How's the ES350 Selling...?

I live in Northern Virginia near Dulles Airport and I've seen one since Sept/Oct 06 when they first came out.

The car's gotten good reviews in car magazines and newspapers.

On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 20:21:55 -0500, "Mike Piacente" graced this newsgroup with:

My wife got one for a loaner while her 300 was in for sched maintenance.

She fell in love with it. Very nice. Very quiet and interior is very refined.

I also had one as a loaner when my GS was being serviced, and I was very impressed. Much nicer to drive than the previous generation, which I didn't care for much, and the engine is great.

From what I read on Edmunds.com, some folks are buying the ES350 for 10% off sticker. That seems like a pretty good discount for a car that was completely redesigned about, what, a year ago? However some folks (apparently on the west coast) are complaining that they're only getting about 3% off.

Does anyone know how the ES350 is selling compared to Lexus/Toyota expectations?

I live in Westchester, NY, where the roads are covered with Lexus's & BMW's. I've seen only one in Aug/06.

I noticed that the ES350 and LS460 both made The Wall Street Journal's "What's Hot on the Lot" list yesterday 3/8/07). It's a list of the cars with the least amount of inventory compared to the sales rate.

Sorry but I gave up reading the WSJ when it went to 10 sections. But it sounds like Lexus is keeping its inventory low so that a medium to low sales rate results in a low "inventory compared to sales rate" figure. In other words, I think that Lexus is not building many of these models so that it looks like they are in high demand. So far, I have not met anyone who drives one of the new LS460s. I have seen maybe one or two in town! So my conclusion is they are not selling well but not much inventory is available anyway.

The automotive industry refers to vehicles in inventory vs. sales rate as "days supply."

I have met several people who drive the new LS 460, including my dad, and I have seen quite a few around town.

Lexus division reported it best month ever in January, 2007 (I have not seen February 2007 sales numbers), with sale of the 2007 LS 460 up 142% over the previous January.

Toyota and Lexus do not manipulate inventory just to make it look like their vehicles are in high demand because that is not how the automakers make money. Automakers make money by making cars that sell.

OK mcbrue...

From an article on Toyota February sales on the Club Lexus homepage (ref:

3) "Lexus Division Lexus passenger cars reported best-ever February sales of 13,491 units, an increase of 27 percent over February 2006. Passenger car sales were led by the ES 350 luxury sedan with best-ever February sales of 5,286 units, up 64 percent. The all-new LS 460 reported sales of 2,423, an increase of 138.7 percent. "

From sales detail figures: (for month of February, 2007):

ES 350 (Feb 07) 5,286 (Feb 06) 3,223

Year to date: (as of Feb end)

ES350ES 350 (2007) 10,606 (2006) 6,556

On 9 Mar 2007 13:25:43 -0800, "mcbrue" graced this newsgroup with:

..actually you gave up reading the WSJ when they cut down on the pictures.

..that's because the people in your trailer park buy beat up pickups

,,you've just counted to two! You've been taking night classes haven't you, you sly dog!

..another "scientific" observation brought to you from the alt.autos.lexus village idiot.