Lexus April 2018 Sales Report

[ssun30]

Lexus' bread and butter has always been ES and RX, now NX, so they're just used to the cars selling themselves. But if we ever get to a day where we have NX F or RX F and things like that, Lexus is going to have to change how they approach the customer once they walk into the showroom. Of course, another big part of this is marketing and advertising, but still. Once you move above $60-65k, Lexus needs some help with training their sales force on articulating the value in things like luxury packages, sports packages, performance options, etc.

I'm curious how American Lexus dealers do with customization on their "L-cars". IMO getting exactly what the buyers want is very important in this segment; they want to stand out and will not make any compromise. For example, if I said I want a red mica 500 with Kiriko glass, they will give me a red mica 500 with Kiriko glass or I'll walk away. They really can't say "hey here's one on the lot in black with walnut wood and it's $20k cheaper" and risk losing a sale.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

In my personal experience at 3 different dealerships, if you're buying an LS, they'll get you what you ask for, even if it means transporting it from far out of state. They may try to get you to look at other colors with the same equipment, but a little pushback works wonders.

 

[spwolf]

I'm curious how American Lexus dealers do with customization on their "L-cars". IMO getting exactly what the buyers want is very important in this segment; they want to stand out and will not make any compromise. For example, if I said I want a red mica 500 with Kiriko glass, they will give me a red mica 500 with Kiriko glass or I'll walk away. They really can't say "hey here's one on the lot in black with walnut wood and it's $20k cheaper" and risk losing a sale.

Thing is that Lexus in the USA is market leader, so they can really get you a car that you want. They sell on average 27,000 per month, so there is some car somewhere.

In Europe, it is more usual for customer to wait for the car, same goes for Japan... so customer just waits 120 days to get their "custom order". In US, this is almost unheard of, and dealer will work to get specific sample traded from another dealer.

 

[Gecko]

I'm curious how American Lexus dealers do with customization on their "L-cars". IMO getting exactly what the buyers want is very important in this segment; they want to stand out and will not make any compromise. For example, if I said I want a red mica 500 with Kiriko glass, they will give me a red mica 500 with Kiriko glass or I'll walk away. They really can't say "hey here's one on the lot in black with walnut wood and it's $20k cheaper" and risk losing a sale.

In my personal experience at 3 different dealerships, if you're buying an LS, they'll get you what you ask for, even if it means transporting it from far out of state. They may try to get you to look at other colors with the same equipment, but a little pushback works wonders.

In my experience, LS has always gotten special status and dealers are willing to go above and beyond, and do whatever to make the customer happy - as they should.

LX has such limited options that I don't think it's as big of a deal, but I have seen some dealers who are happy to order/find exactly what a consumer wants.

Can't speak to LC... I haven't really asked any of my dealer contacts.

 

[Rhambler]

I love how Lexus reported a monthly sales increase this past month by using percentage rates, whereas most manufacturers reported true numbers.

Typical of Toyota: over reporting and over stating values, just like their engines.

I wouldn’t call that ignorance, though. Let’s see, what word would fit better? Hmm. Denial. There we go.

 

[spwolf]

I love how Lexus reported a monthly sales increase this past month by using percentage rates, whereas most manufacturers reported true numbers.

Typical of Toyota: over reporting and over stating values, just like their engines.

I wouldn’t call that ignorance, though. Let’s see, what word would fit better? Hmm. Denial. There we go.

lol, wtf.
https://lexusenthusiast.com/2018/05/01/lexus-april-2018-sales-report/

Every manufacturer but Tesla gives specific sales numbers each month for US, and GM does it every quarter.

What are you doing on this site?

 

[spwolf]

I just never noticed it before and it is misleading in my opinion.

I only noticed it after reading Tragic’s post in the April Sales thread, where Lexus reported a monthly sales increase, while the media (and numbers) shows a decline.

Go to the summary release of other manufactuers and they report percentages based on volume, which to me makes more sense.

You seem pretty dense with this... Toyota always releases full pdf with all possible numbers at the bottom of every sales press release. Just because you read only a quote form someone does not mean they did not release full numbers.

I dont even know what are you trying to suggest - their sales are up YoY and I have linked you full article on this website which has exact numbers for each model.

@krew in fact all of this discussion should be moved to sales thread and not engine thread.

 

[Rhambler]

How am I being dense?

What about everyone being so defensive?

 

[krew]

I love how Lexus reported a monthly sales increase this past month by using percentage rates, whereas most manufacturers reported true numbers.

Typical of Toyota: over reporting and over stating values, just like their engines.

I wouldn’t call that ignorance, though. Let’s see, what word would fit better? Hmm. Denial. There we go.

I have been writing the Lexus sales reports for the last ten years. Toyota provides both the Monthly Sales Rate (MSR) and the Daily Sales Rate (DSR). The DSR takes the number of sales and divides it over the number of days per month that dealerships can sell cars. I prefer this metric personally, and have stuck with it.

This can cause some confusion, but it balances out over the year. On every monthly sales report, I include this disclaimer:

Please note, all percentages are calculated by the Daily Sales Rate (DSR), which takes into account the number of days in the month that dealerships could sell cars. April 2018 had 24 selling days, April 2017 had 26 selling days.

No harm done, everyone makes mistakes. For instance, I don't really care for your attitude, but would love to be proven wrong and see you contribute to the forum in a meaningful way.