Absolutely bonkers experience at the dealership today

I usually call the dealership and ask for the internet sales manager, or I do an online inquiry and get the internet sales manager. I do all my haggling online or on the phone sitting on the porch with a coffee or a beer. Once I get to where I want to be, they send a copy of it and at my convenience I go to the dealership to pick the vehicle up.

The only time I spend any amount of time at any dealership playing the musical salesman game is when I am undecided and out doing test drives of different vehicles. And I almost never buy from the dealerships I use for that purpose. I have dealerships that (pre covid) have good inventory but are terrible as dealerships, I go there to see and drive what I need to, have a little fun screwing with salespeople heads, leave the lot, block their number. I then go home after I have decided what I want and contact the internet sales manager from the dealership I want to deal with.

The last 2 vehicles I bought, I could not tell you what the inside of the dealership showroom looked like since I never had to walk thru the door. Keys and internet guy met me at outside, drove the vehicle and left.

I only go in dealerships if I need some entertainment.

 

Don't waste your time....

They are all whores from the same brothel.... the manager won't give two shitz.
Likely he is the guy who trained the salesman...

I would stay away from Daytona as well.

 

I would never go to Toyota of Orlando. Last year I found the exact 2021 Tundra I wanted to buy and it was sitting on the lot. It was my "Unicorn". I called, spoke to a sales guy and he confirmed the truck on the lot with a photo. I knew I would have to pay MSRP to get it. Tried to make a deposit over the phone to hold it and they wouldn't. I was thee hours away and willing to start driving immediately there to buy the truck. Told me first come first serve and if we sell it before you get here to bad. He then tells me hang on a minute and put me on hold. Picks back up a few minutes later and says that truck has a $3000 "market adjustment". I was already ticked about the deposit. Told him to keep the truck and hung up. They'll never get my business.

 

Yes, same guy. He had a bunch more inbound for February March delivery. Mine is due in second week of February. I'm flying up and taking the auto train bank. Don't waste your time with Florida dealers.

 

Orlando dealers are the absolute worst I've ever dealt with. Had a Hyundai dealer throw a piece of paper at me and storm off. How professional.

 

Dealers (mostly) suck everywhere. I went through three Toyota dealers before finally getting my Tundra.


Dealer #1: Recommend by one of the guys that worked for me. Their website showed a dozen trucks with location listed as "on the lot". When I show up for a test drive the salesman laughs at me because I "don't understand", according to their rules they can show it as "on the lot" once its allocated despite the fact the trucks were still 2-3 weeks out. I tried again a couple weeks later when more trucks were shown as 'on the lot", but this time it was just a phone call. The salesman laughed at me again, said I'd never see a vehicle even when they arrived and hung up on me. Tried working through the Sales Manager (though it was tough to get transferred to him) who said he'd "personally handle my sale". Never heard from him again.

Dealer # 2: Test drove a couple trucks, really liked one of them and wanted to make a deal. It was a Factory Program truck with 1800 miles on it and they were asking above original MSRP, with an additional markup if you didn't have a trade (despite the fact that the salesman admitted during the test drive I was better off selling my current truck myself). The salesman left me after the test drive to go help another customer and told me I could text/email him with anything further, or "just wait" till he was done with the other customer to discuss it more. We would up trading text messages and he said they could make an aggressive offer on my trade in, so I told him to write something up. Never heard from him again.

Dealer # 3: Mostly worked through their internet sales department, which I have to admit was excellent. They had a record of each of our phone calls and what was discussed during each one. As they were a three hour drive away I called ahead the afternoon prior to arrange a test drive. "No problem, we have four available, see you in the morning". The next morning I show up to find out that of those four vehicles, three had supposedly been sold since our call the previous afternoon and the other went into their shop just before I arrived due to "an issue" and wasn't available. Awesome! (not). I look around the lot and see a truck equipped just the way I wanted it and ask about it: "that's the Sales Manager's truck, he won't let you drive it, I already asked" (thanks for the effort after my three hour drive). I did eventually get to drive an older used truck, though it wasn't equipped the way I wanted, at least it was a test drive. Fast forward a couple weeks and the internet sales guy has a vehicle on its way pretty close to what I'd been looking for (less the factory dual exhaust). Close enough, "I'll take it". When I show up to pick it up we spend about 50 minutes completing a cash deal. Price wound up being less than their original quote (don't hear that every day, no markup, misc freight/paperwork fees several hundred dollars less than quote). The longest part was the sales manager having to pitch all their additional protection packages. The conversation goes like this:
Sales manager: "Now lets talk about these packages"
Me: "Not interested, just want the truck"
Sales Manager: (starts explaining additional package number one anyway)
My wife: "We're not interested in any of these"
Sales Manager: Doesn't even acknowledge her (he has no idea what he's messing with) and continues his spiel. He's now discussing the second package (there appear to be five or six, with various combinations available on his sheet.
Me: I cut him off. "Save your breath, we don't want any of these. We'll take our chances. We just want the truck".
Sales Manager: "I'm required by law to explain all these to you, otherwise you could come back and sue us claiming you weren't informed that they were available"
Me: (Thinking: that's complete bullshit!). I almost walked out and tanked the deal right there. But given supply chain issues, limited availability, and the fact I didn't want a 2022 we let him ramble on for a few more minutes, complete all his descriptions and left with the vehicle without any of those additional packages.

