Toyota Playing Fair?

Currently have a 22 Limited TRD OR. Over-all, very happy with it. Coming up on a year this January and looking into upgrading to TRD Pro. Slow day at work allowing me time to complete detailed Internet search. There are TRD Pro's available.

Here is the kicker, all have ADM from $5000-$10000. Also, latest Toyota game is they become reluctant to sell if you live 25 miles from the dealer. I live in Allentown PA and had several dealerships outside of 25 miles tell me this.

Last was the dealer I bought my TRD OR from. Its 40 miles from home and the salesperson who sold me the Tundra at MSRP told me he could not sell me the TRD Pro's coming in for that dealership.

One in my mind is perhaps a rumor? Several and it appears as unwarranted manipulation of the market.

Edit: 11/16 Update

Found a Tundra and worked with the dealer. In the end, received a good price. It's not a TRD Pro-but a TRD Limited OR Hybrid with a 5.5 bed loaded.

In the end, had my 22 for 10 months-8K miles and lost $2K on the trade. I am satisfied with this. That said, it was a grind to find

 

Sounds like your local dealers are in some type of agreement. I don’t think this is Toyota doing.

 

^

 

Dealerships of all makes are doing radius buying. It's an attempt to serve their local markets and not gave every unit scooped up by California scalpers. This is rampant with in dand ford's and chevys. Not at all related to Toyota.

Also there's no collusion between dealers. It's more simple. Joe finds out that Bob down the street is moving pros for 10k adm and so he starts doing it. By keeping it uniform, they ensure no one has an arbitrage opportunity and they bleed every dollar they can out of customers.

Can't wait for demand to crumble and supply to return

 

There's been a few threads on this. It's extremely common and has been going on since the car market went crazy during the middle stages of COVID. Dealers don't have to cater to you right now. This happens when supply is minimal and the people holding the cards are fully driven by greed.

I live in southern NV and within a reasonable drive of SEVERAL major metro areas. During my search, I spoke to dealers in Las Vegas, Southern Cali (San Diego up to Fresno), Arizona (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Flagstaff), and Utah (St. George). I probably spoke to 20-25 dealers. 90% of the dealers I spoke to outside of Las Vegas told me to go pound sand once they found out I wasn't local. The 10% that would entertain dealing with me over the phone wanted crazy ADM amounts.

I told them was more than willing to drive (or fly) to come get the truck I want. I told them I would been willing to wire deposits. None of that mattered.

In the end, I realized 2 things:

• It's a "seller's market" right now and dealers can 100% afford to wait & sell to a local person so they get the residual service & maintenance fees.
• I refused to BEG a dealer to business with me. I'm not going to plead with someone in order to buy something. It's my money. I shouldn't have to convince you to take it.

After it was all said & done, I found a local dealership that would accept a deposit & sell to me at MSRP. I gave my local dealer my list of wants, placed a deposit in mid-Nov 2021, and took delivery of my truck on 12/15/21. I ended up compromising on 2 things:

• I got the 8" screen vs the 14" screen - Not that big of a deal. Especially after I found out there was no functional differences...just screen size.
• I got cloth vs Softex seats - Again, not a big deal to me. I've had cloth in every other vehicle I've had and it doesn't scald your butt in the summer so I'm fine. lol

 

Hold off and wait, they will be selling Pros at msrp before long. Economy still sucks, high inflation, companies laying off, big gas, food and energy bills. People are already really cooled off on buying things and it is going to get worse.

Im already seeing more vehicles at dealers now and some of the discounts and incentives are coming back. Hang tight till spring or so and I get you can get a much better deal on the truck you want.

 

Toyota does have a customer brand engagement center you could reach out to and explain your issues too. I mean if the dealerships are not keeping the Toyota image that is something I would call in to let them know about.

Mission and Vision Statements are as follows: Mission Statement: "To attract and attain customers with high-valued products and services and the most satisfying ownership experience in America." Vision Statement: "To be the most successful and respected car company in America."

Toyota Brand Engagement Center. Call 1-800-331-4331

 

I would still call them and see what they say. All you have is time at this point. If they tell you to pack sand you could drive over to Ohio and see what they can do for you.

 

Check around the US on Toyotas website. I was able to get a 2023 Platinum this week for $4000 under msrp. It just so happened they were local, and that markdown came this week.

 

Even the brands like Ford that are taking a hardline stance on crazy ADMs are having a hard time wrangling their dealers in. The dealership model is broken and it's evident that most manufacturers are sub servant to their dealer base. Dealers are the tail that wags the dog, unfortunately.

Case in point: JM Family & Southeast Toyota...their buying power as mega dealer conglomerates holds a ton of sway over their manufacturers.

 

Wow they have their hooks into everything. Even home titles. No thank you. I will stick with podunk Idaho dealers.

 

As others have said, this isn't a Toyota thing. Dealerships are privately owned ventures.

 

You're caught between a rock and a hard place. But here is my 2 cents. Regardless of what you do, you are screwed. Either you take the hit now, or later. The market is crashing. I did a post on here about dealer inventory and slowly but surely dealers now have inventory and are giving discounts again. I personally wouldn't buy any vehicle at or above MSRP. This was bound to happen. How people didn't see this coming, wow. So sell your truck now at a higher price and pay the ADM or wait till dealers stop playing stupid game, Pay MSRP for the Pro and get less for your truck.

 

I bought my wifes Lexus from JM. They just sent me an email of an offer for her lease. They want $583 a month with $8,499dp +TTT for a lease on a 22, not even 23, RX 350. What are these people smoking. Better yet what are the people buying this leases smoking.

 

Oof.

 

Tell me who has gotten a significant increase to say that $1000 a moth for depreciating asset isn't an issue, especially on an RX. I have seen videos of people flexing their $1000+ car payments while working at the dealer. Those people are in for a rude awakening when they aren't selling cars. Are those the people who got significant increases? To pay that much money for an RX is stupid, period.

 

To pay $1,000 a month for any vehicle that is not making you any money is stupid..

 

Paying 65,000 cash for something that won’t make any money is not much different.

 

Before I bought my 19 pro I stopped in at Krause Toyota in fogelsville pa to ask about the 22 pro and they told me that they were only going 500 over msrp but that was a year ago so maybe things have changed !

 

It is very possible for dealers to collude.
Because in some areas and regions, there may be a large dealer conglomerate who owns many of the dealers in an area.

Google it. Not obvious at first, as usually the dealerships have unique names, but they're conglomerate owned, meaning not only can they collude, but their computer systems are connected too, they can see deals amongst their dealers, your negotiations at one dealership could be visible to another dealership. Bam, you hit a wall in negotiations.

 

Speaking to the dealers not wanting to sell to customers that aren’t local - A big part of their profit comes from their service department. They’re hoping you’ll come to them for maintenance, etc..
They figure if you live over a certain distance away you’ll go somewhere else for that service so you’re not as profitable to them in the long run.

 

Dealers also get points to the President's Award based on retaining a sale to include service at the dealership. So if I buy at Toyota South and I get my car serviced by them, the dealership gets more points. If I just buy and fly, it hurts their overall ratings for these awards. So it is not all market/cost driven.