Absolutely bonkers experience at the dealership today

So I had quite an experience at the Toyota dealership this morning... I've been waiting several years for the next generation Tundra. I owned a 2012 SR5 DC 4x4 previously and it was the best vehicle I ever had. After owning it for several years I got the silly idea in my head that I should trade it in for a new Corvette. I traded it in and the car was fun for a while but I always missed my truck and it was still my favorite. I told myself that when they finally redesigned the Tundra, I was buying one. It's finally happened and I've decided that it's time to get one.

I called my local dealership here in central FL about a week ago and said I was interested in buying a new Tundra and wanted to take a look at one and drive it if they had one on the lot. The sales guy said they didn't have any and that when they get them in, they're sold immediately. I said OK fine when I'm ready to buy I'll let you know and I'll just order one. A couple days ago I decided that it was time to make it happen. I spoke with the same sales guy again on the phone and said I was ready to come in and place an order and get one on the way. We scheduled a time of 10:00 AM this morning (Saturday).

So I get to the dealership this morning and a super friendly guy outside walked up to me and asked me if he could help me with anything. I said "Yep, I'm here to see JohnDoe in sales." He said OK and took me inside to a guy at a desk. I walked up and introduced myself. JohnDoe looked at me and simply said "Hi, let's go into this office." The absolute first thing I noticed was that he didn't smile or come across as friendly at all (especially for a sales person who was about to make the easiest sale of his life). We go into the office and I explained again that I'm ready to order a new Tundra. I told him that I've gone through the online builder 20 times and know all the options that I want and kind of listed things out. Limited DC 4x4, SS Red, PVM with cameras, premium pkg, power pkg, etc. I told him I had an email from the website that the builder generated and I offered to forward that email to him. He said OK then gave me what I guess was maybe his personal gmail address (seemed weird to me but OK). I forwarded the email. He opens it up and starts asking me questions like "Where do I go to see the options?" and "How do I view this or that." I tell him that the package listed on the email includes all the options I want. I'm thinking to myself, why am I having to explain this? Has he never done this before? After more questions and confusion eventually I said "OK do this...go to Toyota.com into the builder." He pulls up the website and says "OK now where do I go?" I tell him what to click on to build a Tundra. Click on trucks, click on Tundra, click on build....It was like the first time he'd ever seen it. I give him all the options I want again. The last step in the builder is the accessories. I didn't want any of that so I said click on Finish. We get to the end of the process and he asks "OK how do I get all the options listed out?" I explained to him that he could click on the link that says "download details" and it should list everything. He does that and prints out the page and says "OK let me take this over to the desk." He walks out and I'm sitting there thinking to myself "Holy cow, I don't know if this is the guy that should be handling this." I'm not feeling confident at all but I decide it'll probably be fine and I'll just double check everything myself. When he came back he put a different printout in front of me that had the truck with options. So I said "OK let me make sure it has everything I want on it." I'm going through the list and I see "TOYOGUARD Platinum" for $700 and floor mats for $300. I know from the online builder that these are accessories, just like tailgate inserts or the $75 iphone cables. I saw those items and I said "Hang on, where did this come from...I don't want these extra accessories." He says all Toyotas in the SE are going to come with that. I said no, I don't want those add-ons. That's another $1000 and I'm not going to pay an extra $1000 for a couple oil changes and some floor mats." He starts getting worked up and angry and starts trying to argue with me about it telling me that they come like that. I finally said "So you're telling me that you won't sell me a $60K truck without adding $1000 of extras that I'm telling you I don't want?" When I say that he totally flies off the handle and says "That's not even the final price that the truck's gonna be anyway. We're going to add like $6000 to the MSRP!" (So I guess if I thought $1000 was bad, wait till we add another $6000 to it?) I'm in total shock at this point and can't believe the attitude and what this guy is saying. I'm sitting there with this shocked expression on my face and I swear to god he's staring me down looking at me like he wants to fight me or something. Then he says "WHAT! WHAT'S THE PROBLEM???" I said "Whoaaaa......Are you for real? OK I'm gonna head down the road." I got up and walked out. As I'm walking away I hear him talking some shit to someone outside the office about floormats. It was CRAZY! I was hardly out of their lot when the sales manager calls me and says "Hey I guess there's some confusion about some options?" I was pissed and said I'm not talking about this now.

