"Yeah, but I'm sayin', that TruCoat, you don't get it and you get oxidization problems. It'll cost you a heck of lot more'n five hundred..."

While not a Toyota, I recently bought a new Honda Passport. I went to my local Honda dealer and ordered what I wanted. They quoted 60 days and $500 over invoice.

60 days later I had just what I ordered. That’s the way it should work. Good luck with your search.
Mike

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:

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

Well, almost, sort of. The car you found is the correct model and color, RAV4 Hybrid Limited, Blizzard Pearl / Nutmeg. That's fine, as far as it goes, but I want to buy the car the way that the Toyota factory built it, without distributor add-ons, without dealer add-ons.

Fort Lauderdale is not a problem, but the extra crap on the car is a problem.

The one that you found has a carpet / mat package for $409.00 extra, unwanted and unnecessary, WeatherTech has what I want for just about half of that.

This car also has a distributor package, "Toyoguard," for $699.00, that really has nothing I want or need. Paint sealer. If this were needed, the factory would have done it. A couple of oil changes. I don't need to buy a package for that. Four tire rotations. Nah, Discount Tire takes care of all of our vehicles, they do this for free. Roadside assistance. Nope, that's a pretty cheap add-on to our Traveler's family auto insurance policy. None of that is worth seven hundred bucks (all right, $699 for Toyoguard plus $409 for carpet mats, plus tax on all the unwanted stuff, an extra $1,185.56).

I did email the Fort Lauderdale dealer that has this car, told them that between all of that is a deal-killer, especially with the $800.00 "Dealer Fee" that they charge. They will get back to me tomorrow and let me know what they can do.

Most dealerships want to get cars that are already in their inventory sold first since every car on the lot actually costs them money until its sold.

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:

Most dealerships want to get cars that are already in their inventory sold first since every car on the lot actually costs them money until its sold.

Of course. That's understandable. However, if they really want to move that car, they should be willing to delete add-ons that the customer does not want. Carpet / mat package for $409? No thank you. Phone package consisting of a couple of phone cords and an adapter, for $73? Ridiculous! I don't need either of these, I don't want either of these. Remove this $515 extra cost (my math is correct, don't forget the sales tax) and we'll talk. You might be able to sell that vehicle that you have in inventory.

But the dealer insists on loading the vehicle with these outrageously priced unwanted extras, on top of the seven or eight hundred "Dealer Fee" (exactly what value does the "Dealer Fee" bring to the buyer?). And then they have the nerve to tell me that "all dealers do this." Bullshit. There are several large dealers in the area who make a point of "No Dealer Fee." Unfortunately, not Toyota dealers. Bastages.

I enjoy the process. My money sits in the bank until someone plays nice. You won’t get me in a negotiation. I do it every day at work so personal stuff is easy.

I’d use the situation to my advantage regarding them not having the specific build. Unfortunately, the dealers buy the vanilla, common builds so in a sense, you have to buy what the majority does. And that majority usually don’t know dick. So I would use that to my advantage lowering the price over and over. “Not the color we want”. In reality, you should always go in with 2 color choices if price means anything. Then I’d be saying “Not the build we want.” Lowering the price further.

I loathe Toyotas so don’t follow them as close as other makes. But they should be able to order one for you, in the exact color and trim level you want. You’ll just have to wait a few months as it takes some time. I’d also use the situation to my advantage and go drive some other vehicles from other makes, especially Subaru and Honda.

Earl Stewart isn't close but they claim no dealer fee. But while shopping for my wife's Highlander last year, I e-mailed them. Their discount isn't very much and all said, it was a few thousand more shopping there even with a dealer fee added on around the local dealers here.

Best I did was at Auto Nation by us. 15% off MSRP, $1,000 military rebate, no add ons and I split the $800 dealer fee with them. Figured if I was spending $43k on a car, I'm not going to care about $400.

I think most dealers will delete the add ons when they realize it would break a deal.

I'll drive down to pick the car up with you if you want to travel to pick one up.

