cM3go

Stupid move in my opinion.

Lexus dealerships ban haggling over price

00TL-P3.2

A lot of dealers (not just Lexus, the most advertising by 1 Acura dealer) around here have started advertising things like this "to improve the car buying experience"

Joneill44

Are they going to cut their MSRP by $10k on every vehicle

A dealership not wanting to come down on price would be #1 reason for me to never walk foot in there. The car buying process sucks because its a never ending list of shit they want to sell you, especially options for the car. You could either option out a new 4series or buy an ILX. Who the hell wants to spend $30k in options?

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

<p>A lot of the Sonic owned dealerships have been doing this &quot;True Price&quot; thing which eliminates negotiation...</p>

alex2364

I had the same experience at a Sonic BMW dealer. Their attitude completely changed when I told them I'm going to the dealer across the town because they had a lower price.

AZuser

This person must not know of Scion's Pure Price, where "the price you see is the price you pay. No haggle, no hassle."

AZuser

This feels like the Scion Pure Price model. Price you pay will likely be lower than the MSRP, but who knows how much of a discount it will be. Asking full MSRP on a car with no discount will drive almost every potential customer away to another dealership across town.

Scion Pure Price | No Hassle Car Purchase | Scion.com

v6cord2k5

iTrader: (1)

Pretty much the exact reason I walked out of CarMax and never went back.

SamDoe1

The dealership I bought my Jeep from had a no haggle price and was $2k cheaper than the haggle dealership's best offer.

oonowindoo

As long as their no haggle price is reasonable, I think that is fine. But if they are saying no haggle price on MSRP, then they are fuking out of their mind.

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

<p>This is why I stay out of Carmax... Especially since Carmax is already overpriced as is. Hopefully none of the dealerships in my area start to do this...</p>

SamDoe1

Carmax is only good to buy an unreliable car and get their awesome warranty. Anything else and you should take your business elsewhere.

JS + XES

iTrader: (1)

This is a huge WIN for the dealer only.

knight rider

iTrader: (1)

Lexus. Really? I hate to perpetuate a stereotype but I swear the last time I went into a Lexus dealership most of the customers were Asian. I also look around and half the Lexuses I see have Asian drivers. Everyone knows Asians haggle on price (again, generalizing). Would this move upset a significant customer base for Lexus? Or perhaps this is a move to stop the haggling with this significant customer base?

black label

All Asians haggle but to different extents based on their home country. Vietnamese and Cambodians will haggle to the very last penny. Japanese will haggle a bit but in the end just want to be treated fairly.

Middle eastern folks are the toughest IMO. When they walked into any dealer I worked at it was like Moses parting the Red Sea watching the salesmen clear out. I always walked right up to them. They drove here in something, they must have bought it somewhere, I might as well be the guy to sell them the next one. I had a sales manager who claimed he never closed a deal with someone named "Patel". I told him it was because he was negative, anyone named Patel who comes in, give them to me, I'll politely haggle with them all day and send them home in their new car. It's all about understanding the culture they grew up in and tayloring the process to suit that culture. FWIW, the Patels who negotiated for 2 hours before agreeing to the deal typically love you once the deal is agreed to.

That said, the only people Lexus' plan will work with is single soccer moms who are scared of car buying. Anyone who grew up in a haggling country won't accept it's a good deal until they beat you up on price a bit.

Rick_TL-S

Been hearing about this at work, but don't know if we'll be testing it. We can already afford to offer some deals well under MSRP due to our high volume, but sometimes even then, Sewell will go a step further just to get the client.

Depending on just what kind of prices this no-haggle system comes up with, it could give Sewell a slight advantage knowing we can't come off the price we offer unless they too, become a test bed.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

<p></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Be a man. DO THE RIGHT THING!&nbsp;</p><p>Today, you come by only thity fo, fifty. tomorrow you come by, &nbsp;200 dolla.</p><p>Be a man.</p>

neuronbob

Some merit to this approach if the price is OK. This may help with some who'd rather pay a little more for an easy approach. That would not be me.

cjTL

iTrader: (2)

Definitely caters to the crowd who are afraid of dealerships. Not a bad approach, but I'd prefer haggling if it means a few hundred or thousand cheaper.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Same. My CTS-V was froma "True Price" dealer and to date it's one of the best prices I've seen. <br />
<br /><br />I think if you know your prices it's really not a big deal.

black label

There in lies the problem. All it takes is one person to successfully negotiate a lower price and the model is broken.

