Bear60

I am scheduled to attend the Taste of Lexus event on Saturday November 24 and I wonder if they will have a Mercedes and/or a BMW to drive plus the Lexus models.
Last year they had an S550 and a severn series for comparsion.
Anyone know?
Thanks.

encore888

This year they only have Lexus vehicles. In the past they had more competitor vehicles, but in addition to those folks that legitimately wanted to comparison test, it attracted a lot of 'freeloaders' who had no interest in Lexus and just wanted to drive the competitor vehicles, making the lines long etc. Only the past release year of the IS (late 2005) they had the 3-series and C-class, and last year for the LS premiere (2006) they had competing vehicles.

This year they do add the LS 600h L , and if the card system is set up properly the wait is much less. And the thank you factory rebate gift is still mailed afterwards. Hope you have a good time!

Bear60

Thanks. I will miss being able to drive the others however.
What is the "card system"? Will this mean I can only drive each vehicle once?

encore888

The card system is like the Disneyland FastPass, you have an ID card that you get drive reservations at a kiosk. That way you don't have to wait in line very long--in theory. You can get as many reservations as long as there are spots available, and drive cars multiple times, but you can only have 1 reservation at a time IIRC. My experience was very positive (wait time cut by over 70% from my previous events), as were others, but some events resulted in differing opinions--usually depends on staffing. Hope you enjoy the event.

Bear60

Thanks. I really enjoyed it last year and I had to drive to Altanta from the Cincinnati area. This year it is relatively close.

Bear60

How much is the factory rebate for? I am planning on a new purchase about December 1 so this would be a nice bonus.

Nospinzone

I just attended the one in Boston this past Saturday. There were only Lexus models available for test drives. They didn't have any card system. People just got in the line for the vehicle they wanted to drive. I never waited more than 3 or 4 minutes. I drove the LS600 a couple times and my wife and I drove the SC430 a couple times.

They did a very nice job. The catered lunch was was very good. The only thing was although it was a sunny day, it was very windy with the temp around 42, so there was wind chill factor.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

$750 coupon for any new lexus

it comes like 4-6 weeks after you attend the event though

syswei

Are the coupons transferrable?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

unfortunately no. it has your name printed on there and says it's only for the person or immediately family

jawnly211

so........could you hear any "wind noise" on the LS 460?

im going this saturday too in cincy........so hopefully the weather will hold up

encore888

Interestingly, the same thing happened for lot of us, myself included, in SoCal this year...they moved the event so it was a much shorter drive to reach it.

Nospinzone

The only LS460 I drove was mine, and it was quiet! (I have a late build 2007 with no wind noise problem)

I did pay attention in the LS600hl though, and I must say it was deadly silent when it was running on just the battery.

Its funny, the first 2 drives I took in the LS600hL I really pushed it hard around the track and on the second drive they told me to "slow it down". So on my third drive I just tested it for quietness. Then we went to an adjacent test track to drive the SC430 and I pushed that to the limit since there were different attendants over there!