The jackwads only read your phone number and e-mail address and then start pestering you with bullshit e-mails, texts, and phone calls.

For example, I filled out what I wanted in a subaru wrx on Truecar and sent it to the Subaru dealership. Salesman wouldn't give me a quote (standard come in, look around, take a test drive, and we'll work something out), but 3 levels of management followed up and I politely responded to the first 2 that I wanted a quote based on what I had input into Truecar. The last one was the general manager and I was fed up at this point and let him know what I thought of his team's reading comprehension skills. Chicken shit didn't respond, but his swarmy, illiterate internet sales manager did (there was so many words misspelled and grammar errors that it looked like an ESL student wrote it) so I replied to the salesman and all of the managers at the dealership who had e-mailed me that thanks to the internet sales manager's rude e-mail that there was a 0% chance they were seeing a dime from me. I also forwarded the e-mails to Truecar letting them know there was a subaru dealer refusing to provide quotes to Truecar contacts.

Another time, I was shopping for a Corvette and my employer buys so many Chevy pick-ups that we get an employee GM discount. I was in the process of moving from Canada to Houston and just wanted a damn quote on the Corvette I spec'd in GM's discount website. Of course, the salesman didn't bother to read the specs I had input so I replied back that all I wanted was a quote based on what I had input in GM's website. They must have some contact manager program where management can read correspondence because the dipshit general manager sent me an e-mail on how they were doing me a favor even replying to my request considering my address wasn't in Houston. I reminded him that there are these things called moving trucks and people in oil & gas move to/from Houston all the time, but he had just ensured that his dealership would never see a dime from me.

Now, I just do blind, reverse auctions (I'm the auctioneer, I'm the only one who knows the low bid, and every round the bids get lower) from the comfort of my recliner and let the MF'ers sweat. It helps that I don't care what color the vehicles is as long as neither the exterior or interior are black, and that it's the trim level I want. I enjoy sending e-mails like all of your competition is sending quotes so if you want to be considered you'll actually read what I'm looking for and send a quote. Then, I tell everyone that sends a quote that they weren't the low bidder but they're welcome to sharpen their pencils and resubmit a new quote. Then, I tell the top two that they're not the low bidder, but if they give me a revised quote by lunch tomorrow I'll consider it. When I bought my frontier I had GMs, sales managers, internet sales managers, and sales people tripping over themselves. I got a smokin' deal on my Frontier 20% lower than any website called a "great price" or invoice price.

I don't think things have changed - one of the distributors use to be a client.....

There are a limited number of distributors (4??). They control what goes on the cars. If it's a distributor add, a dealer can't get the car without those options.

A few years ago I was using a car broker. I live in Raleigh. He said he could get close to what I wanted but had to use a dealer in a different part of the country (Ohio)? A dealer about an hour away needed to sell a couple cars to make quota - they dropped the price so I pretty much got the 'add ons' free.

Hopefully you're able to get close to what you... then basically not pay for the crap they added.

Has anyone used Costco’s auto buying service?

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:

Has anyone used Costco’s auto buying service?

Click on Car Buying Service on the Costco website and you are transferred to a non-Costco site. This is what I got, when I plugged in RAV4 Hybrid, on the form:

quote:

Currently, we have not located a dealership in your area that has met our strict pricing criteria for the manufacturer you selected.

For your convenience, we have provided a list of comparable vehicles that are currently available with prearranged pricing at participating dealerships near you.

The "comparable vehicles" are comparable in that they all have four wheels; that's about it. Ford Explorer is a fine vehicle, but it is not a RAV4 Hybrid!

I have special ordered several cars, but the discount you get isn't as big as something on the lot. If you can find something very close, you will probably get a better deal on the car with a few extras, making the extras essentially free. Use it as a negotiation tactic.

quote:

Originally posted by RobC2:
I have special ordered several cars, but the discount you get isn't as big as something on the lot. If you can find something very close, you will probably get a better deal on the car with a few extras, making the extras essentially free. Use it as a negotiation tactic.

