Cancel and buy BMW / Audi

[Scotlex]

Has anyone cancelled their order and bought a car that doesn't have such a long wait for delivery?

[NiCoRe]

Hello Alistair.

Waited 14 months for my current Lexus (and I had to extend my long term lease of my former company car which was quite a hassle...)
In France, PHEV models of every automakers (even the less engaging models) are on long waiting list (10 - 18 months). For example the revamped DS7 got a "la premiere edition" that is yet to be delivered to customers who bought it.
Volkswagen PHEV (which are way less efficient than the NX or its cousins RAV4 and ACROSS)  are only avalaible from stock. Dealers do not take any orders...
BMW, Mercedes and Audi are playing option lottery : you can order a car with 360 cameras and a HUD and it could be delivered without and depending of the brand / option , you either get a partial refund or they have it set up by the dealership someday.
I can only say, if you liked the car, hang in there...it is worth the wait. 
 

[Scotlex]

I could accept a 12 month+ delivery as I have 🙄

My delivery has changed from April to February to March to July to November........ which I find very frustrating.

Difficult to organise finance and current car when delivery changes so often.

[PaulWhitt20]

I guess if you want to blend in with the crowd and be yet another BMW/Mercedes/Audi driver you can. But good things come to those that wait. 

[Scotlex]

Hopefully eventually 😀

[PaulWhitt20]

Have you looked on AutoTrader? There are some nearly new or new NX450s on there if you are not fussy on spec and colour.

E.g.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304086095115?advertising-location=at_cars&include-delivery-option=on&make=Lexus&model=NX 450h%2B&postcode=CW100HR&sort=relevance&year-from=new&fromsra

 

 

 

[Scotlex]

I have actually had a look.

To be honest I am not in a desperate rush for a new car but I am finding the constantly changing delivery dates a bit frustrating.

[NiCoRe]

Played that game for a few month (just have a look at my signature) and turned it into a recurring joke.

Polite but firm and continuous pressure on my sales rep is a way to spend time (with making list of all the accessories you will ad).

 

 

[DavidCM]

11 hours ago, PaulWhitt20 said:

I guess if you want to blend in with the crowd and be yet another BMW/Mercedes/Audi driver you 

Exactly.

A Mercedes salesman once told me  "Audi's are known in the motor trade as ar5eholes -- everybody's got one"

[Spock66]

49 minutes ago, Scotlex said:

To be honest I am not in a desperate rush for a new car but I am finding the constantly changing delivery dates a bit frustrating.

I'd say if your personal circumstances mean you don't need an imminent change then hang in there.

Presumably if you actually wanted a BMW or Audi you would have ordered one in the first place.

[Scotlex]

11 minutes ago, Spock66 said:

I'd say if your personal circumstances mean you don't need an imminent change then hang in there.

Presumably if you actually wanted a BMW or Audi you would have ordered one in the first place.

Very true I suppose 😀

[Gary H]

I actually come to Lexus after having four Audis back to back! 

The thoughts have started to cross my mind in recent weeks, I have to admit. I'm now approaching the first anniversary of my order and still have absolutely no news whatsoever if or when my NX350h Takumi will ever be built. Some of the comments in the ‘2023 delivery dates’ thread have worried me as we have seen others at this stage of their order, not necessarily receiving their car, but have had build/shipping dates given. Me? It’s as if I’ve literally just placed the order and walked out the showroom with the roughest of estimates. I have been given zero information at all with regards to any progress. It’s this, over the wait, which has bothered me more than anything. 

If I do keep my order, I absolutely will be making a point about this when it comes to doing the necessary paperwork/appraisal for my UX.

I’m reluctant to cancel because, surely, I’m now that far through the process that they’re going to have to accept my order needs to be fulfilled like anyone else’s. I’m very much getting towards the end of my tether with it all, though. I think I’m going to give them another two/three months (no set date in mind) and if they’re still unable to provide me with so much as a build date before I need to extend my contract on my UX (which the Lexus finance people themselves need to know how long to extend it for...), I think that’ll be the time for me to get my deposit back and walk away. At that point, I’ll be at the 14/15 month mark with no progress. No one can accuse me of lacking in patience. 

I do have a few alternatives in mind and as the weeks go by, I’m doing a little more research on what’s available and how quickly I can pick up a pre-registered/ex demo car.

[HMT]

Gary, have you tried contacting Lexus Customer services?
I could not get any info from my dealership so contacted them in Jan. Got a reply a couple of days later with Build in April - delivery during June - with all the caveats re delays etc and was advised that dealerships have this info.

the build date was April and my NX has left the factory, so depending on delays at Derby should see my car in June.

