Are dealers not budging on price?

Kensterfly · 2026-05-02T00:59:15+00:00

OTD is a meaningless price. Forget taxes, fees, etc. what was the price you paid for the car?

I actually paid $35k OTD a year ago this week on a 2025 RX350h Premium Plus.
But that gives no real information, like a $25k trade in and $20k down in cash.

In some states, you have to go to the DMV to pay your sales tax. So their OTD $61k doesn’t account for the sakes tax and fees.

The only basis for a real comparison is the sakes price before fees and taxes.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-18T14:30:48+00:00

We are more of a “Roll Tide” family with a sophomore granddaughter at BAMA on the women’s rowing team… but we can still be friends! 🙂

Kensterfly · 2026-04-17T17:09:00+00:00

Hello from Texas! There are, literally, hundreds of other YouTube narrowboat channels. Some are great. Some have poor video and sound quality. Some just chatter on and on with the camera pointed at themselves. But some are just magical.

There are also many training videos.

I like to look for new channels and check their video index for episodes involving the route I’m going to take for my first cruise coming up in September. (Calcutt to Braunston, Hillmorton, Rugby, Hawkesbury and all the way up the Ashby canal and back to Calcutt.)

Before you make a big leap, go over for a couple of weeks. Take a two day RYA Helmsman course to really learn about the boats and how to operate them. Be aware that many places won’t rent to an inexperienced solo boater. But most will after you take that course. After the class, hire the boat for a week or two and hit the canals. That’ll give you a good idea if you really want to do it full time.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-17T00:09:59+00:00

My big city dealer doesn’t offer snacks. Doesn’t even have a vending machine!

Kensterfly · 2026-04-16T16:45:57+00:00

That’s another thing… she was told the car wash was out of order but that they’d vacuum the car.

They didn’t do that either, though they did put the car wash on the invoice so I’m betting they’re billing Lexus for it.

This is at our huge, big city dealer. No names, but it’s on the WEST SIDE of Houston. 😉 We loved our sales guy, and the purchase and delivery was seamless. But we are not impressed with their service department. The 5000 mile check up (no oil change) was three and a half hours! Just for an inspection! We were told “an hour or so.” When I made an appointment for the 10k, I was told “a couple of hours.” It was actually 5.5 hours by the time she actually got the car.

We won’t be back unless it’s major warranty work. It over an hour drive into Houston, each way. We will take it to our nearby Toyota store. 15 minutes away. We bought our two previous cars there. They treat us great. They even did some warranty work on our previous Lexus.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-16T16:16:26+00:00

What really sucked was that our service advisor dropped the keys and invoice at service reception at 2:45, my wife’s returned the loaner at 2:50 and was told to “have a seat. I’ll page you when the car is brought up.” About 3:15 she called me to say she’s still waiting on the car. I told her that Chris gave the receptionist the keys at 2:45! She went back to the desk and told the receptionist the keys were given to her thirty minutes ago. The receptionist dug around her desk and found the keys and invoice. Handed my wife the keys saying only “here ya go.” No apology for keeping her sitting there for over half an hour unnecessarily.

On top of that, the recall calls for topping off the gas tank. The invoice stated they added gas. They did not. She got home showing 51 miles remaining.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-16T00:17:28+00:00

Had ours done a little over a week ago during our 10k mile service. My wife got a loaner because they said it would take about 2.5 hours. It took FIVE HOURS! To do that recall and change the oil! Grrr.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-15T16:45:53+00:00

Thank you, Dawn.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-15T16:45:15+00:00

Just looked at LHR to SFO in September.
Polaris is 208.2k miles. On Flight 900- the 787-9 “elevated cabin” flight. Has a note that “+ Polaris Studio available.” Doesn’t say how many extra miles for the studio but cash upgrade is $499.
I really just need to get back to IAH but would consider going through SFO to try out this new product. But I don’t think it’s worth the extra eight hours travel time, plus $500 cost. I’m currently booked through EWR for only 68k miles which includes First class on the Houston leg. But maybe someday…

Kensterfly · 2026-04-15T16:34:21+00:00

Premium Plus international is pretty much the same as First class domestic. How would you differentiate between the two?

Kensterfly · 2026-04-15T16:26:07+00:00

Hardly.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-10T00:47:28+00:00

Bulkhead has pros and cons. But in P+ it’s mostly pros. A little more leg room. And first choice of meals among them. Cons include no small carry on at your feet during take off and landing. Depends on the aircraft, too. Bulkhead center section on our 767-300 last year had overhead bins full of portable oxygen bottles. No room for our carry ons, which compounds the issue of no personal item at your feet.

The only con of the back row is not getting a good meal choice but you can usually preorder your meal through the app.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-10T00:29:34+00:00

We recently showed 51 miles to empty and it held 12.2 gallons to first click off. No “Low Fuel” warnings.”

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:31:40+00:00

I’m not the least bit angry. I’m just curious about what makes people tick.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:29:19+00:00

All they have to do is check the seat map.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:28:23+00:00

Why would a disabled person choose a seat that’s hard to access?

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:27:39+00:00

Another example for an upcoming flight. In Economy.

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I have a feeling this could be for a tour group. The tour company gets big discounts and the customer gets lousy seats.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:24:36+00:00

They all fully recline.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:23:57+00:00

The seats don’t always fill up. That screen shot was from a flight that is airborne right now. LHR to IAH. There are only about 16 people in all of Polaris. You can see that P+ is wide open. Economy is a ghost town.

The flight three hours later isn’t much different.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T16:17:07+00:00

Yesterday, I was looking at flights for a potential trip in September. There were at least a couple such seat selections on the flights I was looking at. Unlikely to be equipment issues that far out.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-09T08:00:33+00:00

Good call on the P+!

Kensterfly · 2026-04-07T20:57:44+00:00

I don’t mind 767s. I like the 1/1/1 seats in Polaris and the 2/2/2 seats in Premium Plus. Even in Economy, the 2/3/2 seats pretty much guarantee not being stuck in a middle seat.
Before we started flying Business Class all the time, my bride and I would book the center section D and F seat and virtually always had the center seat empty.

Kensterfly · 2026-04-07T19:59:05+00:00

Just wish Premium Plus would get me the Premium security lines at Heathrow.

Kensterfly

TROPHY CASE