Comment by ObsoleteNerd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ObsoleteNerd | Hacker News Reader

I recently bought my first new Lexus, and have to say it was one of the nicest experiences I’ve ever had buying a car. The staff were all no-bullshit, no-pressure, and all legitimately friendly people. The first service did similar to the story linked, picked it up from our home, gave us a loaner (higher model fully specced out), and left some decently high end gift products in the back seat when we got our car back, as well as it being detailed with a full tank.

In comparison when I bought a brand new “high end” VW that had major mechanical issues within the first few months (needed entire motor and gearbox replaced with 5k kms on the clock) they made me drop it in and get a taxi home, then tried to charge me extra for “storage” for picking it up late (I couldn’t get there on the day they said it was done). Similar horror stories for other dealerships.

Lexus aren’t the fanciest cars in the world, but what you get for the price and the overall owner experience after years of dealing with sleazy stingy dealerships has pretty much guaranteed I’ll always go back to them from now on.

Goes to show how far a bit of genuine customer care goes. Of course it’s a business decision and not purely then wanting to be nice, but it’s proven time and time again to create customers for life, and customers who’ll pay a premium purely to be treated like a human being.

Everything you described depends 100% on the individual dealership not on the brand. It's not like Volkswagen sends a manual to their dealerships that says "be dicks to customers" and Lexus tells theirs "only hire nice people and shower customers in expensive gifts".

Nearly all dealerships are run as franchises and there is no "standard" of care beyond some very basic rules. The owner of the dealership(not the manufacturer) will dictate how well the customers are treated and what kind of perks they get. You happened to find a decent Lexus dealership - maybe somewhere else there will be an equally nice Volkswagen dealership.

The thing that does matter is how quickly and easily the manufacturer approves repairs and warranty claims - in my experience Nissan was always dragging their feet, Mercedes was ok-ish, and Volvo was completely outstanding. But even then, it has little to do with "the manufacturer" and everything with their national HQ in whichever country you live in - some operate on tighter budgets so aren't as keen to approve repairs as others. In EU a good solution sometimes is to literally just drive across the border and try to get the repair done in a neighbouring country, if you aren't having luck getting the warranty claim approved.

My family has owned Lexus cars and dealt with dealers along the east coast for 30+ years. Maybe we've been lucky all along, but every one of them have provided similar experiences like the one described in the OP. Purely anecdotal but maybe there's a trend in Lexus to have great customer service at dealerships. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that there is a crappy Lexus dealer, but my experience in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Florida indicates otherwise.

I doubt the family has dealt with Lexus for 30 plus years. Lexus has barely been around for 31 years, with the first model having been released in September of 1989.

There's no doubt that variance exists among franchises. But how much leverage do manufacturers have over their dealer networks?

I imagine if Toyota is going around building their Lexus brand around "concierge" level service, they could attach bonuses to this metric—maybe weight the bonus more heavily in that direction than they do for their Toyota brand—and punish dealerships that disappoint their customers.

Then again, a lot of dealerships are owned by huge dealer groups now, so the power balance isn't always tilted toward the manufacturer.

Interesting. I have never thought about how much influence these dealer groups can exert on specific OEMs.

Dealership model will end up killing all conventional car manufacturers it’s like a giant lead sinker

"You happened to find a decent Lexus dealership - maybe somewhere else there will be an equally nice Volkswagen dealership."

The margin on a VW isn't as high and costs significantly less on average than Lexus, so independent dealerships selling VWs have to operate on volume instead of long-term reputation and relationship building. The VW shops will be nice but don't have the time or budget for all the extra.

"Everything you described depends 100% on the individual dealership not on the brand."

This isn't the case. Just like different luxury-leaning domestic brands in Europe have levels of corporate ownership or incentive to provide certain services, leading Lexus also has what I assume is an incentive program for dealerships to offer different levels of lush care: https://www.lexus.com/guest-experience.

There will be outliers but the trends and reputations exist for often explicit reasons.

There are definitely differences between dealers. The one in Austin was superb. San Antonio and Raleigh were very good. The one here in Charlotte, while still good and better than any domestic brand, is not "Lexus good"

Lexus of Austin would have owners lined up out to the street every morning to get routine services done. The one here, not so much - and I don't think they understand what they're doing wrong and the business they're missing out on. I mean, when your customers prefer going to "Monkey-Lube" over you for their oil changes, that's a problem.

My experiences with Lexus Corporate have all been amazing. They replaced the dashboard about 4 years ago as part of a recall, on what was then a 12 year old SUV. I have never heard of a carmaker ever doing anything like that. Over the years I've owned nearly every brand [0], but when it comes time to replace it I want another Lexus.

[0] The Mercedes dealer was great, always getting me a service loaner. They would greet me and knew me by sight - because something went wrong on average every 8.5 weeks with my 1999 ML-320

Well, in all honesty, VW are the "Toyota"; Audi is the group brand that one should compare to Lexus. That said, I find it entirely plausible that the Audi experience would not be too dissimilar.

I've owned both Toyota and Audi and wouldn't touch another Audi for its finicky engine and suspension.

That being said the Audi drove a hell of lot more smoothly and beautifully but just stuff needed to be tweaked and fixed all the time.

Toyota (and Lexus) just know how to make vehicles that run super well for long periods of time.

What does a lexus cost? Asking because I find it generally impossible to just lookup how much a car costs more or less, especially as someone who's never had to buy a car.

Lexus, like any brand nowadays, makes an upwards of dozen models in all kinds of price brackets. You need to be a little bit more specific.

Chicken and egg, though - as someone who has never owned a car, i wouldn't know which model to look at!

Is there scope for a levels.fyi for cars?

yes, and IIUC it's already a crowded market. I haven't been car shopping in a very long time so I'm not sure what's the current state of the art, but the Kelley Blue Book (edit: mentioned in a sibling comment) is probably the original and best-known one. First published in 1926, online since 1995.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelley_Blue_Book

Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds can help you estimate. Although it's heavily affected by age and model.

Also note, pre-owned vehicle prices in the US have greatly increased since March.

The company I work for, we can provide the original window sticker for a pre-owned vehicle.

This had been a desired feature for several years.

Now, dealerships no longer want the customer to see that info on a pre-owned vehicles, because it has the list price of the vehicle as new.

The pre-owned price is very close to the new price.

Do you know why those prices have increased? I naively would've expected those prices to drop due to COVID, not increase.

Also, why would one still buy a pre-owned vehicle if a new vehicle is available for a very similar price?

So, the current ‘joke’ is, buy a brand new vehicle, wait a month for its value to appreciate, then sell it back to the dealership.

My guess on the reason for the pricing increases is several factors:

At the beginning of the ‘shutdown’, it affected auto auctions, where dealers obtain a decent amount of their pre-owned inventory, besides trade-ins.

Actual manufacturing shutdowns decreased new car outputs

The rescue package allowed for a substantial jolt for vehicle financing, and it is not uncommon now for people to finance a car for a 6 year term. There are also 7 year terms, now.

So, awash in finance money and limited supply.

Here's a list of Lexus models with pictures, and starting new prices: https://www.caranddriver.com/lexus

> 5k kms

[cries in metric]

There are weirder ways to write "5 megameters".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com