DenverRx

I got off the phone with a dealer who said I could do a Nx350h build with $2K down (non-refundable). He gave me an approx time of 6 -9 months, which is ok for me. I'm worried I might be waiting over a year for the car and in the meantime other dealers might have one with the colors/ options I want, but I'd be locked in to this dealer. Also, I'm worried Lexus is prioritizing building Nx's that are loaded with every option, not prioritizing custom builds.

Opinions?

VillageNX

I'd say it depends on how specific you want the car. If you are flexible, get in touch with as many dealers as you can that are close enough to you that you'd do business with them. That's what we did but we knew the car we ended up would likely have an option or two that we didn't necessarily specify or may not have 1 or 2 that would be nice but we didn't have to have. We specified 3 exterior colors and 3 interior colors, 350 AWD, and Premium package. I have yet to find a Premium that didn't have other nice options. It took about 2 to 3 weeks before 1 of the dealers found one in allocation that matched our wish list and then it took another 3 weeks or so to actually get the car. We didn't specify hybrid but glad that's what we ended up with. We weren't necessarily in a hurry either but 6 to 9 months would have just been too long.

gcskoor

Do you mind saying which dealer, if in Denver? PM is ok. I am in Colorado, so 3 Lexus dealers in Denver and Springs are locals to me. My opinion, since I have to been thinking about trying to get a dealer to commit to an actual order instead of the allocation lottery. If you order is non-refundable, unless you are willing to lose 2k, you are locked into a 6-9 month windows even if your find a quicker allocation. If they commit to a lock-in price now, that is good, but I doubt they will. There is a moderate to high risk in 6-9 months of some price increase. If you can flex (and possible pay more for some unwanted features), then an allocation probably will be quicker. It will be real painful to have to pass on one now vs wait for your order.

But the biggest problem I see with the order commit, you could end of getting the last of a 2022 NX right before they announce 2023 and any tweaks that my have done. And schedules have been getting delayed mrore then moved up, I think, so it easily could be a 2022 fall deliver. I am leaning to just wait for an allocation and maybe a 2023 NX or the supposedly redesigned 2023 RX. The one dealer I have been workings with thinks, since I am getting pretty much a fully loaded (only one package less) on the 350h Luxury, they think, it will be better to use allocation approach.

Best wishes!

lesz

I have no problem with having to put down a non-refundable deposit, but the combination of having to put down a non-refundable deposit and being told that it is likely to be 6-9 months before getting a car is something that I find to be troublesome.

The auto availability and pricing situation might well be the same in 6-9 months that it is now, or it could change dramatically in 6-9 months. If it was me, I would not be comfortable with the idea of giving a dealership a $2000 deposit and, then, in 6-9 months being faced with a situation where my choices might be to lose my deposit or to have accept a car that doesn't really come close to what I want or seeing that pricing at that time might be quite different from what it is now or that I might be told that I had to continue to wait longer to get a car that I really want. In 6-9 months, the situation with car availability and pricing might be the same as it is now, or it might be dramatically different, either better or worse, from the way it is now, and I would not want to limit my options by having my deposit lock me into to any details of a possible purchase based on current market conditions.

mcomer

I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV but I have been led to believe that if a business entity such as
an Auto Dealer has Ever refunded a deposit under that business name the precedent requires any subsequent
transaction involving a deposit would be subject to being refunded.

From a practical point of view, 1) the store would want to avoid the Bad PR fallout, 2) they can sell the car to many
other folks when the deal falls through. In more normal times it is common to require and document a more specific
and enforceable clause when the Special Order is significantly out of the ordinary. We had an order for an RX 450h
that was absolutely completely base model...no sunroof, cloth interior, no Nav, base wheels, not memory seats, roof
rails...nothing but the hybrid and A/C! Tan with gray interior as well. Not a lot of folks knocking down the doors for
that one if it had not been accepted by its intended owner.

jer

Like stated above, I would not do a non-refundable deposit and then have to wait 6-9 months. The dealer could hypothetically drag this out even longer by selling your vehicle to another customer, and then when supply catches up to demand, you end up paying - MSRP or more?- when others are now getting discounts. Non-refundable seems like a sneaky way of just making more money, unless what you are ordering is something way out of the ordinary that if you didn't pick up they would have a tough time selling. Just a thought...

DenverRx

Great point. Since I'm locked in, the dealer has no motive to get my car in a hurry, and I have no way of knowing what Nx's have come thru the dealer while I wait.

hnlflyer

Sounds like they're truly doing a special order for a non-refundable deposit and that timeline. You're better off providing general specs/packages and colors that you'd be happy with and the dealer can match you with incoming allocation. It'll be much faster and they'd probably take a refundable deposit.

I believe a non-refundable deposit is enforceable if the dealer adheres and delivers to the contract, so if you went that route and found something at another dealer in stock, you might be stuck waiting.

VillageNX

I hate to tell you, but if you buy a 2022, at least in the current market, you will pay MSRP, or more, regardless of when you get it. I paid MSRP for mine and walked out of another dealership that started negotiating at 10k above MSRP. The dealer I ended up buying from would not take refundable deposits just to get on the allocation wait list. I had $1k down at another dealership (refundable). The dealer I had the deposit with never came close to finding what I wanted in their allocation. The other one just acted on good faith and worked for me to find what we were looking for until they actually found it and then only took $500 to secure it until delivery. It took the one dealership 15 seconds to process my $1k deposit and they took 10 days to refund it after making sure they preached to me about being careful with trusting other dealers. When a third dealer contacted us to try to talk us into a base 250 because that's all they could find at the time, we explained we had a 350h secured and were just waiting for it to come in and they went into a rant about how the car probably wasn't real and the dealer was probably promising the same car to 3 or 4 other people in hopes of stringing us all along until they could sell us something. I was really surprised at how quickly they will all throw each other under the bus to keep a sale.

DenverRx

Everyone here has made excellent points why NOT to put money down on a build, or even money to get on a waiting list. I'm just going to wait & hope the supply chain picks up. Thanks to all for your opinions!!!

gcskoor

Yeah, time may be our friend. I did put a $1000 CC deposit down in mid-Dec, but it was actually very informal- just a handwritten not on a 40h+ quote. So technically I am only committed to buy a 450h+, which is they got one (not likely) and made me buy it, I probably would just flip it for 5K profit or more. LOL