Never in my entire life have I had an experience like that with any kind of sales person. I went into the dealership this morning to BUY a truck. Not talk about it, but buy it and give them my $1000 deposit. Nobody had to try and sell me anything. All they had to do was order it for me, take my money, and call me when it came in but it got super weird really quickly. So at this point I'm bummed out because I was looking forward to getting my new truck on the way. It put a really bad taste in my mouth and now I'm probably just going to wait until they aren't in such short supply so dealers don't play stupid games with markups.

 

They are almost like that , it’s like two okish girls in the bar with a 100 dudes. Supply and demand

 

That is insane. You should have told the manager exactly what happened.

 

I've found many foreign car dealers (except Porche) to be similar. All kinds of add ons they absolutely refuse to not include, my favorite is $495 for nitrogen filled tires and the $995 package for scratch hazards!

I would just try another dealer, there has to be an honest one somewhere, no?

 

Welcome to the new age of car buying. I had trouble getting someone at the Toyota dealer to return my calls so I can leave a deposit on a sticker priced tundra.

 

Name and shame the dealer and the sales guy.

We have a list going of dirtbag dealers.

 

I hate to hear about your experience, but it’s not surprising in this market. There are a number of great dealers out there not charging ADM or forcing dealer add-ons. You’ll have to wait and may have some limits on getting what you want, but check out the pricing thread for a list of the good ones.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/202...m-list-public-editable-live-google-doc.99185/

 

I didn't think you could actually order trucks with Toyota. I always thought dealers pretended to take orders and would try to dealer trade for trucks that are close or just keep your name on a list.....And, the region adds accessories to trucks that don't come off. You can add more dealer accessories after the trucks lands.

 

Sounds about right. When I was trying to buy my 21 I called and emailed dealers in several states and many salespeople were totally useless. Almost threw in the towel because it was very frustrating. Dogs have more sense than 7 out of ten salespeople in this region.

 

I am in the area as well and got mine locally. Shoot me a PM and let me see if I can help ya a little.

 

Nobody should have to put up with the crap you described!

Since you live in Central FL try calling Sun Toyota in Holiday, FL (Tampa area), ask for Leroy Bostick and see what he can do for you. I'm not in any way affiliated with them and I don't know what they have in stock or anything, but I searched all over FL when I purchased my '20 TRD Pro and got the best deal from them compared to all of the others in the state. Leroy was no bs and great to deal with, so much so that I used him again and bought my sons Tacoma from him a couple of months ago. In both incidences I told him what I wanted and to give me an out the door price - tax, tag and title and worked from there. That way no dealing with incentives, finance games or other crap. I knew what I was willing to pay going in and when we hit that number I wrote the check. In and out in about two hours. FWIW, YMMV

 

Sun is only getting 1 of his trim in Magnetic Gray sometime in February.

 

OP, JohnDoe sucks as a sales person, but he's correct about those all weather floor mats, and protection package.

If you can see those packages in Toyota build configure tool, almost all of them are port-installed option so they are part of the sticker price.

I'm not sure about your regional distributor, but for Gulf States Toyota, they stopped taking customization of port-installed options for the 2022 Tundra, meaning the port will just pick and choose those items to put on prior to shipping to the individual dealer. Lately they go all out and check all the boxes when possible to boost profit for the regional distributor.

Also, the topic of order has been beaten to death, customers actually never order a Toyota. The fancy build sheet in writing and signed order from Toyota dealership is just a note to the dealership internally to keep an eye out for such vehicle when they check what's in the pipeline, if such vehicle exists in their coming allocation, then they'll give you a call and sell it to you. Toyota factory never receive a specific customers order to build. That being said, the more specific you criteria are, the less odds you'll find it, and you might have to wait many months for such vehicle to show up in your dealership. So, in theory, you can specify no floor mat, no protection plan, and there's a chance that such vehicle exists, just might take longer to find.

