caddyowner

Are you bored? Do you want some excitement in your life? Click the "find it for me" button on about 20 Lexus dealer websites, enter your purchase criteria, and watch your cellphone and email light up. Woohoo! Talk about chumming the water. Nobody has any cars that exactly meet my criteria, but hopefully I'll get a call when an acceptable car comes in.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

i called about 6 local-ish lex dealerships like 2 years ago looking for an 04-06 LS UL flint mica on ecru with under 40k miles for under 40k dollars and got absolutely not one hit,,, that didn't stop them from calling and emailing me every week with what they thought were acceptable compromises. not sure what was so hard about my terms,

if you find a 04-06 flint mica on ecru ls430 UL w/ >40k miles for >40k dollars call me, else dont' call...

good luck with your terms.

Jabberwock

These guys have bills to pay so they work their contacts on a weekly basis. They spend a certain part of every single day doing prospecting calls on a portion of their contact numbers.

It doesn't matter if they have a match or not for your desired car, the boss expects them to be calling people and talking them into coming in to buy something, especially if there are no or few customers in the showroom. The boss also tells them they will be getting fired if they don't sell 12 cars this month. Dealers hire and fire salespeople on a monthly basis.

The only way to make them stop calling is to tell them you bought a car.

caddyowner

I have no problem taking calls. That means they are working for me. I want them to call as soon as they take in a trade-in or lease return.

Dealers have told me that they have outside services that takes the pictures and submits the online ads. That process can take a week. I've called on a number of cars on the first day of any online ad appearing to hear that the car was already sold a couple days earlier.

When I eventually post pics of my future car, you'll see how well I've controlled the buying process. If I post pics of a flint or silver / black CL, you'll know I met my goal. If I post pics of an LS460, you'll know I ran into a really good sales person.

IStoSC

^haha, love the last line...

Aimhigher3

This first line made me think this was some kind of joke cuz it sounds like those late night infomercials with lonely girls waiting for you to call....LOL

Faymester

When I was looking for my M3 I had told the various people that before we could talk about anything else, the car must be manual and must be a coupe. I got calls about all kinds of non-coupes and non-manuals; I understand the sales guys are supposed to be selling cars but trying to sell me something I'm not even interested in is just ridiculously annoying.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

bingo*** . . . . .


nice ^ ^ ^

AlexusAnja

No, if you post pictures of a 2010 LS460L-AWD or LS600HL, then it'll be a really good sales person...

caddyowner

I started out looking at AWD LS460s, but decided the ergonomics of the LS430 was better for wheelchair transfers.

caddyowner

My gosh, some of these Lexus salespersons and dealerships are just awful:

- I called an "18 year Elite of Lexus" dealer and heard that I should buy their car right away because they seldom get LS430 trade-ins anymore (all LS460s) and most of them have over 100K miles.

- That same salesman didn't introduce himself nor offer his name through the whole call. I had to ask him for his name before I hung up. (I sent some constructive feedback to the sales manager.)

- Another salesman, maybe it was the above guy, must have been a woodsman because he kept saying "axe" instead of "ask".

- Another "Elite of Lexus" dealer must not have a very elite phone system or operator. After 3 minutes of asking for a specific sales rep and holding and ringing and asking and holding and ringing I gave up trying to reach the salesperson or her voicemail.

The dealerships that can't seem to track their leads and have multiple people call me and those that call back with inappropriate cars a couple hours after confirming my search criteria are expected annoyances. It would also be more professional to make introductory calls with a desk phone. Some reps were obviously calling on cell phones and they kept breaking up.

Jabberwock

bag em if you have another local Lexus dealer to go with. In DFW there is a big diff in service level and professionalism between the three companies that have Lexus dealerships in this area - I won't mention the others but Sewell Dallas is by a huge margin the best for sales, service, and professionalism. The others are a distant second. Sewell Dallas also prep and detail their used cars the best compared to the others.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

when i was shopping for a UL i found most of them on autotrader.com and most of these were not a lex dealerships. most were at independent dealers so don't rule out the little guy.

caddyowner

My first choice is a CPO car because full warranty coverage for my daily driver is the best fit for my needs. If I get to March or April without finding a car, I will seriously pursue non-CPO cars. That said, I'm considering non-CPO cars from independent dealers and private parties if the car and price looks promising.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

yeah well i found the price of non lex dealerships to be much much more friendly however you are sort of on your own about the as is type thing... but if its from a lex dealership and non cpo they got you by the ***** if you take it back to them anyways... if its non cpo or non warranty just make sure to get it checked out by someone knowledgeable before you get it,, common sense type stuff