Surely, in a rational society, there is an exception to that rule.

My wife, bless her heart (and I mean that in a good way, not in the disparaging Southern way), works her cute ass off. She would like a new car, and by everything that is holy, she absolutely deserves it.

She is frugal, she saves her money, and she is able to pay cash for the vehicle she wants. She looked at a bunch of cars and settled on what she wants, so I used the Toyota website to "Build" the vehicle: A RAV4 Hybrid Limited, Blizzard Pearl / Nutmeg, NO distributor add-ons, NO dealer add-ons, just the car as Toyota built it. Might consider the "Advanced Technology Package," but definitely nothing else.

Having "built" the specific vehicle, the website now lets me click on a link to get quotes. Here's where the fun begins.

Dealers respond with what they have in stock, not what we have "built." Different colors. NO, NO, NO, I specified the desired color.

Added options. $409.00 for a floor mat package. Nope, do not want, did not ask for, WeatherTech has interior set for $109 and cargo area for $119.

$73.00 for a couple of USB cables and an adapter. Seriously? There's MonoPrice, and Anker, and a host of others, that will give us everything in this package for fifteen bucks or less.

Why does Toyota give me the option to "Build" the vehicle if nobody is willing to sell it?

What a bunch of bullshit!

seems that's a rare configuration, generally speaking they build x number of cars in any given configuration and just ship them over. that config may simply not exist. but these autotrader options might help.

https://www.autotrader.com/car...rds=25&firstRecord=0

this looks like the closest (geographically) option

https://www.autonation.com/cars/2T3DWRFV7KW012121

Shop around until you find a dealer/salesmen you like.

If you want a specific vehicle with specific colors you may have to order it. Dealers usually put the ones on their lots that move the easiest.

Talk to a few dealers though. I had a dealer once told me if I gave them a deposit they could search other dealers for the car I wanted. I just walked out at that idea and found a dealer/salesperson I enjoyed working with at a different dealership.

A dealer here sent a guy to Kentucky to pick up a specific car we wanted. No added fees..I have bought from him a few times since.

quote:

Why does Toyota give me the option to "Build" the vehicle if nobody is willing to sell it?

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I agree it is marketing bullshit. I would find a salesperson you like show them what you want on the vehicle and tell them to contact you when they find it. I am sure that they will say that it will be much less expensive if you buy what is on the lot. At that point reiterate your point and see what they have to say. Get what you want.

They are virtually never going to have the exact configuration that you've built available now. However, if you must have that exact vehicle, the build selection on the website gives you an idea of what options are available and how much it might cost that you can then order to be built and delivered to your dealer in 2 or 3 months. That is, provided they are still building that model year. At this time of year, they are probably winding down 2019 production and aren't taking orders for 2019 vehicles. They probably also haven't opened up 2020 orders either.

So you're choice is to wait and get what you want or pick from what they have available to have it now.

I really can not believe this crap. It was many years ago -- forty-two years, to be exact, that I was working for a computer systems company in Illinois. In 1977 this company won a contract and sent me to Barcelona as the technical manager on a project to develop a system that allowed a car dealer to enter a customer's order with a pick list from available options, much like the "BUILD" option on the toyota.com website.

The system transmitted the order to the factory and followed the car through the final assembly line, displaying instructions at each station for the parts to be installed at that station for the specific order.

That was forty-two, I'll say it again, FORTY-TWO years ago! 1977. We did it for one European company. That same year, I ordered a car for myself, from a different European company. I was able to specify every minor detail, and the car was available for me to pick up at the factory's customer delivery center ten weeks later.

Here we are, almost half a century later, and Toyota is not able to build a car with the customer's choice of options as listed on the Toyota website? That, boys and girls, is a load of crap. What's going on is, management at the dealer wants to sell the cars that they have in stock. They have absolutely no interest, none at all, in making the slightest effort to actually meet a customer's request.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Why does Toyota give me the option to "Build" the vehicle if nobody is willing to sell it?

