all9

Yeah I ended up having a short list of about 3 specs of 500 I was willing to pull the trigger on... fortunately the one that was my favorite is one of the most common combos built. Hopefully you find one soon!

Orkboyz

I was looking for a Cloudburst/black with the silver wheels but ended up with a CPO Infrared/white with the dark enkeis that was only 7 months old with 7500 miles on it. Don't regret relaxing my requirements. I live in VA and bought it in Maryland, about a 4 hour drive from me. Paid a fair used price for it, nowhere near MSRP. Though, I did have to haggle on the trade value up to something reasonable since they undervalued the trade. Only issue I have is that it has been 2 months and I have still not received the title.

Don't tell them you are paying cash. That makes dealers realize they are not going to be able to upsell BS junk to you in F&I. Tell them you have not decided. Negotiate out the door price and have a certified or cashier's check ready. When it comes down to it, what are you losing by walking away and not buying a car? The chance to give them 60K. What is the dealership loosing? A check for 60K.

Soyuz350

I don't tell them I'm paying cash, that's the worst part. I have the exact same line every time, it goes in the opening email once I verify the car exists and get the basic questions out of the way:

"I am ready to talk numbers with your finance manager/whoever can assist me with putting a deal together"

Only time cash is mentioned is after price is set and I have it in writing waiting for my signature in-person, and I'm showing up with a check. That's been the cases with last second "oh we're adjusting, while you were on the plane the market boomed and this car is now 3k-4k more." I think they're hoping I'll just cave and pay what they want. Joke's on them, last minute flights home are expensive but not 5k. In other cases, when I'm trying to do the whole purchase online (if I can't make it to a location due to work schedule), I will get directed to their financing manager who offers me the rates, and when I tell them I am paying cash the dealer goes dark on me.

This is absolutely neurotic, but I ended up building a program that tracks and plots prices of IS500's that get listed and are viewable on Autotempest. It factors in trim, mileage, distance, price, color, etc. This is the graph of the list prices as of like 2 weeks ago, with slight adjustments to the prices based on whether or not the cars have the BBS' or Enkei's (I've had like 3 dealers tell me it adds 3k to the value, so I figured I may as well assume that ALL dealers think like that)

Orkboyz

Yeah, that's just dirty. If you find something you like at a good deal, it might be worth taking the financing then just paying off the loan if that is an option for you. However, having to do that to get a car from a dealership does not exactly instill confidence in how the dealership conducts business. Makes me think something is going on behind the scenes if they are not willing to stand by a deal. Using "market adjustments" as an excuse sounds to me like they are maybe negotiating with someone else and want to try and get as much money out of whoever wants the car the most.

Unfortunately, dealerships know that a sucker will eventually come along and pay whatever they are asking.

mastershibe

I tried to do cash and they didn't want to play ball. The old "smile big and stare in uncomfortable silence until the customer caves". I said I would be happy to finance, just that I would fly home home and pay it off next day. Just be sure your finance terms don't have an early payoff penalty, which it shouldn't.

The finance guy started backpedaling super fast. But, he was good. He tried to convince me that at least paying for 13 months would be good for my credit, blah blah. Even amortized and showed it'd "only cost about $2500 in interest!"
I told him I would consider waiting 3 months. Then he said "please consider making 6 months of payments". I asked if that was how long it took for the bank to send the incentive, he said yes.

There is nothing stopping you from calling up the bank and getting a payoff quote. Sure, you have to file a lien release and wait a bit for the title, but it's worth it to completely neuter the dealer's leverage on that part of the deal. I guess you would have to pay around $300 interest total if you took care of things quickly.

Soyuz350

One of you put it best a bit earlier when you said they're basically saying no to a 60k check. I feel extremely entitled just writing this, but they're paying for the car to sit on their lot, and I'm just collecting interest on what I have set aside for this. I've got no issues with waiting for a dealer that's not going to screw me, simple as that. I don't want to jump through hoops of paying off early (although I have explored that option), dealing with extra paperwork, hell I want to be able to never call the dealer again the second I leave the lot. All of my local dealers have had me as a repeat customer because they didn't screw around (shoutout JM Lexus).

HighRevs

The dealer closest to me shows 2 Black/Black on their site. They told me that 1 would be here in the next 3-4 days. Price Leblanc Lexus, Baton Rouge

DLPTony

When things were truly insane back in 2021/2022, I had deposits at 3 different Atlanta area dealerships. You were almost guaranteed to pay over MSRP in addition to the add-ons.

