florida407

Thanks for the reply.

I agree that all of our capital market assumptions are useless at this point -- not just within the car industry. No one can predict the future. That being said, after I make the purchase, I'll post my color combo as well. I think that has a lot to do with supply/demand market forces. At this point, I'm not sure if I trust that people are getting 15% below MSRP unless they're buying green on black at the right time, or something that might be a slow mover within inventories.

I'll make sure to include what everyone comes back with. At this point, I've contacted all dealers in my surrounding area and gotten a few bites. 3-4 are willing to play ball. 2 are sending pricing to me in short order. The other 2 want my business, but they're trying to locate what I'm looking for. If they can get it by way of a swap with another dealer, they likely won't be able to sell at a great discount. From what I understand, the losing dealer typically gets to keep the incentive cash in exchange for participating in the swap. Then again, it depends on how desperate the selling dealer is for cash flow.

jer

I believe for Lexus (could be wrong) their financial end of year is March 31. This is another reason why for the Feb/March timeframe they usually have pretty good incentives to push out as much inventory as possible.

bamalam

Ha! I'm with you. Supposedly the RX Nori Green is a hot color, but I don't get it. There are not a lot of green cars on the road for a reason. It appears to me that many of the high discount deals on this thread leave dollars out of the equation. It's easy to claim a big discount when hefty fees are excluded and you get skinned alive on trade value.
It is correct that holdback (2% for Lexus, as I recall) is paid to the original dealer, not to the trade dealer. I suppose if two dealers swap equal value vehicles, though, it's a wash. There's also the transport cost involved, which the buyer ends up paying one way or the other.

Good luck on getting a great deal on a great vehicle!

florida407

Hi all,

Wanted to provide an update and some lessons learned from this adventure. Hopefully someone in a similar spot can take what I learned in this process and use it to keep a few bucks in their pockets:

I've now gotten quotes from about 4-5 dealers. Everyone's out the door isn't as competitive as JM's pricing, so if you're shopping a similar vehicle, I would go to their website and use that as a starting point. They will send you their "best price" with a text message code. Apparently JM owns all the import contracts for Lexus/Toyota for the SE region, so their pricing should be pretty competitive as they are vertically integrated through their supply chain, which other dealers aren't. When I found this out (through a non-affiliated person who was from the area that I knew), it made a lot of sense as to why their fees started to appear more favorable as I got more bids. Depending on your region, do some research around who owns the import contracts that will distribute to the other various dealers in your area.

Some of the games other dealers have been playing are that they will:

• charge an inflated document fee
• tack on extras such as "lifetime tire refills"
• try to push financing extended warranties, tire insurance, etc.
• offer a price discount that will give you a lower "payment", but will result in higher total interest charges.

My advice would be to:

• Secure your own financing beforehand. If nothing else, use it as a negotiating tool. Try to look at credit unions or Navy Fed/PenFed/ specialty banks.
• Calculate total out the door prices with your own financing with all of the wonderful calculators you can find online. I've been using the ones at calculator.net and interest.com . I've been using them to calculate break-even points between total financing charges, monthly payments, and overall rates. Knowing your numbers beforehand will help you negotiate a good final deal. Discounts in OTD price can easily be made back by a dealer who will artificially inflate your rate. I caught a dealer inflating a rate by 1% over the average current rate, and 1.2% over the rate I had. When I said no way and went dark, they magically called back in 15 minutes with a rate that was only 45 BPS higher than my rate and dropped their initial quoted rate by 75 BPS. Taking what the dealer offered would have resulted in the same payment amount, but would have tacked on $1300 more in total interest charges. They were offering me another $1000 in military discount by financing through them, but clearly a bad deal-- if you could figure out that they were making back their money and more.
• Shop multiple dealers. The ones in major metropolitan areas will have more flexibility. Although car "sales" has changed, the industry is still the same. It is very much still a margin business that will benefit the dealer who can move the most inventory in the shortest amount of time.
• Don't judge the discounts based off of anecdotal information. Some of the "discounts" claimed to have been gotten on this forum could have easily been recouped by a dealer with inflated APRs. What I've found is that the average competitive dealer discount is about 6% off of MSRP before Lexus Cash, Military, or other promos. However, this can change with the laws of supply and demand. Make sure your financing terms are just as good as the deal you think you're getting.
• Grab the VIN on all of the listings you look at and punch them into the Lexus owners site: https://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrive.../vehicle-specs . This will ensure you can locate a car with the exact specs you're looking for, see if there were any extras added to the car when it arrived at the "port" (floor mats, roof racks, etc), and most importantly-- see the month it was ordered by the dealer. You are more likely to get the better deals on the cars with the oldest relative order date. There are many reasons for this that were outlined in this forum, but they simply have to do with dealers needing to move inventory and not wanting to pay interest on their "flooring".
• Lots of dealers make careless mistakes. One out of state dealer miscalculated the correct tax amount I would have to pay (because I am transferring a tag and not getting a new one issued), but the mistake was adding around $700 to the bottom line.

