VIP Event

[Vlady]

Hi all, I booked myself in for a VIP event in Lexus Glasgow next week! No idea what to expect!

Did anyone attend (I am sure some people did) one of these? 

Did anyone buy a car during VIP event?

Do they really making you a great offer?

Just never attended one.

Thanks

[hockeyedwards]

I don't want to burst your bubble, but unless you are 100% going to buy a car there and then, pretty pointless IMO.

Get emails all the time for VIP/ loyal customer events etc.

They are more geared towards new car purchases and there are some ok/ good deals on offer, great would be a stretch if you ask me. They essentially will do what they can within reason to get a sale out of you. I do wonder if it differs much between dealerships, but I'd presume not much?

We did ask some questions regarding a used NX, but they were more focused on getting us into a new one, we did not oblige.

[Vlady]

I know a guy who bought an ES last year on one of these events and Lexus took of the price £4k!

Another example, someone else I know bought a Merc E-class through VIP event as it was a good deal, so who knows!? 😁

I am having a day off anyway plus I will be near Glasgow anyway so decided to accept an invitation. 

Will see how it goes.

[Malc]

12 hours ago, Vlady said:

I am having a day off anyway plus I will be near Glasgow anyway so decided to accept an invitation. 

champagne and canapes no doubt ............ better than the coffee and bikkies then ?

Do tell

Malc

[Vlady]

1 minute ago, Malc said:

champagne and canapes no doubt ............ better than the coffee and bikkies then ?

Do tell

Malc

Not sure about that but again, I was never on one of these events. I will pass on champagne as I will be driving but might enjoy canapes. lol! 🙂

 

[Vlady]

I created today an excel sheet with the options I must have and the option that are desirable on my new car, I am surprised I have not done that long time ago!

I used to buy cars on how they drive and then how they look but every car was very well specced, apart from Passat 2012 which didn't have a climate control which is on top of my list since then!

[Shahpor]

3 hours ago, Vlady said:

I created today an excel sheet with the options I must have and the option that are desirable on my new car, I am surprised I have not done that long time ago!

Let's have a look then 🙂

[Linas.P]

I receive at least dozen calls, e-mails and letter every year... sound like massive event but in reality it is nothing exceptional. Not sure if that is in all dealership, but at least my experience with Woodford and Reading. 

I was expecting at least some champagne and canapes, but it wasn't the case. Perhaps because of Covid, but it was pretty much same as booking appointment with sales guy, just in my case sales guy didn't even know what I am after despite all that information was gathered from me over the phone.

Besides you don't even need to attend the event to get all exactly same deals e.g. service plan and low interest with new purchase is offered across the board. £2000-£4000 discounts on pre-orders are as well available for certain models even over the phone, so you definitely don't need to attend anything to qualify. 

Probably more interesting event is one you have after this one, when they try to sell cars which comeback from lease, but even then last time I have attended all the cars were already pre-sold. So it wasn't like you attend in group of 50 people in front of 50 cars and you can almost bid on the best. But that was not the case - there were like 8 cars 7 of which were "reserved", one was IS300h executive which was just poor deal. 

[Vlady]

45 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Besides you don't even need to attend the event to get all exactly same deals e.g. service plan and low interest with new purchase is offered across the board. £2000-£4000 discounts on pre-orders are as well available for certain even over the phone, so you definitely don't need to attend anything to qualify. 

 

In a last 4 weeks I was in touch with a few garages, Lexus and Toyota, I visited some of them and emailed to others as they are down south.

Not a single one of them offered what you have above, they have not even mentioned service plan to lure me in. I even had a feeling they are not desperate to have business, I am trying not to feel like it is personal and trying to blame the market right now.

I contacted Lexus Glasgow as I took an ES for a test drive and I specifically asked about NX, salesman said he will send me the best quote he can and it was a week ago - I am still waiting! I even emailed him back a few days ago reminding about the quote and nothing so far!

Toyota, salesman saw that we really enjoyed Corolla Tourer, yes, I took one for a test drive and I was blown away but how this thing drives, basically as much as I was disappointed with ES F-Sport this much I was shocked in a good way how Corolla performed. Anyway, the guy provided one quote on a new car (I even sent him a specific spec of the car I want), he sent me one quote back and that's it! It didn't mention any other offers garage/dealer can offer like service plan, GAP insurance etc!

May be my accent tells them I have lots of money! lol! 🙂

Linas, do share how they offer you £2-4k off the car and then on top of that service plan? May be Lexus can do that but Toyota offers 0% APR so not much they can take off the car I guess.

[Linas.P]

Only for certain cars. So for example I got a card (like a Christmas card) saying that they offer £4000 in RX-L Takumi, £3000 on RX Takumi and £2000 on ES F-Sport with Takumi. I have seen this offered periodically, but does not mean that you can come order UX and get £2000 off and further I never seen it offered on cars which are selling well anyway, like IS, CT or UX. It is only for specific high end models... In grand scheme of things £4000 isn't really that much for £80k RX-L. 

As for low interest, most of new cars are generally on low interest, deepening on the time of the year it is like 2.9-4.9%. If Toyota offers 0%, that is great deal, but I assume their cars I priced accordingly. 

Free service with new car is always first thing to be offered if you try to negotiate. 

 

[Vlady]

VIP event was good, managed to get an NX350h for a test drive (non F-sport) and enjoyed it but was not blown away, may be because I used to drive saloon car mostly, sitting up high not bad but feels a bit weird, just more time if I had I would get used to it. BUT, even during VIP they have no deals on new NX and the one I built would cost £43-44k and I would like not to pay Luxury tax, if I can.

Then we looked at ES, I took the one with Premium Pack for a test drive and loved it, the ONLY negative point I could find is the size of the door pockets, everything else was as I would expect from Lexus. The guy will send me a quote later today. During VIP Lexus offers £2k off the car price plus dealer discount another £1k, all depends on monthly payments at the end. ES I managed to keep just under £40k but I all could choose is the colour!