[BonzoSPB]

I'm amazed as to how many of you have waited over a year for a new car. If my delivery date shipped by a couple of months I'd be looking elsewhere.

I must have been lucky. There was a new NX450 in my local dealers which I missed out on whilst I was trying to get the best price for my current car but fortunately the dealer sourced me another a few days later.

[Fusspot]

20 hours ago, Gary H said:

...

I’m reluctant to cancel because, surely, I’m now that far through the process that they’re going to have to accept my order needs to be fulfilled like anyone else’s. I’m very much getting towards the end of my tether with it all, though.

...

At that point, I’ll be at the 14/15 month mark with no progress. No one can accuse me of lacking in patience. 

...

I placed my NX350h order back in March 2022, and got build start confirmation exactly one year later on 14th March 2023. The Lexus Link App tells me its now arrived at Portbury, so things have progressed.

Having said that, I did escalate the customer frustration through my dealer at the beginning of March, with a polite but firm complaint about the delay, along with continued receipt of Lexus marketing emails encouraging me to buy a new vehicle.  This complaint was forwarded to Lexus UK, and following a personal phone call from them, apologising profusely, believe it was this escalation that triggered the build.

Whilst component supply was given as the main reason for the delay, and though that situation has purported eased, they still have a limited build capacity for UK models. So it may be worth writing to Lexus HQ, either directly or through your dealer, to see if you can move yourself up the pecking order.

[Gary H]

On 5/1/2023 at 4:03 PM, HMT said:

Gary, have you tried contacting Lexus Customer services?
I could not get any info from my dealership so contacted them in Jan. Got a reply a couple of days later with Build in April - delivery during June - with all the caveats re delays etc and was advised that dealerships have this info.

the build date was April and my NX has left the factory, so depending on delays at Derby should see my car in June.

Hi Harry. Yes, I’ve e-mailed customer relations twice so far - without any direct reply from them. 

On the first occasion, I got an ‘update’ from my salesman at the dealer via a blurred video text-message thingy, which was about a minute long. This was about two or three days later. Coincidence? Basically, it was just to tell me that I’m now on my fourth basic ‘estimated’ date of mid-August. Still no build date or anything. Lexus Customer Relations didn’t respond to me directly. If it was them, they’ve ignored what I wrote in that e-mail with regards to getting zero updates from the dealer other than the absolute basics of rough estimates - which I was already no longer interested in. 

On the second occasion? No reply whatsoever. At the same time I did contact them on social media (again). You may recall this post I made on 14th April, which I screenshotted their reply : https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/136633-nx-2023-delivery-date/?do=findComment&comment=1289128&_rid=78491   

As you can see, only the most basic of estimates given, no progression reports or build dates. Just the same generic information. As I said in that post, it’s worth while pointing out that they want me to chase them again at the end of the month - so it’s me as the customer who is having to do all the legwork. I will try to avoid chasing them for as long as I can, but without any build dates advised to me, I have no idea what to tell Lexus finance over how long to extend my outgoing contract on my UX. 

I don’t think Lexus (neither the factory or the dealer) quite understand what a difficult position these unbelievably long lead times and no build date information is putting waiting customers through. I can only galvanise my opinion of that when I see others who have had orders placed from approximately a year ago (if not sooner, now) having their build dates, shipping dates e.t.c... Why are they just sitting on some old orders, showing no intentions or indications of ever building them, but happily progressing orders of similar specs which, in some cases, are many months younger? These are all questions I will be raising with the dealer when the time comes to sorting out the finance/paperwork - providing I’ve not walked away by that point.

8 hours ago, BonzoSPB said:

I'm amazed as to how many of you have waited over a year for a new car. If my delivery date shipped by a couple of months I'd be looking elsewhere.

Hi Sean. I know – the situation is ridiculous. When I placed my order last May, the salesman to be fair to him did state it would be looking like twelve months. That’s absolutely fine. I prepared myself for that and he also stated that there would be a good chance it would arrive sooner – and that twelve months should be about the ‘worst case scenario’. Until the start of this year, I was happy with that. Well…’content’…would be a better way of putting it. It’s the zero news, updates or progression from then which has become increasingly infuriating as the months have progressed. Especially when you were also told at the time of ordering that I’d expect to hear of some movement in terms of my order by Christmas…  

Since then, becoming increasingly concerned, I found this forum whilst randomly looking for lead times/build information for NX’s and the rest is history, really. Whilst we do indeed have fellow members facing a wait like myself (and even a few months longer…), there’s multiple examples of NX’s coming in sooner – if not orders placed later than mine where build dates have already been given. As I said, I’m not quite at the stage where I’m going to cancel, but I’m very much in a position where my patience is coming to an end. All I’m asking for, which I don’t think is unreasonable given I placed the order a year ago this month, is the same courtesy. If they cannot provide that (which is proving to be the case so far) and the dealer continues it’s ‘radio silence’ with myself, then unfortunately I’m at the stage of taking this ‘higher up the chain’ to see why I’m being excluded.  

