Luxury brands such as Lexus typically don't need to offer the kind of sales and rebates their mainstream counterparts do on a regular basis. The reason is quite simple: luxury customers have bigger budgets and are willing to spend more. Image and luxury sell, it's as simple as that. Plus, Lexus, along with German rivals such as Audi and BMW, have rightly earned their reputations for building excellent vehicles and providing top-notch customer service. However, the coronavirus pandemic has changed everything. All automakers, luxury and mainstream, are now being forced to do whatever it takes to keep sales going.

According to a dealership bulletin discovered by Cars Direct, Lexus has just done something we've never seen it do before during this time of the year: cut rates across its entire lineup to 0 percent APR for 60 months.

Typically, offers like this happen towards the end of the year and not in the lead up to Memorial Day. Global pandemics have a way of forcing change real fast. The bulletin sent to Lexus dealers indicates interest-free offers for 5 years on every 2020 model, a reduction from the previous 0.9 percent offer. For example, a Lexus LS 500 with a price tag of $80,000 previously had over $1,800 in interest costs, but not anymore. But what's particularly interesting is that the 0.9 percent rate - not 0 percent - is being offered for remaining 2019 models. In other words, 2020 models appear to be the better deal at the moment.

Those who are especially interested in saving as much as money as possible will be thrilled to know Lexus is also offering 0 percent interest for 36 months on its certified preowned vehicles. This is the lowest rate ever offered on used Lexus vehicles, though it's limited to 2016-2018 model years of the Lexus IS, ES, NX, and RX.

Another interesting thing to be pointed out is that Lexus currently has better rates than Toyota. Last month, Toyota cuts rates to 0 percent as well but only for three 2020 models: Toyota Camry, RAV4, and Tacoma. The fact that a luxury brand has cut interest rates across its entire lineup while this hasn't been done (at least not yet) for its mainstream sister brand doesn't happen often.

The current Lexus offer expires on June 1.