Long Delivery Dates on New ES

[olliesgrandad]

I was at my Dealer's yesterday and the salesman I usually deal with was telling me that Lexus have been caught out by the high demand for the ES. Currently orders for UX are July delivery, but ES is now December delivery if you want to order a specific vehicle.

[VinnyB]

Wow glad i got mine in jan the takumi version might put it on autotrader and make a profit 😂

[wynants]

i ordered mine 10 days ago, black full spec privilege line, delivery mid july

[Dealkent]

Things are looking up for Lexus 👍

[DanD]

12 hours ago, Dealkent said:

Things are looking up for Lexus 👍

Not sure I'm happy with that😡. Don't want everybody driving a Lexus.😜

[SH20]

Signed up on the 26th Feb 2019 for an ES.  Took a call last month from dealer saying it will be August now instead of July.  Never had a date for July , just sometime in July. Now it's sometime in August.    6 months for a new car is too long.   

[YYB129]

I too placed an order at the beginning of February, now been advised early September! Was advised that all Lexus models are impacted with delay.

6 months is too long, however not unusual; my 530d took 8 months, and my C350e took 10 months.

[olliesgrandad]

4 minutes ago, YYB129 said:

I too placed an order at the beginning of February, now been advised early September! Was advised that all Lexus models are impacted with delay.

6 months is too long, however not unusual; my 530d took 8 months, and my C350e took 10 months.

In 1997 it was 18 months for both 5 series BMW and C Class Mercedes 😬

[Habu]

Better recheck my order too as I ordered 3 March with an ETA of 20 July.  Spoke to the dealer about 2 weeks ago and it was still sometime in July.

[Dapprman]

Could be worse - now they've taken deposits and launched the car over here and in Europe, the estimated delivery time on a Tesla 3 is 2+ years - and having seen the published financials for the company there's no guaranty they'll still be around then (the profit they announced last year was on cost of cars sold v cost of cars manufactured, the company still made close to a billion dollar loss).

[i-s]

1 hour ago, Dapprman said:

Could be worse - now they've taken deposits and launched the car over here and in Europe, the estimated delivery time on a Tesla 3 is 2+ years

Ordered 4th May, Delivery June/July. 

[Dapprman]

2 hours ago, i-s said:

Ordered 4th May, Delivery June/July. 

Apologies - could have sworn I read it on a legitimate news/motoring site or Pistonheads chat (from people who had ordered) but can find nothing (including wading through over 20 pages of Tesla lovers going to love, haters going to hate, and how can you get range anxiety with a proven 200+ mile range ...).

If you're picking it up from their main place/garage/service centre in West Drayton/Yiewsley - wave at me on your way back if you're heading to the M4 as I work at Stockley Park, near by.

[i-s]

I'm oop norf, so will almost certainly be collecting from Manchester south. 

Even though I've only ordered an SR+, range anxiety won't be a thing - I'm coming from a 24kWh Leaf, so will have 3x the range and far more (and faster) charging options. For many longer journeys we'll use the GS450h by choice for quieter, comfier suspension, etc. 

[VinnyB]

2 hours ago, i-s said:

Ordered 4th May, Delivery June/July. 

I ordered mine 27th jan delivered 31st jan and been loving it ever since 😂🤣🤪

[i-s]

Sorry, you misunderstood - I was referring to Dapprman's post that I quoted. I ordered a Tesla 3 on 4th May, not a Lexus ES. 

[Dapprman]

15 minutes ago, i-s said:

I'm oop norf, so will almost certainly be collecting from Manchester south. 

Even though I've only ordered an SR+, range anxiety won't be a thing - I'm coming from a 24kWh Leaf, so will have 3x the range and far more (and faster) charging options. For many longer journeys we'll use the GS450h by choice for quieter, comfier suspension, etc. 

Yeah we've derailed this thread somewhat.   I agree 200+ miles should not be a problem - if I were to go for a 3, it would the range extended version, but only because the long journey I do is around 210 miles (Watford to Southport) but with charging problems at the other end so would need to be able to get part back.

[i-s]

13 minutes ago, Dapprman said:

Yeah we've derailed this thread somewhat.   I agree 200+ miles should not be a problem - if I were to go for a 3, it would the range extended version, but only because the long journey I do is around 210 miles (Watford to Southport) but with charging problems at the other end so would need to be able to get part back.

Fair enough. 