Lexus really haven’t handled my order well at all in my opinion. Not in terms of waiting time (again, I know there are those who have waited 14 months), but almost a full year without so much as any news, hope of ever receiving the car or any indication of it ever being built is an issue which I will be very much raising with the dealer and taking further if necessary.

6 hours ago, Fusspot said:

I placed my NX350h order back in March 2022, and got build start confirmation exactly one year later on 14th March 2023. The Lexus Link App tells me its now arrived at Portbury, so things have progressed.

Having said that, I did escalate the customer frustration through my dealer at the beginning of March, with a polite but firm complaint about the delay, along with continued receipt of Lexus marketing emails encouraging me to buy a new vehicle.  This complaint was forwarded to Lexus UK, and following a personal phone call from them, apologising profusely, believe it was this escalation that triggered the build.

Whilst component supply was given as the main reason for the delay, and though that situation has purported eased, they still have a limited build capacity for UK models. So it may be worth writing to Lexus HQ, either directly or through your dealer, to see if you can move yourself up the pecking order.

That sounds familiar, Pete… Getting sales e-mail from the dealer over advertising new cars to order when they can’t even provide you with a car you ordered almost a year ago… I’d say calling it ‘distasteful’ is perhaps going too far, but it’s certainly not a good look. I think in my next e-mail, I’ll mention this. 

Do you mind me asking what e-mail address you had for Lexus HQ? I have an e-mail address for Customer relations (cr@...) which I’ve used twice to no response so far (had an ‘indirect reply’ the first time round – I suspect they forwarded it onto my salesman. Nothing at all the second time). My last contact was via private messaging on Twitter, which they basically told me to ‘ask again’ at the end of this month. 🙄

  

[Fusspot]

30 minutes ago, Gary H said:

Do you mind me asking what e-mail address you had for Lexus HQ? I have an e-mail address for Customer relations (cr@...) which I’ve used twice to no response so far (had an ‘indirect reply’ the first time round – I suspect they forwarded it onto my salesman. Nothing at all the second time). My last contact was via private messaging on Twitter, which they basically told me to ‘ask again’ at the end of this month. 🙄

 

I didn't have an email for Lexus HQ per se, but rather sent my complaint to enquiries@Lexus.co.uk. However, I bcc'd the mail to my sales contact at my local Inchcape dealer, and they in turn raised the issue with their Head of Business. I suspect they escalated it with Lexus HQ, which was why I got a personal call. Lexus HQ would be more concerned if a major franchise dealer was raising a complaint, over a single customer.

[Gary H]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:00 PM, Fusspot said:

I didn't have an email for Lexus HQ per se, but rather sent my complaint to enquiries@Lexus.co.uk. However, I bcc'd the mail to my sales contact at my local Inchcape dealer, and they in turn raised the issue with their Head of Business. I suspect they escalated it with Lexus HQ, which was why I got a personal call. Lexus HQ would be more concerned if a major franchise dealer was raising a complaint, over a single customer.

Thanks for getting back to me. I do appreciate it. I'll drop Customer Relations another e-mail in about a week or so - it'll give me time to prepare a civil but firm request to them. I don't fancy getting in touch with the dealer at this stage because I think I've just about given up in having any faith in them at this point. If I copied them in, I'm almost certain just get another very basic 'estimate', even though I've specifically said I'm looking for the same build date information that others who have orders of similar order dates (and newer) to mine have been getting for weeks... 

One thing I do remember from a couple of months ago, when my UX was in for it's first MOT, is that when the salesman saw me and come across, he shown me the computer with the outstanding orders on for NX's. There was one there which had just gone over a year (it was a late February one...) and he was raising a case as it had gone on for so long. I'm only hoping he'll do that with mine but judging from his video text-message to me about my latest delay, it could be August before he'll do that with mine - at which I'll be up to 15 months with zero information. I'm not sure if anyone else here has had to put up with that, so far. 