I worked at "honda north" in MA or a while which was a one price dealer. Sometimes it worked, but many times people could negotiate a better deal. Once one salesman does it, others want to as well. I feel pretty confident in saying all car salesman would rather a minimum commission for their time than no commission for their time. At that point, one price is a scam.

As much as people claim to hate negotiating car deals, 99.8 percent of them still do it.

Working at a extreme high line dealer (which Lexus is not) is the one exception. I sold many a porsche by telling customers the price on the window sticker and I know the guys (guy actually) at our Lamborghini sister store did the same. The only reason that worked was rich folks will pay for exclusivity

black label

Your a bit of an exception being in the industry. You can recognize a good deal by the deal itself, not by the amount off MSRP. "Chevy took $10,000 off the price of my truck, why can Acura only take $1500 off the price of this TSX? You guys are trying to rip me off."

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

In the industry?

TacoBello

All the BMW dealerships around me are like this. A guy I work with bought a new 1M and an X1 from the same dealership. He tried haggling on price when he wanted to buy his M3 from the same dealer. They told him "this is the price, take it or leave it."

black label

Hmmm, maybe I'm confusing you with a different mod.

spawn_x

Carmax sucks. My friend was looking for (and bought) a Lexus IS250, and every single one had something wrong with it. Them not negotiating on price would make me walk out, but he didn't have many options on financing so he went for it anyway.

Say no to carmax.

knight rider

iTrader: (1)

Yes. Carmax is for buyers with bad credit. Carmax started off as a good company (IMO). I would say Carmax's day will come but unfortunately someone has to cater to the less creditworthy car buyer, and Carmax is the 800 pound gorilla in that space.

spawn_x

The car he bought was the "cleanest" we saw, and even that one had painted rims on one side (what the heck??).

He did get a nice 27% APR. When I saw it I laughed and explained that his 20k car is going to cost him 50k once he is done paying it off. The rep completely ignored the APR talk and tried to get him to hurry up and sign. He did.

I do remember carmax "back in the day", but they are a giant now

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

<p></p><p></p><p>hope your friend never has to owe you or breaks your stuff.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

<p>I think so. &nbsp;That's not me </p>

RPhilMan1

And you let him sign it?

I would not let a friend do something that foolish.

v6cord2k5

iTrader: (1)

Likely confused you for Eddie aka Shoofin

tmux

I helped my co-worker buy a new car recently and he's the type that doesn't like hassle. He traded in his ~$4k car for $1k for the convenience. He gets tired just listening to negotiating strategies lol, even though he's not quite baller enough to just go get whatever he wants at MSRP. He's the type that would love the no hassle experience.

No offense to any salesfolk and dealers here, but many in the industry are not pleasant to deal. Being scripted doesn't help either. "If we can get you a good price, are you ready to buy today?" zzzzzz.

So the change would surely improve the buying experience for a sizable amount of people. How it affects profits is a whole separate ballgame. I would guess that they have worked on a fancy pricing algorithm that will take into account zip code and likely vary the price more frequently as they make future tweaks. The apartment rental market could be a close analogy; regional management can vary the pricing on the fly on a daily basis.

tmux

Interesting experiences, always wanted to know a dealer outside of his job

Maybe Lexus is being smart by sending those customers to other brands? Their overall image includes the kind of guys that step out of their cars, though they can't influence the private party used car market much.

What probably feels good is thinking we got it for hundreds / thousand less than other buyers But we as buyers don't have the full picture. Flat pricing removes this possibility of doing better than the previous guy but devil's in the details with pricing. I won't complain if the final price is better overall.

TacoBello

You let him go forward with that purchase? You're a bad friend. A very bad friend, indeed.

Or, he's just an idiot. I guess you really can't fix stupid. He'd have been better off buying a beater and driving it until the wheels fall off, while rebuilding his credit in any other, cheaper way possible (I'm guessing thats why he was at 27%).

tmux

27% wow. Can always refi it though. Each day is costly!

oonowindoo

They make Loan sharks look like public servant at 27%.

JS + XES

iTrader: (1)

27%

I was mad that I got 0.9% instead of ZERO.

mrmako

27%? Is that even legal? That's like negotiating a hand job then finding out she has no hands, just metal claw hooks.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

<p>lol mrmarko is funny today.</p>