And finally, if you plan to get a car shipped from out of state (of even in-state), make sure you understand any additional administrative fees that the two cooperating states might charge you for making an out of state purchase, and get your bids from actual shipping companies--not brokers. You want a shipping company who pays their drivers as 1099's or W2's and doesn't simply just get a cut for being a match maker- but can wash their hands if things go sideways.

Happy hunting!

I should wrap up my purchase next week.

neprosto

Just finished purchase of Lexus RX 350 F sport black line.
SoCal, MSRP 62,500, OTD 60,000.

Wife did good homework, and thank you guys for sharing numbers! It helped a lot in finding right spot.

chih813

Has anyone purchased a 2021 RX-L in the Houston area? If so, please share your purchase price and experience. Thanks.

bamalam

Congratulations and enjoy the ride! Someone in NJ just posted about a black line purchase. Sharp vehicle in his photos.

If you want to pay it forward to help future buyers, you can post your purchase details, accounting for every dollar in the deal, using the following calculations:Dealer Price = MSRP - Discount + Doc Fee + Junk Items
Net Price = Dealer Price - Rebates
Dealer Discount% = (MSRP-Dealer Price)/MSRP * 100 <== this is what most people consider the true discount. 10-12% is really good, but not easy to get.)
Total Discount % = (MSRP-Net Price)/MSRP * 100
OTD = Net Price + TTL (assuming no trade-in. See comments below for trade-in info.)

Where:
MSRP: bottom line on the Monroney sticker, which includes the Delivery, Processing and Handling Fee ($1,025 for RXs sold in the Midwest).
Discount: Whatever is shown as 'discount' on the sales sheet (This is NOT the real discount. All other fees and junk must be added, reducing the true discount.)
Doc Fee: fee charged by the dealership for paperwork. Pure profit for the dealer.
Junk Items: The crap dealerships add to increase their margins, but add no value, like Nitrogen-filled tires, paint sealant, upholstery/leather sealant, etc.) If not on the Monroney sticker, it's pure profit for the dealer.
Rebates: = price reductions funded by the manufacturer. (Lexus Cash, Military, Student, etc.) Note that in many states rebates are taxable, so you will pay sales tax on this amount in those states.
TTL: state-mandated title, tag, registration, tax, license fees. These are easy to find on your state's DMV site. Know what these are before you go shopping.
OTD: Out The Door cost.

rictusgrin

RX350L
MSRP $54,670
Discount $3,670 ~6.7%
Rebate $2500
4398.75 tax + 250reg + 10 inspect + tire 12.50 + 75docfee
OTD $53246.25

Put in $500 deposit, don't have vehicle yet - a copy of sticker says "Delivered by Truck to" with dealership name/addy - does that mean the dealer has the vehicle, or is it at some port or ship? Any idea?

bamalam

The information you provided is insufficient for a definitive answer, but here are two likely scenarios. If the dealership name/address that you noted is your dealership, then you simply bought a vehicle that was inbound to them. It's the same as buying one off the lot, only the vehicle hasn't been delivered from the factory yet. You can often see references to such vehicles on dealer websites, usually labeled as "coming soon" or something similar.

If, on the other hand the noted dealership/address is NOT your dealer, then your dealer has likely swapped inventory with the other dealer to get you what you want. That's fairly common practice.

Just because the sticker says "delivered" (past tense) doesn't mean the vehicle has already been delivered to the dealer. The Monroney stickers are applied at the factory before the vehicle ships.

rictusgrin

Oh bummer! The dealership itself is referenced in that box. I'd said I'd prefer to be in possession of the vehicle in a week... guy'd said it'd be available by Feb-3-4. So can't tell exactly where it is then, eh. Thanks for the response!

bamalam

You're very welcome. The RX ships from Ontario, which isn't that long of haul from NY. Who knows what border delays are induced by Covid. Still, it's in no one's interest to take a long time to deliver, so hopefully you will get your RX in the Feb 3-4 timeframe or sooner. Enjoy the new ride!

neprosto

There is breakdown of this deal:

Car: Lexus RX 2021 F Sport Black Line
MSRP = $62,510
Dealer Price = $62,510 - $6,000 ( Discount ) + $85 (Doc Fee) + $0 (Junk Items) = $56,500
Net Price = $56,500 - $2500 = $54,000
Dealer Discount% = 9.6%
Total Discount % = 13.6%
OTD = $60,000 (assume sales tax 7.5%)

I put down 12000, and financed $48,000 for 6y@3.24%. Monthly payment = $860

Car is good but the catch is black line is F Sport Appearance. So I missed adaptive suspension....

bamalam

Thanks for the excellent documentation - it's a service to future buyers. You got a great deal on a limited edition vehicle!

rictusgrin

$860x72 = $61,920 ...did I miss something?

neprosto

finance for 5 years/ 60 months. Typed incorectly