jrct9454

I'm enclosing a link that may or may not work for non-subscribers of the online Wall St Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1202...j_main_hs_coll


The WSJ periodically publishes a list of the cars that move off the new car dealer lots the fastest - kind of a snapshot at any given time of what the marketplace is doing. Sometimes, the cars that show up here are predictable [the Prius has made the list for most of the past 3 years], but occasionally there is a mild surprise.

The current list shows the C-Class at 20 days, which means the average car moves from transporter to buyer in less than 3 weeks. Industry average is closer to double that time.

I can't never remember any MB showing up on this list, which admittedly is a relatively recent WSJ feature [in the past four years or so]. BMWs have occasionally shown up, usually after a new model gets introduced. Often, the list is dominated by limited production cars. Anyway, a sign that the car is striking a chord in the marketplace....

Krytech

Interesting! Lexus has FIVE cars on the list?! Wow.

Thanks for the link.

DucatiGuy

What's even more shocking, in comparison to MB, Lexus spends just as much in annual marketing (as to their company filings) as MB does (if not more). After all, how else ya gonna build market share, beside the obvious - build "better" more economical cars...

As an always "competing" business owner myself, I find that an incredible feat! I'm not a Lexus fan by any means, but damn they (Toyota/Lexus) know how to run a tight business model! I'm sorry but I have to tip my hat to them...

PHYBENZ

That's interesting because Lexus sales have been down this year, especially the GS which has barely been selling....

PoaMike

I tought the IS was doing nicely but damn not even on the list.

tanktube67

good info

chilledbenz

The car is a new redesigned model after all and everyone wants whats new and improved, but I can see its slowing already. My dealership has an ample supply of them now and a salesman told me, while they are still their number one seller, they are slowing and getting more in line with what they will normally be now that they aren't so new.

Germancar1

This is why these lists are pretty much useless IMO. They don't tell all the facts. Sure Lexuses could have a short time, but the number of them they sell are down, hence the few they have on hand move faster. You have to read between the lines with these type of "lists". This list doesn't tout sales numbers or performance in that manner, only that a car doesn't sit long. If I ship 20 percent less GS models than I did for the month last year of course they're going to go faster. Demand is down, so I ship less and move the few I have faster. Tricky.


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Jon935

I think this is true to some extent with some MB dealers... especially the one local to me.. is there any resource out there that we can find that will show the monthly sales numbers at a particular dealership? i much rather start my negotiations with a higher volume dealer... they will all tell you they are the best... but lets see the actual numbers.

jrct9454

I wasn't trying to prove anything about MB total sales or Lexus total sales, or much of anything at all except that I was surprised at the 20 day "turn" for the C in January. I've rarely seen that kind of number for any Mercedes model that wasn't an extreme limited production car.

But since the discussion seems to have gotten side-tracked, I'll observe that it is true that Toyota has always managed a pretty tight handle on supply/demand for the US Lexus dealers. They try to keep just the number of cars on hand that will give people choices, but not so many that flooring costs become a problem for the dealers. Still, our local dealer here has easily 25+ ES cars in stock [to take an example], but the MB guys [two dealers under joint ownership that share inventory] can't lay their hands on that many Cs right now.

Anyway, I thought it was moderately good news that the marketplace seems to have a positive reaction to the car - certainly more so than when the W203 was introduced in the fall of 2000 [we happened to be sharing a hotel in Las Vegas in Sept of 2000 when the West Regional dealer intro for the W203 was under way].

Pricing is already in line with a volume car - in most urban areas, it's not tough to get a deal on a W204. Given the market conditions, I think they're doing well - seem to have hit the pricing right with the right product.

We're sure happy with ours - after 6 months and 5500 miles, I love it.

patrick_y

I'm shocked, as the Toyota Prius used to be on the top of this list, the average time on the lot for a Prius was around 20 hours, now it's 14 days...

jrct9454

Well, when we got our Prius 2 years ago, there were a grand total of three cars to choose from at the largest dealer in Portland OR. [We were able to take the full tax credit on our transaction - $3150.]

Since then, Toyota has increased production allocations for the US market, tax incentives have gone away for Toyota, and initial demand has been satisfied. Now, I could pick from 10-20 Priuses at just about any dealer in the urban area. Still moving briskly, but now at often discounted prices and with plenty of color and equipment choices. But it took nearly 4 years of the current model to get to this point.

Germancar1

Toyota is just printing money.

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