I agree it is marketing bullshit . . . Get what you want.

Absolutely. What they are not thinking about, is the fact that a customer will be spending well over thirty-five thousand dollars, and then look at the damned car every day -- EVERY DAY -- and think, "this is not what I wanted."

Oh you could absolutely get exactly what you want, just how it used to be here with the big 3; in Japan.

unless it's a real high end euro car it's the same situation coming that way, they only build so many of x config and ship them over. to produce them as they get ordered isn't really economically feasible as shipping by well, ship takes a long time.

I don't understand your problem. No car manufacturer is going to take orders off the Build page on their website. You have to go to the dealer and place the order. What's wrong with that?

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:

Oh you could absolutely get exactly what you want, just how it used to be here with the big 3; in Japan.

If they are not going to do this, why, WHY, do they have the "BUILD" option on the website?

Advertising something that they have absolutely no intention of delivering?

Bait and switch?

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:

I don't understand your problem. No car manufacturer is going to take orders off the Build page on their website. You have to go to the dealer and place the order. What's wrong with that?

What's wrong with that, is I have not been able to find a dealer who is willing to place the order. They want to sell what they have in stock, and if that's not what the customer wants, it's just too bad. "These are the cars that we have in stock. Take it or leave it."

The way the "BUILD" option should work, customer specifies the vehicle, toyota passes the build order to a dealer who handles it from there.

The way the "BUILD" option does work, customer specifies the vehicle, dealer tries to sell the customer a vehicle that the dealer has in stock.

As I said in my first post in this thread, at this time of year they have probably stopped taking 2019 orders and haven't started taking 2020 orders. It's just that time of year for car makers. My Dad is currently waiting for 2020 orders to open for Jeep Wranglers.

If the Build website worked the way you say it should, how many people do you think will complain that the dealers keep bothering them about building their order when they didn't actually want to order a car? By going into the dealer to do it, you show actual interest in wanting to pay thousands of dollars for their product. I don't think it will ever work the way you want it to.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:

If the Build website worked the way you say it should, how many people do you think will complain that the dealers keep bothering them about building their order when they didn't actually want to order a car? By going into the dealer to do it, you show actual interest in wanting to pay thousands of dollars for their product. I don't think it will ever work the way you want it to.

Right now, dealers keep bothering me, trying to get me to but the cars that they have in stock. I would much rather have them bother me about ordering the "build" car that I actually want.

also I did find the exact car you're after, it's just in fort lauderdale

Well at least you aren't in my boat, my new car came with exactly one option, summer tires for an extra $195. I was forced to buy every option they offer if I want the V6. I now have adaptative lane braek keep assist or whatever it's called. 12 or maybe more radar sensors. The damn car will park itself and I can start it with my cell phone. I don't need any of that, just wanted a damn V6, and I can't even buy it in a stick.

My local Nissan dealer didn't even come out ant talk to me when I was looking at spending $40k on a truck last week. There wasn't a single person on the lot but me and I had bought a Juke from them a year ago.

Needless to say, I won't be moving any metal from them. However I WILL show back up, waste a salesman's whole day and just get up and leave.

Reading this makes me glad I buy used.

Usually if there is an option that I don't have, it can be added in a weekend or two.

quote:

Well at least you aren't in my boat, my new car came with exactly one option, summer tires for an extra $195. I was forced to buy every option they offer if I want the V6. I now have adaptative lane braek keep assist or whatever it's called. 12 or maybe more radar sensors. The damn car will park itself and I can start it with my cell phone. I don't need any of that, just wanted a damn V6, and I can't even buy it in a stick.

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You were just born too late. My father used to complain about all the options. As a mechanical engineer, he would say just one more thing to go wrong. He bought a car without a radio because it was cheaper. Manual steering station wagon pea green {wonder why it was still on the lot}, with three on the tree. No air conditioning in those days. It did have an analog clock that you could adjust with a dial.

The "Build" meant build your angst.

Most car dealers are verminskum.

I do feel your pain.