Some of you may have read about my idea in this thread:

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/8110023344

Few weeks ago we rented an older Highlander and after that experience we had eliminated the Highlander from our list of vehicles. But I soon realized that the Highlander had grown in length over the years, the one we rented off Turo was a 2007 model.

Flash forward to 2018 and the Highlander is a significant movement forward.

It was between the Highlander and Sienna. One issue we had was garage space. Both vehicles are big but I believe the overall length of the Sienna was 200" while the Highlander is 192.5". Unlike most of the people in our neighborhood, we keep both cars inside. Most others keep junk in their garage while their cars are parked outside.

Parking the Sienna in the garage was going to be a challenge but it also offered significantly more room than the Highlander. The old Highlander simply did not have as much space as we thought it would have so we decided against it even though we never looked seriously at the new ones. After my dealings with the Sequoia in this thread: https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/5740028244/p/1 it made me realize that as time changes, the models can change significantly so we should at least look at the Highlander.

Went and looked and liked what we saw. Did a lot of research online, watched YouTube videos and sent out various e-mails for quotes for the Highlander and Sienna. That's when I started the thread about flying to Maryland to buy. The fees here were simply too high. One dealership who advertises no fees, he was moving only 5% off MSRP. I asked the gal if that was her best price and she said yes but they don't charge any fees. Okay...

We go to lunch before heading to the dealership. Went to Wendy's, the kid loves their chicken nuggets and it was only 1/2 mile from the dealership. We have lunch, come out and I try to start the car and it's multiple clicking. Oh shit... Dead battery. Car is a 2014 Kia Sportage we bought new, had 63k miles on it and a lot of equipment was still factory: battery (El Paso, TX & Florida heat), tires and brake pads. Tires were due and obviously the battery. CarMax had offered $10.7k for the car couple weeks ago, we were above water on it. I obviously wasn't going put all that work and money into it to trade it in. They can do it cheaper anyway. Luckily I always carry a jumper pack so I jumped the car and we went to the dealer to look.

His first offer was 15% below MSRP. That was nice but I mentioned the dealer fees and he said on paper everyone has to pay the same. I said that's fine, subtract some more from the vehicle price so he did. I also qualified for the $1,000 military rebate. Sales manager was a snake-type of guy. First said I didn't qualify and that I was on the wrong web page, which I was because Southeast Toyota Finance might have different rebates from the other distributor. Found the right page and I indeed did qualify. Also asked him about college graduate but I didn't qualify as I had graduated long ago and it wasn't eligible on the Highlander. Offer sheet came back and it was only $750 listed on there. I actually take the time to read and told him it's supposed to be $1,000, not $750 and he said that was a mistake, they thought I was getting the college graduate rebate at $750.

Salesman was a nice guy, finance guy was nice but sales manager wasn't my favorite type of guy. Of course, he used the typical car salesman lines. Said to me, "if these numbers are good then we have a deal, right?" I laughed and pointed at him and said to my wife, "see, I told you he would say that!" He didn't think it was very funny. I told him, I want to buy a car, he wants to sell a car so what do we have to do to make a sale? I don't think he liked the mockery I made of their business.

Finance guy wasn't bad. I even grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote the 4 square out for him. He said that's old school, they don't use that anymore.

Anyway, wife picked out a Highlander XLE in a brownish color with light interior. Not my choice but she's happy. Still learning all the new gizmos. Oh yeah, all those fees, some of them I didn't even bother to haggle like $1.50 and $2.00 fees for stuff like battery and tire fees. Didn't even haggle with their tag fee of $200 as it saved me from the misery of standing in line for 2 hours at the Tax Collector Office (that's where we get our tags from here in FL). Their standard dealer fee is $799 and I met them halfway on it. I wasn't trying to cut into their muscle. I got a decent rate (which I'll pay off early anyway) and left a sizable down payment.

Wife is happy so I'm happy:









Next step is to order a hitch from etrailer and some rain guards from Weathertech. Did the ceramic tint on the front windows this morning.

I like the color.

What do you use for your dash cam and do you like it?

I like it a lot, congratulations!

Congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
I like the color.

Me too, hell I like the whole car. Congratulations!

Congrats and good choice. You can’t go wrong with a Toyota. And I like the color too.

I like both the ride and the color. Well done

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
What do you use for your dash cam and do you like it?

The old one is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It wasn't bad, left a lot to be desired at night.

I upgraded to this one which will arrive today:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nice vehicle and I too like its colors.

"You should drive it in good health!"

(As my long gone grandmother would have said.)

Did you end up buying the vehicle in FL?

On our third Highlander. Just passed 20,000 miles on our 2016 and have not have one issue. The previous two were also trouble free. Enjoy!!!

Congratulations. My parents bought one earlier this year and I drove it for the first time last week. Good luck with the gizmos. I had a great argument with the navigation system. I'd say "navigate to West Marine in Petoskey, MI" and it would reply "God bless you". Not really, but after a half hour of trying I gave up and used my phone. Google figured it out the first try.

There's a button you press to turn off the auto engine stop/start feature. Of course I didn't remember it had that and freaked out a little when the engine stopped running at the first stop sign I came to.

Care to divulge which dealership you ended up purchasing from?

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:
Care to divulge which dealership you ended up purchasing from?

AutoNation.

Spoke with Earl Stewart and they weren't budging off their 5.6% off MSRP. AutoNation was at nearly 16% so that was a no brainer.

Clearwater Toyota was a nice discount but we would've had a 2 hour drive out there and we were't planning on going towards Tampa until Saturday the 30th. I would've liked to have waited until the 30th and squeezed them on the last day of the month but the car battery did not agree with me.