Don’t know if it was the last new one available in the country or not, according to the dealer’s GM there were only four on the boat from Japan and Lexus knew red was his favorite color…anyway, I have been obsessively checking the Lexus inventory website for about 3 weeks, and while my wife and I were waiting for a connection in the Atlanta airport on the way down to Florida last weekend, I hit refresh on the website and saw 1 “available” at the Kingsport, TN dealership (I live 2 hrs away in Knoxville).   Fully prepared to hear it was already reserved or the price was jacked up 10k at least as with pretty much every other IS 500 the Lexus Monogram site showed (looking at you, Miami and Atlanta dealerships), I contacted the dealership and learned that it had just arrived and nobody had called dibs yet.  I wanted to get a flight home immediately, but was vetoed.  

I decided to talk it over with my wife and we decided that if it was still available the Monday after our weekend cruise, we’d make the two hour drive up and drive it, put a $1,000 deposit down to hold  while we made arrangements, etc.  Despite not having any prior dealings with the dealership, they were very generous in holding the car - they didn’t even run the credit card we gave them for the deposit.  Lord knows they didn’t have to wait for me, as apparently they got dozens of calls about it, from as far as Colorado.  They liked that I was somewhat local.  Sometimes the stars align!  

A week later (yesterday), we went up to get her and drive her home.  The best part, no “market adjustment “ markup or games with the dealership- they took pride in never selling a car over msrp.  We went in with the check written (we did decline prepaid service, etc but they weren’t pushy at all).  So we paid MSRP plus taxes, $74k out the door.  

White knuckled the whole drive home, but it drives great, especially compared to my 2006 Acura TL - was time for a change!  The cloudy pics are when we went up and looked last Tuesday, the sunny pics are after we got home…

Feeling very lucky