Funky

Greetings all!

I had a GS350AWD supposedly tagged for me from a local dealership here in St. Louis but that is no longer the case, so now I've begun looking again. This is where things get messy...

If you go to Lexus.com, and put in a Missouri zip (63127 for example) there is no option to even add ML to the mix which is a must for me. I know I can go to the other Lexus dealer in town and order one but another 6-10 weeks would be painful given that I've already sold my other car...although carpooling with my wife is enjoyable, it will cause all sorts of logistics problems. This brings up a couple of questions:

1. Where are the region boundaries for Lexus in the US? I'm willing to drive to get what I want if the price is right, I’d just like to know how far out to go to have a better chance of finding something.
2. Are the decisions of what is orderable on Lexus.com based off previous sales numbers, or something else? It seems rather strange to me that if I'm spending $50k for a vehicle that another $1700 (retail) would put someone over the edge and an entire region doesn't order them.
3. Would I be better off going out of the Midwest region or simply calling other dealers within the region given the Lexus web site thing?

The options I'm looking for are ML with Nav, Park Assist, Sun Shade, Vented Seats, Wipers with AFS, but no XM. I'd prefer Mercury Metallic w/Black or Matador Red Mica w/Black or Cashmere.

I've submitted online requests for quotes, but that seems to be going no where quickly.

Thanks for the feedback.