Help! Need a Sanity Check for LR4 Pricing

[mbw]

Seems like dealers are getting more bold about prices. I am stopping by the dealer on monday for an oil change, ill see what they are doing here in Iowa.

When I custom ordered my 13 HSE Lux (RSE, upgrade wood, HD, Tow crap, rubber mats, cargo accessories) I bought it outright for 64k including registration, taxes, destination, etc (that was the check amount). They seem to want more for them now.

 

[Derman]

I also paid MSRP. My dealer also owns the next closest dealer and the one after that is in San Francisco, which didn't want to sell outside their area. Rather than quibble, we settled - the SO has a low tolerance for car dealer shena****ns, so a good experience was high on the priority list. (We still moan about the previous dealer experience where we saved $1,200 but lost a day of our lives and had a really bad taste.)

That said, we put a deposit down and everything was relatively painless - we got ours early (3 months instead of four), have had a single service issue that was handled quickly, and simply love the vehicle.

 

[JotaDe]

At least here in the bay area (south bay for me) the supply/demand for LR4s is so out of whack I'm not sure we can expect to successfully haggle as others may in other parts of the country.

Once the San Jose dealership had me on the waiting list (with a 1k deposit) I spent the next two months reaching out to the 8 closest dealers, only one of which had a order available (Monterey) and of course I was out of area and they wouldn't give it to me.

As I expanded my reach out further I discovered that Sacramento had a single order available. We talked and since my Mom lives in Sac I was able to use her address to simulate "in area” at the dealer's suggestion (apparently this process is used often for folks with vacation homes #wealthymofos).

This was close to 3 months after I got on the SJ waiting list biding my time for a) them to get LR4 orders b) the people ahead of me on the list to move out of the way.

So at this point I wasn't going to give the Sac dealer (Niello) a chance to sell the car to someone else for msrp if I haggled when the truck arrived. I guess I could've tried and if they balked I could've said "ok fine msrp it is." But after the frustrating waiting list period, and finding a dealership who helped find a way to get an order to an “out of area” buyer I was happy to live up to our “gentleman’s agreement” as they put it and get the car at msrp. Plus they delivered it down to me in south bay so I didn’t have to drive 2.5 hours to pick it up. I highly recommend Niello btw, had a wonderful experience with them.

Funny story, when I told the salesman at SJ who put me on the waiting list that I wanted my deposit back because another dealer got me the order he pretty much flipped out. He yelled that “they are LYING to you!” as in he didn’t think I was actually going to acquire the truck from an outside area dealer. I didn’t give him any details on the matter, just got my deposit back. He was probably frustrated I went elsewhere, but I’m sure he would’ve done the same thing in my shoes.

 

[Derman]

I went thru almost the exact same process. We got ours from Neillo as well. When the dealer is listing used LR4's for $10K over MSRP, we pretty much knew our negotiating ability was going to be limited.

I travel nationally, so I even tried several dealers on the east coast while we had ours on order (this was this winter and not too many people were buying cars there) and couldn't find a good fit for an order or anything out of dealer stock. I had the cars.com email alert set up, and was watching stock within 150 miles of our zip code. When we had ours ordered, there were only 11 available within 150 miles and the stock only got up to 18 at any point over the three months we had ours on order. This, again, points to limited supply and high demand in our area.

We really liked the SF dealer - British Motors, but with all the Bay Area cash rolling around there, they wouldn't even consider an out of area buyer. It sounded to me like they had been penalized for this in the past. They even called me to follow up on my ability to get an LR4 in my area - they were wonderful.

 

[phil1ben]

Interesting. I live in PA but close to the border of NJ. So I compared prices between central/southern NJ and Philadelphia area dealers. There are 5 of them. The NJ dealers would have been very happy to order an LR4 for me for $2,000 under MSRP. The PA dealers offered more so I went with one of them. However, one of the PA dealers (the one I bought from) claimed I lived in their service area so they could take more off MSRP. They also offered to drop a loaner at my house and pick up the car each time it needed to be serviced--which may be with some regularity as I have read. However all would have been happy to sell me a car. Each of them had a 1 or 2 2015 LR4 models on site but did not have the options or colors we wanted so we ordered one. Most in stock models were either white or black. What few of them had were the large RR. Only two had one I could test drive. Most also had 2 or 3 RRS.

 

[danrhiggins]

A couple of stories from our buying experience a year ago (Denver)

- The Denver LR store had actually combined to LR stores in the area in a new location and were therefore classified as a "new" store and received a "corporate allotment" of 2014 LR4s. 5 black and 5 white. All with black interiors. None had the HD package. Most were LUX models. We ordered ours as we wanted the HD package and not the black interior. I just found it interesting (and a bit disappointing) that they are given 10 LR4s with almost no variety.

- While in AZ year ago for our annual "thaw out" vacation we visited one of the LR dealers and learned that in Scottsdale there was a waiting line to pay a deposit to order an FSRR which would not arrive for another 10 months!

As for pricing I have nothing to offer. I'm a terrible negotiator - the sort of stooge that dealers love to have walking in their door. I did get $750 off. I also had them match the accessory prices (ladder, rails, etc.) with what I could get by order them from Land Rover Rocklin-Niello in CA which offers very good accessory discounts online. (My dealership new all about Rocklin and gave no argument.)

 

[Derman]

Phil1ben - the pricing and negotiating definitely seemed more buyer friendly on the east coast and better further north, certainly. We just couldn't find the model we wanted and the ordering slots came with a later delivery than we already had. I would have had to ship/drive it to the west coast, so that was a factor also - I came close on one in MD, but when I was scheduled to drive it back, there was one of those big a$$ winter storms and it kinda freaked me out a little bit.

Similar to others, I wish we would have had a white or black one on our list - it could have been way easier. The SO was dead set on silver w/ almond interior and that was really tough to find in the LUX, especially the interior color. We live in Sacramento and a black interior is a non-starter for our summers.

 

[TCM75]

Update - it all worked out...

Okay, so once I saw the car on Saturday, I knew I did not have much leverage, lol.

They removed the "protection pack" and let me keep the rear cargo mat and wheel locks (probably because it takes effort to remove them). They also showed me their invoice and gave me the two-tone leather at cost. They never ordered an LR4 with this option before so did not have much experience to go on.

As far as negotiating...I didn't even try. This area has a very high demand and although inventories are better than a year ago, they don't really have to try hard to sell vehicles. I think it would have been different if I tried to get something off the lot.

Anyway, I think it was worth the wait. I love the smooth ride and it seems to be the perfect size for me and the family. I will get some pics uploaded soon.

Thanks for all of your responses!

Tom

 

[danrhiggins]

Congrats! Looking forward to the pics.

 

[phil1ben]

My LR4 was due April 12 and was to be shipped into Baltimore. Still not here. Didn't realize there were delays in that port. Fortunately we have no pressing need for the car.