This. If the OP is deadset on getting exactly what he wants he's likely to pay a premium over off the lot.

Mass manufacturers just aren't as geared toward special orders, and almost certainly won't without a deposit/commitment. You pick out the stripped down choices you want and back out, they are left with something hard to move.

If it matters that much to you, on principle and general orneriness it seems, then at least take the time to sit down with a dealer and see if you can get an order setup. The online tool's just for experimenting with combos/pricing.

I agree that it is both frustrating and complete bullshit. I had to deal with this when I bought my wife's SUV....Dealer adds I refused included:

- Nitrogen filled tires
- Aftermarket remote start
- "AZ protection package"

It took us a little bit but we finally found a dealer that said they had the car we wanted coming in and that they would sell it to us the way it came off the truck.

I have a friend who takes it to a whole new level. He orders his cars and tells the dealer that he wants the car off the truck with all plastic intact and no dealer prep other than mechanical. His justification is that this saves him a significant amount of time not having to fix shit the detailing monkeys did

Most dealerships/salespeople want the quick and easy sale. Dealerships in general are corrupt from the top down. Service writers in the service department will many times lie and say you need a service when it is not the case and it goes on and on with sales and the finance departments. I can tell you that most of the dealerships will fire service writers/advisors and/or service managers if they don’t meet their “numbers”.

The only time I set foot in a dealership service department is to have the occasional recall done. When I do buy new, I deal with the internet salesperson only and buy nothing extra when dealing with the finance people. If you want a factory extended warranty, most of those are available to purchase online for a fraction of what the dealerships try to bend you over for.

If you’re ordering a vehicle the best thing to do is find out what the sum total msrp is on the manufacturer’s website and have the dealers work against each other for the best price, get the price in writing, and then have them order the vehicle, making sure that they actually order everything that you specify.

quote:

without distributor add-ons, without dealer add-ons.

Ain't gonna happen unless you go North my man, Southeast Toyotas getting a piece of every Toyota product sold in the Southeast, one of the last distributorships in place in the USA.

You buy it here, you are going to give the Morans their vig....

Also they pick special option packages for their territory, it's a SEToyota thing...

Nephew is a New Toyota dealer, even he cant tell me the cost basis exactly on a SET deal.

If you want to avoid that, you need to buy north of the Moran Family territory line...

When the wife bought our RAV4 the local dealer didn't have the color and trim she wanted on the lot. He found one at another dealership and had it brought over. There were options on the car we didn't want. I told him he could remove them or give them to me but I wasn't paying for them. He left them alone. We bought the car.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Ain't gonna happen unless you go North my man . . .you need to buy north of the Moran Family territory line.

How far north does their territory extend?

What is the nearest "free state?"

just to be clear the Dealers in the territory are not SE Toyota owned, so you really can't give them crap for the deal Toyota made with the Moran family in 1968 when Toyota had zero footprint in the USA and was smart enough to take on the company line for exclusive rights.

The dealers don't have a choice, there are JM dealers though, JM Lexus JM Toyota, family owned dealers of the Moran family, but not specifically SE Toyota.

https://www.jmfamily.com/newsr...-toyota-distributors

Today, the company distributes vehicles, parts and accessories to 177 independent Toyota dealerships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Vehicles manufactured in North America and Japan are processed at the company’s facilities in Jacksonville, Fla., and Commerce, Ga.

Having said that without SE Toyota, the brand would have really struggled to take a foothold in the USA.. And SE Toyota employees over 4300 people so it's not really a bad thing, nor worth driving to TN to get a car over...

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Ain't gonna happen unless you go North my man . . .you need to buy north of the Moran Family territory line.

How far north does their territory extend?

What is the nearest "free state?"

Same over here in TX, but it's GST (Gulf States Toyota)
Not possible to get a vehicle without the GST add-ons unless it was transferred in from another area.
May need to do some autotrader searching outside your area & get your preferred dealer to 'dealer trade' it in for you.