Have a play with A Better Route Planner: https://abetterrouteplanner.com

Putting that journey in (watford-southport-watford), for both LR and SR+ it suggests stopping at Keele superchargers in both directions for both cars. The difference is that the LR would need a total of approx 30 minutes at the superchargers (10 min going, 23 returning), compared to total 60 (26 going, 33 returning) minutes for the SR+ (SR+ has slower peak charging rates than the LR - 102kW on supercharger v2, vs 145kW for the LR. LR uses about 20Wh per mile more (267 vs 247) than SR+ (weight and AWD))

[ColinBarber]

22 hours ago, YYB129 said:

6 months is too long, however not unusual; my 530d took 8 months, and my C350e took 10 months.

No excuse for a German manufacturer. With Lexus the wait is getting a slot on the boat - the vehicles are built to order but it only takes 48 hours from start to finish.

[NemesisUK]

2 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

No excuse for a German manufacturer. With Lexus the wait is getting a slot on the boat - the vehicles are built to order but it only takes 48 hours from start to finish.

I've always wondered how long it take to paint and assemble a car.

That said it will be approx 4 months from order to delivery for my new RC and IIRC it was just a 4 week boat trip for my current RC. I imagine getting a build slot takes time as RC are only built in Japan and there's a huge demand from the States.

Getting excited again now .. 

[Habu]

16 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

I've always wondered how long it take to paint and assemble a car.

That said it will be approx 4 months from order to delivery for my new RC and IIRC it was just a 4 week boat trip for my current RC. I imagine getting a build slot takes time as RC are only built in Japan and there's a huge demand from the States.

Getting excited again now .. 

Yes, 4 weeks on the boat.  I’ve followed several cars from Japan including my current NX.  Each have been pretty much bang on 4 weeks.

[Linas.P]

On 5/12/2019 at 4:48 PM, Dapprman said:

and how can you get range anxiety with a proven 200+ mile range ...

I don't think it is "range" anxiety, it is much more important what you do when you driver that 200+ miles? It is not like you just pop into the loo in the service station and get-out in less than 5 minutes overall. I would call it recharging anxiety. And what you do if you driving in Scotland at night - you will be hard pressed to find petrol station open, nevermind charging point. It is not the range which is an issue, but the time it takes to charge and the lack of accessible (and when it comes to Tesla - powerful enough) charging points. 

Back to the topic - ES has always sold well in US, now it seems to be popular in China and southern Asia overall... So I think it is combination of adding UK as a new market whilst model is still hot + UK being minor market. It is not surprising at all that all US fleets would be changing from 6th gen to 7th gen now and for Lexus is certainly more important to meet demand in core market, so RHD build obviously is put on back burner.

My point - I think it is too early to make success story of how ES despite "low expectations" succesfully replaced superior GS. It is simply that in global picture ES has always been popular car and 50% of the sales are always in first 2 years of generation. As well ES has better margins than GS for Lexus. GS was actually unique and thus expensive car to make with tight profit margins, whereas ES is literally re-badged Toyota and makes nice profit.

[NemesisUK]

6 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

ES has always sold well in US, now it seems to be popular in China and southern Asia overall... So I think it is combination of adding UK as a new market whilst model is still hot + UK being minor market. It is not surprising at all that all US fleets would be changing from 6th gen to 7th gen now and for Lexus is certainly more important to meet demand in core market, so RHD build obviously is put on back burner.

Aren't LHD ES models manufactured in Kentucky?

"Following a $360 million investment, the existing Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky plant was geared up for Lexus production with a new assembly line and an additional 750 jobs. Production of the ES 350 model that is particularly popular in North America began in the autumn of 2015, taking pressure off Kyushu, which will carry on producing other ES and ES hybrid models. The Georgetown facility is expected to produce 50,000 units a year."

https://blog.lexus.co.uk/where-are-lexus-cars-made/

[Linas.P]

2 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Aren't LHD ES models manufactured in Kentucky?

"Following a $360 million investment, the existing Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky plant was geared up for Lexus production with a new assembly line and an additional 750 jobs. Production of the ES 350 model that is particularly popular in North America began in the autumn of 2015, taking pressure off Kyushu, which will carry on producing other ES and ES hybrid models. The Georgetown facility is expected to produce 50,000 units a year."

https://blog.lexus.co.uk/where-are-lexus-cars-made/

That may be so, however, it may or may not covered the initial demand for the new model. As well ES seems to be in demand in China - Chinese especially like L versions with more space in the back, department where ES is quite strong. Don't forget ES is sold for first time in entire EU again putting pressure on the car which is already in high demand due to being new model worldwide. It would be reasonable to argue that all plants making GS could be re-tooled to make new ES now, but maybe that got delayed, or maybe they haven't fully killed of GS.

[ColinBarber]

28 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Aren't LHD ES models manufactured in Kentucky?

No I believe they build vehicles for North America, they don't export.

[NemesisUK]

26 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

No I believe they build vehicles for North America, they don't export.

North American cars are LHD!