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A few days ago, a suspected price increase in a Lexus 4S store in Haikou, Hainan, once again pushed Lexus to the forefront and aroused widespread concern.

The cause of the matter is that Mr. Wang of Haikou City signed a car purchase intention contract with the salesperson at the Zhongsheng Lexus 4S store in Haikou City in January this year, which stated that Mr. Wang bought the new GX550 model at a price of 931873 yuan and paid a deposit of 50, 000 yuan, which was non-refundable and non-exchangeable, and the expected pick-up time was before May 10. However, on the day the deposit was paid, Mr. Wang was told by the staff that he needed to pay an extra 100000 yuan "service charge" to pick up the car. If he did not pay an extra 100000 yuan, Mr. Wang would not be able to pick up the car within the agreed time. For this reason, Mr. Wang refused to pay an additional 100000 yuan "service fee", while the 50, 000 yuan deposit was refunded by the 4S store.

Later, Mr. Wang complained to Haikou City Bureau of Commerce, Haikou City Bureau of Commerce to the 4S store suspected of violating the price law, together with the market supervision and management department, went to the store to interview the relevant responsible persons. 4S store customer service manager can not come up with the relevant terms of the company on the collection of value-added service fees, nor can he explain why the 50,000 yuan deposit charged is invalid. In the face of on-site law enforcement, Haikou Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile sales and Service Co., Ltd. customer service manager has always been strong, and even claimed that "then do not talk about it, see the law."

Mr. Wang told the reporter that he also asked about the price increase before buying the car, but whether the 4S store mentioned the need for diplomatic service fee from beginning to end, which made him unacceptable. It is understood that at present, the Haikou Municipal Bureau of Commerce has fixed the relevant evidence and sent a letter to the law enforcement department for further investigation. The investigation is expected to be completed within 15 days, or face a fine, and the customer service manager involved has also been suspended.

The lawyer said that if a person asks for a price increase outside the contract after signing the contract, it is a breach of contract. "even if the consumer signs an intention agreement, but what is stipulated in the intention agreement is a deposit, it should apply the provisions of the deposit clause in the Civil Code. If the businessman fails to perform the contract, he shall return double the deposit to the consumer."

In fact, it is not uncommon for car dealers to sell cars at higher prices, especially the Lexus brand. As a luxury brand of Toyota, although Lexus is not localized in the Chinese market and sold in the form of imported cars, it is still favored by many domestic consumers. According to the data, global sales of Lexus in 2023 were 824258, up 32% from a year earlier, setting a record high for brand sales, with the Chinese market growing 3% year-on-year to 181400.

In the Lexus product camp, the best-selling model is the ES, which sold 108500 vehicles in China in 2023, accounting for 60% of Lexus's total sales in China, followed by RX and NX, with sales of 25700 and 23300 respectively, while other models are less than 10,000.

Lexus is having a hard time in the Chinese market, including its parent company Toyota. The rise of new energy vehicles has gradually lost the glory of traditional fuel vehicles that have accumulated a lot of experience. The counterattack of independent luxury brands has put pressure on the development of traditional luxury brands in the past. Therefore, brands that used to increase prices and sell cars are now basically able to lift cars at affordable prices, and even have certain market concessions.

For Lexus, the price increase is mainly focused on high-priced models, such as LM, LX, GX and so on. The new GX involved was officially sold in China on January 13, with a total of three models with a price range of 77.8-888000 yuan, while similar to ES, NX, UX and other lower-priced models, they can basically raise cars at low prices, but there are also price increases through additional installation.

Car dealers shall sell cars according to the marked price, and if they charge fees outside the clearly marked price, or if they do not sell their products at the clearly marked price, they are suspected of violating the law. It is also understandable to increase prices and sell cars. According to the law of market supply and demand, the demand for popular models is large and insufficient, and the price rise is not surprising, but the premise is whether the fare increase is open and transparent, and whether to inform consumers that if there is a temporary fare increase, then it is obviously unacceptable.

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