quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
Almost $2200 in fees? WTF

Back in the day when I was selling Yotas, there were a few vehicles mixed in that didn't get the South East toyota extras. Wouldn't hurt to check around

On my 2019 Ridgeline got the dealers to move from 43115 MSRP down to $37900 using CarGurus and visiting 6 dealers. I showed the local dealers how driving 4 hours away would save me nearly 5k that changed there tune got the ball rolling at $38500 the following dealers would only move down $150 bucks by the final dealer I realized I reached the lower profit limit the dealers have in my area.

The dealership model is so fucking broken I can't wait for it to finally fail.

quote:

Originally posted by RobC2:
I just got a very good deal on my Tacoma in NC. Not sure where you are located in SC, but if you are near Charlotte, I can hook you up with the people I dealt with. E-mail me at the address in my profile.

I sent an email your way, thanks for the offer.

You can do much better. You’re shopping at the beginning of the month, he has no incentive to deal right now. Get up and walk out then try him or another store again at the end of the month. Take the invoice price of the car minus any rebates and tell them that’s what you want to pay, he’ll still be making good money at that number. The game is to go up as little as possible from there. Lots of other ways to approach it and get even better deals but this is the easiest least hassle way and the dealer still makes some money on the transaction.

Yeah, but that TruCoat....

When we bought our Challenger, the local dealer wanted to make a deal (NOT) We were willing to drive to Virginia for a great deal, but they thought we were doing a bullshit story.

About 2 hours into our trip, the salesman called, I told him too make it our worth our while to turn around----he hung up on me.

Last 2 new cars we bought we had our "system" worked out. Did our internet research, decided what we were willing to pay.

Went to the dealership to start the "negotiations".

Our plan was simple. If the sales person was male my wife dealt with him. If a female I dealt with her.

Both cars were bought from male sales critters, so she dealt with them. They kept trying to get me into the negotiations and I kept telling them that it was to be her car, therefore they had to deal with her.

Told them that we would make one offer and it was take it or leave it. No negotiations.

Once they got the idea we were not kidding things went pretty smoothly. Bought the cars are what we were willing to pay.

Homework helps!

If you are straight out buying there is no reason to be stuck with buying local higher priced vehicles. I lived in Oklahoma City and bought a Toyota from here:

https://www.toyotawestohio.com...nder&gvBodyStyle=SUV

Not sure exactly which options you looked at but some of these Highlanders were WAY cheaper. A couple hundred dollar plane flight and an Uber ride from an airport might save you THOUSANDS of dollars! I personally wouldn't hesitate buying from a dealer in ANY state that gave me a good deal. A day or two driving home is just a good break in, especially if it saves me THOUSANDS of dollars. Service should be EXACTLY the same under warranty no matter where you bought it from. Get away from Gulf States Toyota and you might just save a lot of money. All those added fees are complete BS that they add on to stick it to people to shy to say they won't pay for them! Shop around!

And FWIW that Toyota West in Columbus was by far the easiest car deal I've ever made and I work in the industry. ;-)

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
That's a whole lotta junk fees, southeast Toyota is a racket. JM&A, the Moran family that own it are loaded

Shop through the internet depts from the comfort of your home

This is correct, but some explanation may help. Southeast Toyota is a vestige of the original distribution system set up by Toyota in the 60's.They are independent distributors that get paid a piece of every Toyota sold in their territory, distribution fees, and they get to add overpriced "port installed" accessories and charge them to every dealer. Bottom line is the dealer cost for the vehicle is less in areas like Central Atlantic Toyota actually owned by Toyota, and not an independent dealer, so Toyotas sold in Virginia can potentially be quite a bit cheaper than in NC. It can be worth driving across the state line to save.

Your answer is to negotiate at a distance with multiple dealerships and stay in control of the process. They want you in the dealership which makes you captive. Walk in only after your deal is struck and make it clear, one penny more and you walk. It's that easy.

I've bought a large number of trucks/vehicles. I've learned this simple strategy. Configure what -exactly- you want (if you can't do that forget it) and then ask as many dealerships as you can stand to quote it. As is, cash purchase, buy now.
If none of the above is possible get another strategy. When you have a trade or need financing etc. then other rules apply.
The difference in pricing is stunning. I just bought a new pickup MSRP $65K. out the door price varied from $52K to $65K. WTF.

A lot of the dealer profit is coming from off invoice "trunk money", if that term is still used. Is there any source for finding out how much that is, so you can hit them over the head with it when negotiating.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
That's a whole lotta junk fees, southeast Toyota is a racket. JM&A, the Moran family that own it are loaded

Shop through the internet depts from the comfort of your home

They should be loaded (Moran), they are the distributor for every single Toyota in the southeastern US. Most of the money JM makes is off of the financial end of their business and extended warranties. He took a huge risk and a big chance on importing Toyota when nobody wanted them. I worked for Jim Moran in 2002 and came in direct contact for him, he was worth $1.2 billion then and passed away in 2005. Back then he told me they made $600 for every Toyota sold in the SE US. That's fair for the amount of money he was putting out. Remember, EVERY business needs to make a fair profit and every business has lots of business expenses to pay for before they even turn a profit.

That being said he was a very nice guy and very good to me. JM is extremely good to all of their employees and really goes above and beyond in compensation packages. I don't know if it changed, but when I worked for him, if any employee had a loss in their immediate family (father/brother/sister/kid etc). They would fly the employee and their entire immediate family to and from the lost relative anywhere in the continental U.S. on one of the private jets for free. Any employee could also buy a Toyota/lexus etc at his cost. As well as excellent 401k etc. etc.


Everyone seems to think car dealers are communist and should just sell cars for the same price they pay for them. And, salesman should make minimum wage. They put out a ton of $$$$$ for a very small profit (%) for their money. There are tons of back end costs (cost of a huge commercial property, expensive insurance, interest, employees, maintaining the car, electric, etc. etc. etc.) No other business makes 5% profit margin or much less on items costing $20,000-100,000, with millions of $$$'s in inventory, they could never stay in business.


I don't disagree with anyone getting a fair deal on a car. But everyone and every business is entitled to make some profit or a fair profit. There are a lot of costs to the dealer, just for that car to sit on the lot....usually a bit more than $500 a car by the time it's sold. Do you go into your grocery store and ask them to see the receipt of how much they paid the farmer for the gallon of milk you want to buy, and then offer them less than they paid and expect to get the same price as the grocery store chain paid whose buying millions of gallons of milk?

I doubt it’s still the same but used to be with Toyota you’d be close to cost by multiplying the MSRP minus destination by .85 then adding the destination back. Roughly $500 over that was a good price, at least in NYC region.

Out here you’re lucky to pay anything less than MSRP and they usually start out by adding a +3k “regional adjustment”, but at least they bring good prices when you sell.

We’ll I’m on my way to Georgia tomorrow morning to most likely purchase a Highlander. I struck a deal with a sales manager over the phone, which will hopefully hold up when I walk through their doors. I’ll let you know how it works out.

I appreciate all the advice that I have received so far!

quote:

Originally posted by J387:
We’ll I’m on my way to Georgia tomorrow morning to most likely purchase a Highlander. I struck a deal with a sales manager over the phone, which will hopefully hold up when I walk through their doors. I’ll let you know how it works out.

I appreciate all the advice that I have received so far!

I'd have him put the deal in writing in an email as well as a filled out sales order with all of the costs and email it to you before you drive there. I hope the deal works out.