[Tel]

I cancelled in December 2022 . Ordered a Toyota with the same Lead Time but a lot better  Sales Team that showed care & understanding. A Yaris Cross AWD was  nearly half the price of the Lexus & as rare as a chocolate Fireguard. Prices for low milage AWD were  5K  higher than list which I found exciting, coupled with What Car's 103 mpg result  albeit for the 2 wheel drive version. 

The following day it became clear I had been allocated a Cancelled Order & received my YC AWD in just 8 weeks. My 24 year Lexus career was over with my Mk.2 ISF  in 2011 a dream purchase that many drooled over.

Tel

[Gary H]

I don’t blame you and I hope you’re enjoying the Yaris Cross. I’ve seen a few of them now and the styling is certainly growing on me. 

I'm not at the stage where I’m going to cancel, but the next two/three months will be vital if the order is going to remain ongoing. If Lexus dealers (certainly my one) had the common courtesy of just dropping me an e-mail once every month or so with an update (even if there was no news, but just some sort of communication to show they understand...), I wouldn’t be as frustrated as I am. It’s the complete lack of any progression/news from them which is currently hammering home the nails in the coffin to my order. My patience is coming to an end and if they still can’t provide me with so much as a build date or give me any hope that my NX will ever be built, then I'll likely be going in there for my deposit back and walking away by the end of the summer. 

I do have a few pre-registered alternative cars in mind as things stand. Whilst I know Lexus as a company have grumbled about 'unprecedented challenges' over supply which seems to be their default response, but from what I can see it certainly doesn’t seem to be affecting other manufacturers anywhere near as much. I don’t know how Lexus, as a company, continues to survive if they are only 'picking and choosing' who's orders to fulfil, without a care in the world for those other orders who have been outstanding for just as long, if not longer.

[rafarules]

Interesting thread for me to read. I ordered a Toyota RAV4 PHEV Dynamic 
Premium 14 months ago, and experienced the same delays to delivery date..Dealer communication was dreadful, and they did not notify me when the build was downgraded to a dynamic. Fortunately, the Toyota equivalent of this website was fantastic, and I got to know from other members.

I took the difficult decision to cancel my order with Toyota, and bought a 1 year old, low mileage, NX350H instead (premium plus pack). Two weeks, and 450 miles later, I am glad I took this course of action..the car is great, and so far I am getting an indicative 46mpg average.

Only one slight niggle so far is a slight intermittent creaking noise coming from the drivers door! Plus having to turn off the lane trace assist off every time I get in….although I think I have solved this today, by changing a notification setting from vibrate to beep..let’s hope that does the trick.

My dealer did mention the delays for the Takumi packaged cars were ongoing.

[Fusspot]

1 hour ago, rafarules said:

Plus having to turn off the lane trace assist off every time I get in….although I think I have solved this today, by changing a notification setting from vibrate to beep..let’s hope that does the trick.

Interesting; can you please detail the precise steps you've gone through to achieve this?

I hate the fact this lane trace assist feature is mandated (every restart) through EU legislation here in the UK. Specifically, Lexus has a different manufacturing line for RH drive vehicles, so why can't the software defaults be different to the rest of the EU?

[NiCoRe]

10 hours ago, Fusspot said:

Interesting; can you please detail the precise steps you've gone through to achieve this?

I hate the fact this lane trace assist feature is mandated (every restart) through EU legislation here in the UK. Specifically, Lexus has a different manufacturing line for RH drive vehicles, so why can't the software defaults be different to the rest of the EU?

Japan is also  RHD country and way bigger market for Lexus .

I suspect that it is also mandatory there to have lane trace assist defaulted to ON. I also suspect that this setting may also have something to do with international standardization regulations of ADAS systems   

[Lmafudd]

Apologies if this is covered but there's a lot to read here.

If you agree a purchase and agree a trade-in price for your old car is that value guaranteed? My Old NX appeared ro drop from 21k to just under 18k in the last twelve months I owned it and I am interested to know who bears the burden?

[HotSpur-Lexus]

Depends if the dealer guaranteed the price at time of valuation for when your new car came - if not then you carry the burden - if they did then they have guaranteed any price drops during the period of you waiting for your new car...during and after Covid, BMW were guaranteeing some valuations for highly depreciating cars like some of the larger M cars whilst people waited the extra long times for their new cars due to Covid, factory shutdowns, shortage of semi-conductors, wiring looms, war etc...

This partly (not entirely) contributed to the higher prices of second hand cars, as they would price in any shortfall on the sale of the car that was traded in, i.e. pass that on to the next buyer of your used car.

Edited May 7, 2023 by HotSpur-Lexus
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