Lexus News: Lexus Experiments With No-Haggle Pricing

[William Maley]

Twelve Lexus dealers in the U.S. are part of a pilot program of offering haggle-free pricing as a way to improve customer satisfaction.

 

“While negotiation-free pricing is not revolutionary, we strongly believe the concept will further elevate transaction transparency and customer care,” said Jeff Bracken, general manager of Lexus at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars.

 

Wards Auto says the program works by dealers setting prices that will be relative to their local market.

 

“They’ll drive it based on what they think is a reasonable sale price and they really do stick to that price,” said Bracken.

 

From there, a buyer comes into the dealership and pays the price the dealer has selected for the desired vehicle. The buyer will be working with same dealership employee throughout the entire transaction. This is important as many buyers don't like being shuffled around to different people during the buying process according to research.

 

Now if the experiment proves to be a success, Lexus will expand this program nationwide and allow dealers to opt into the program.

 

Source: Wards Auto

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[regfootball]

LMAO! that won't work for them / luxury brand

[oldshurst442]

In Quebec a decade ago...Toyota had no haggle policy...I dont remember if Lexus had one too..and I dont know if Toyota still has this no haggle policy...but good luck to them if that is the route they want to take in the States...

[FAPTurbo]

Good idea. This is directly targeted at millenial buyers who view the car-buying process to be as archaic as rubbing sticks to make fire.  

 

Having the single point of contact is also clever. It creates a more personalized approach that's consistent with a luxury image. 

[smk4565]

I like the idea of no-haggle pricing.  Cars are about the only new product you negotiate price on.  You don't negotiate on price of a washer and dryer set, you compare the price of Kenmore, Whirlpool and Maytag and pick one.

 

The car buying process is lousy, and you do often talk to a sales person or two, then the manager, then the fiance person, then the sales person again, it takes forever.   I'd rather buy a car online at a no haggle price and skip all the crap that dealers put customers through.

[daves87rs]

Dealer mark up? Maybe up the price to assume a deal...

 

 

Should be interesting since most look at price first.

[El Kabong]

Toyota: we aimed to beat GM. Then we slowly morphed into them. See also: Saturn.

[Drew Dowdell]

Toyota: we aimed to beat GM. Then we slowly morphed into them. See also: Saturn.

 

I think Scion has been no-haggle for years.

[El Kabong]

Like I said: Saturn

[William Maley]

 

Toyota: we aimed to beat GM. Then we slowly morphed into them. See also: Saturn.

 

I think Scion has been no-haggle for years.

 

 

Yeah, Scion has been doing this since the start. I believe its called Pure Price.

[regfootball]

This is a bunch of hogwash.  The salesperson is not going to be the guy who says what the trade in is worth.  The sales guy is not going to be skilled in extracting as much possibilities from the finance process that the finance person is a professional in.  The general mgr and sales mgrs will want to have the final say on deals.  Unless they pay all the sales people big $$$$$ and make them personally responsible for profit and loss on the deal.  

 

This is PR crap.  I do believe they can be successful on the one price thing, but now you are colluding to ask all your dealers to sell for the same price.  If dealer A sells 200 Lexi a month, why should they not have the ability to discount their price if their volume bonus allows?

 

Since most Lexi probably lease anyways, these complications on one price may not matter but there are so many unique situations with buying a car, and trust me, rich folks are the ones who want the most price accommodations and to haggle when shopping.  

 

All this millenial pandering if that is part of this, I highly doubt its so horribly frustrating to get prices from 2-3 places and get the best one.

 

the trade in and finance process is going to be profoundly different at any dealer NO MATTER WHAT LEXUS THINKS THEY CAN DO on the sales side.