Overall, still not a stellar experience, but better than the first two places.

 

Was looking in October of last year for a low mileage 2.5G. Spotted my 2019 online and moved quickly as they kept disappearing on me. Spoke with a sales rep, confirmed several details about the truck, non smoker, clean title, car fax etc. had him take a few additional photos for me and give me his best price on the truck. We agreed to a price and I requested a signed purchase agreement with the out the door price on it. He sent one to me, I made a deposit to hold the truck. Picked it up out side of Nashville Tennessee at the dealership. Declined all the extras and left with my original out the door price. They were very respectful throughout the process. Only thing they didn’t do was fill the tank. The finance guy started drooling when I told him about my 1st Gen. was pretty upset I wasn’t trading it in or interested in selling it. This dealership even has the lifetime power train warranty.

 

Me] Hello Texas Toyota dealer , is this sales ?

D bag salesperson]. yea

Me] I want to give your dealership more than my entire years middle class salary for a truck please, all I ask is for 4 minutes of your time and you can make a cool $500 a minute

D bag salesperson] yawn

Me] hello

D bag salesperson] yea I’m here ummm what’s your email? I’ll send you an explanation of the process. Send me a build sheet and I’ll get back to ya. Click

no response day 3

true story

the end

 

Funny, I had a similar experience last year (March 2020) when I had time to kill before my 2nd Covid shot appt at CVS. So, I stopped at a nearby Honda dealer to look at Pilots and Passports... of which they still had plenty... and the salesman seemed more interested in my Tacoma than in selling me a Honda. He wanted it bad!

 

Wow. That's crazy...here was my experience.

Sales guy: "Here's the contract stuff. You want an extended warranty or any of that other stuff?"
Me: "Nope."
Sales guy: "Cool, so sign these 24 places...."
Me: *signs*

That was about it. I exaggerate a bit, but I'm not at all kidding when I say he *maybe* asked me two questions about warranty or packages, and even then, it was sort of a "Lemme get this over with quickly because I know you don't want this stuff and just want to get out of here" tone. LOL

 

Toyota of Orlando are crooks. Was in Orlando on vacation in the wife’s Highlander. While in Orlando noticed a construction staple in one of the tires. Didn’t want to pull it out in case it lost air so went to Touota of Orlando to address it. Service rep came out and said, yup it’s leaking air and due to location needs to be replaced. They didn’t have the tire in stock and said would need to order for next day delivery. We were leaving the next day so told him I’d handle it. Bought a little 12v air pump and returned home. That was 6 months ago and still no tire leak. They outright lied to me in order to try and sell a tire.

 

The great thing about New car buying is that there are many dealerships and sales people out there. Finding the right one to work with is the fun and challenging part. With my experience buying Toyota products, The sales guy does not have to sell me the car, they just have to sell me the "DEAL". The care is already sold, which is why i showed to the dealership in the 1st place...

 

The local dealership here in Gulfport, MS is adding $4995 to the MSRP on new Tundras because "We're giving you $3K over the value of your used truck". The dealer in Moss Point isn't playing that game...guess who I'm dealing with.

 

As Dave Barry would say, you can't make this stuff up!

 

I would have said "You're only doing that because you know it will sell above that trade in value"

 

The wild part is people won't stop buying the damn overpriced trucks instead of waiting. At least when they don't need one asap.

 

So what is the markup with no trade?

 

$4995…it’s just a ripoff.

 

So a couple things... not sure if anyone else has mentioned it but Gulf States Toyota or SE Toyota (I forget what it's called) has a monopoly on an entire region of the country. They have packages that are added to all the trucks that aren't even available where I live. I remember a truck came in to a body shop with a part that was "special" because it was sold in that region with a package. My local Toyota dealer couldn't even get the part, and it's a Toyota part number.

So their mandatory Toyoguard Platinum is one of those items that you're probably going to find at every dealer in your area and neighboring states.

Also, you can't order a truck from Toyota. The dealer can put in preference and wait to get an allocation that matches all or most of what they want, but it's hard to get exactly what you want like with Ford or GM. Hell, I can build a Ford truck EXACTLY how I want with everything I want and nothing that I don't and get that way. I just did it with a Bronco that's being built now.

I went through this in 2016 with a Tacoma. I built a truck on the build and price, and Toyota didn't even make the truck except for one specific region of the U.S. which was California, New Mexico, and Nevada. I live in Pennsylvania. I got the truck but my dealer had to trade with another dealership all the way in New Mexico right after the truck was built.

Sorry for the rant, but it's just how Toyota does things, and the region that your in is a whole other animal. It's weird, but I've learned about it because I've bought so many Toyota trucks.

 

Gulf States is the last remaining distributor from the days when Toyota used distributors to sell vehicles. They control how all the vehicles in their territory are configured. Not sure if this is true for cars. They need to go away.