will be at their leisure, usually at the end of a production run, to minimize downtime of the line.

The dealer is not limited to their allocation though, they can go into the system and "see" cars that are being delivered to their region to other dealers and "request/order" that car, but if the other dealer is not willing to give it up it usually will not happen and it becomes an order for the next allocation.

Other dealers (the not nice ones) will also try and give you a false sense of exclusivity of a particular car so they can make it seem like they went out of the way and in turn charge you a premium for the "specific" car you ordered.

Hope that helps!

 

He also said this:

"Lexus doesn't build the GS430 with the rear spoiler and not put on the 17" wheels. Therefore, the only way to get a spoiler w/o the wheels is to get one without the spoiler from the factory and then add a spoiler at the dealership."

I guess the spoiler without 17" wheels would be considered "special order" ?

I really don't have a problem spending an extra $300 bucks on ugraded 17" alloys. I guess 17" might work ok as winter wheels.

 

I believe what the dealer said. Not sure why you'd want a spoiler with 16's - oh I think you said you're going to keep the 16's for winter and replace them with 18's or something for summer. The 17's won't work as winter wheels if you plan to drive in DEEP snow.

 

I dont think you'll be able to drive if there is half an inch of snow in the ground with those 17in rims, I dont know if it's the tires, or if all 17's would be like that, But this winter just when I try to drive out of my garage, My car would barely move, if u do plan on driving the car in winter then your gonna have no choice but getting 16's as well, that's what I plan on doing next winter... You can ask anyone else in this forum too, it's Impossible to drive the GS with the stock 17's in the snow

ShOwGS

 

According to the Lexus web site the both the spoiler and 17s are separate options so you should be able to order it from the factory. What your dealer said may be true for allocation models, but not for factory orders (probably what he's calling a special order). Just like it's almost impossible to find a NAV car without the ML on allocation cars. But I ordered mine with the ML and no NAV and about three months later there it was.

BTW, the allocation packages are not the same from region to region. In the Southeast, for example, all of the GS430s come with wood/leather steering wheels. In the West they come with leather steering wheels. So, you may be able to find what you want in another region. Of course, you'll either have to pay to have it shipped to your dealer or you'll have to travel to the other region to pick it up.

 

In order to get your car faster, you might just consider getting the factory spoiler with the 17" wheels. A dealer install spoiler will not be as good as straight from factory, and may actually cost you more after part and labor. You can't beat the 17'' upgrade for $300, and there are plenty of people around who wants them if you decide to sell them.

 

Order from Factory if you can wait. Although you still can get the Rear Spoiler for $300, you will have to deal with the existing Rear Deck 3rd light. If the Spoiler comes from Factory, the 3rd deck light are not installed. leave you a nice rear deck inside.

 

Good point. The new back shelf without the light is about $1,200 installed. Some tape over the light and it works, but it's not as clean as the real thing.