I agree with you on the importance of the dealer. There's a Toyota dealer 5 minutes from my home, and they suck. Both sales and service suck. When I was looking for my LC I couldn't get the time of day out of them. I ended up buying from a dealer 35 minutes away who has been a pleasure to work with. I'm happy to give them the business.For me it gets down to the dealer i have to end up working with, or not.
The 3 Lexus dealers are all too far away to make things convenient, especially if something really goes wrong. They also suck and have really bad attitudes.
The Toyota dealer is top rate and easily accessed.
Decision made, now and moving forward.