Someone posted info on Eskridge, stating they sell at MSRP, out of State, and are a volume leader.

Shannon had the spec I wanted, took the deposit over the phone, grabbed the keys for safekeeping, and picked me up at the airport the next day.

Shannon Brown @ Eskridge Lexus, OKC
(405) 850-7896 (Cell)
(405) 755-9000 (Ofc)

Good luck, I’m almost at 30K miles and I’m still in-love with this thing. It was worth the madness. 😎

​​​​​​NOTE: @moo_juice is right about the IS500 FB pages. As soon as one is announced for sale, a lurker is waiting in the wings and ready to pounce.

TCM55

JM is great! Definitely way better than other dealers in the area.

vj123

Not sure if its a Cali thing but unless one is looking for a specific color combination, it should be relatively easy to make a deal for MSRP. Some dealers even offered slight discount even without any negotiation.

I have been tracking the market for sometime and yet to pull the trigger as i am looking for a specific color combination.

Soyuz350

Are people just posting like "hey, I'm about to trade this in at X dealer" or is it more private sales?

marjenmill

Only deal with a dealer that also sells new (Toyota, Honda, etc.), not a “used only” dealer.
If you get the negotiation done on price, ask for a signed contract from the dealer (they can email them) that you can sign and return to them, then talk to someone about financing the cash deal. I did that when buying mine and wired the money in a few days ahead of vehicle pickup.

DLPTony

It’s both. For example: Two dudes traded-in their 500s at the same Aston dealer. One guy in TX had to sell his to fund repairs to his home due to recent storms.

eyelevel

Tons of variables. I will give you the trade-in with some money down scenario for this one. Coming from the car business for 15+ years, I'll do my best:

The most important thing for most people will be selling price - aka, the 'front end'. Right now (since the chip shortage) lots of stuff is going for MSRP. It will stay like this until one manufacturer agrees to put 120 days of inventory back on a car lot. They are literally working smarter and not harder by only keeping 20-30 days of inventory on their lots. By doing this, they control the supply - hence inflating the demand. As I have said in here before - most people want what they do not have. Some dealers are adding 'market addendums' and few are digging into their holdback money. If they are, it is for their own reason - ie, tier money, aged inventory, etc. When I bought mine, over a year ago, I was able to call the dealers in Texas and found one close who would sell at MSRP. Rest assured, I have never been cool with paying MSRP on a vehicle. Due to my family wants and timing, we made the decision to do it. With that said, my opinion is to settle on your purchase price first. Ask up front about your factory adds and all addendums. They are going to ask about your payment method. This will get mixed reviews and in this forum, I can only imagine what will be said about be by the time we get to page 3, lol. You should know prime rate in the market and your credit score, before you walk foot into any dealership. Telling them you are paying cash just says you will be writing a personal check, since most banks you have an account with will deposit funds into your account once approved for the loan. Then you just write a personal check in the F&I booth. I knew my credit score would get prime rate with my credit union. I have history with them and an open account. I did not need to apply for a loan, but I would have after negotiating my vehicle price. As soon as I came to an agreement on price, the dealership offered to check rates with their preferred financial institutions. This is touchy and tricky - and called the 'back end' of the sale. The back end is where they sell you the extended warranty, gap insurance, etc. The dealership gets a kickback on the rates they can sell. My dealership actually offered me a better rate than I could have gotten with my own credit union. It wasn't life changing money, but still 0.2 lower. Don't get caught up in the kickback amount. If prime rate is 6% and they get .25% or 4% back, what do I care as long as it was better than I could have received without them? Once you have your selling price and interest rate, the rest is up to you. Obviously you will have your trade too. Kelly Blue Book is a great starting point to get a value of your trade, if you have one. Third party sales will get you more up front, but trading it in could save you some on taxes. You'll need to weigh both options. With todays rates, any extra you can put down will only save you that much more in the long run. Also, with rates where they are - the shorter the term, the better the rate. So, my suggestion is to go with as short a term you are comfortable paying. When rates get back to the 2%ish range, I always suggest the opposite to take a longer (72 months) note. If you are financially disciplined, you will make a higher payment anyway. This will always leave you with 'options' in case you have months where you only want to make your minimum payment.

With vehicle price, rate, and trade/down payment resolved --- the rest (monthly payment) is just a calculator away. I hope this helps...

95bat

Great info!

Though I'm tired of hearing about shortages. Toyota sold more cars in 2023 than EVER, but there's a shortage? Not buying it anymore.