 

Yup, only 9 of that trim, drive, cab combo coming within the next month and a half within a 100 mile radius of the OP's area, and only one in Red. Might have to adjust or drive further to get what he wants specifically with zero mark up.

 

Toyota dealerships are the worst sales experiences I have ever had. The thought of going out and dealing with a Toyota dealership is what encourages me to keep my truck longer.

 

My solution is to let my wife do the car dealing. I give her a list of what I want, turn her loose and go outside. After a few minutes the salesman starts to fidget. They dare not pull that crap with a lady especially if they don't have that special red day calendar.

 

Just be glad the sales person didn't waterboard you for the extra money.....

 

I had the same thing happen at a Honda dealer when we were going to upgrade our daily driver Civic.
I think it's universal

 

It really is a deterrent to buying a new vehicle. The experience, even when you are fully informed and have your version of the P&S with you and just hand it to the salesman, is still a $hit show sometimes. I take multiple copies of a quick spreadsheet when I buy now and hand it to the salesman and have a copy for me so that when he comes back with his form I can compare. If the experience was easy with no BS I think I would buy a new car more often.

 

Hey OP in southwest FL and have a great sales guy down here. Send me a PM I’ll get you sorted if you want some help.

 

My tactic is similar - you don’t want my wife negotiating, but she sure gets bored quick. So I futz with the sales guy while she makes comments like “How much longer is this going to take?”, “I don’t even want the car anymore. Can we just leave?”. It’s usually a huge help. Conversely, if it’s one she really wants, she won’t stop talking about how much she likes it or excited she is, and then I have to send her outside.

 

So sorry to read this...jackasses like that give a bad rep to those of us who are sales professionals and sales executives.
Hey, if you want to wander south from where you are into the Naples/Ft. Meyers area, I can connect you with top sales folks in two respective dealers here, both MSRP and a good "buying experience."
Shoot me a PM and happy to assist if desired.

 

Sounds like a Toyota of Orlando experience to me. Absolutely horrible place to purchase from. Service department is good, sales staff is horrible from the person you first speak to, the third or fourth round manager that shows up at the cocktail table. And there's no sense in protecting their location or names. If you had a horrible experience, you had a horrible experience. I've tried to purchase 3 vehicles their in the past three years, no luck. The last two were purchased from Seminole Toyota.

 

I have to be honest and say that all three of our experiences (2012 Highlander; 2020 Tundra; and 2020 Highlander) have been fantastic.

2012 Highlander: Took us exactly 31 minutes from the time we walked in the dealership to the time we drove off.
2020 Tundra: Took me exactly 23 minutes. (Full disclosure - bought it in March 2020 so it was in both their interest and ours for us to be out ASAP.)
2020 Highlander: Took 25 minutes.

In all cases we were busier'n crap and told them "We need to be out as soon as possible" - and they delivered. Our salesperson is honest as the day is long - if they can or cannot do something, they'll tell you up front.

Last time I had an issue (asked for my vehicle to be seen for an oil change and addressing a squeak in the dash), they forgot to address the squeak. He stopped me from leaving and walked back to the service desk, had them address it then and there, and had them wash my truck for free.

I'm not saying your experiences aren't valid; just that they're not all bad.

 

Oh geez I didn't know that. I just assumed that I could check the exact boxes I want and they'll put it on a list to build and get to it when they get to it. And yeah I'm not going to pay above MSRP either. Looks like it's going to be a while.

 

My experience was at Daytona Toyota. Orlando was going to be next on my list to check. /facepalm

 

Sorry this happened, a friend of mine had the same experience on a new Civic except he had already made the deal and just went to pick it up. They had added 7k in shit he did not want including 400 nitrogen-filled tires and 700 locking lug nuts, He said fuck no & when they insisted went home, spent the night doing a spreadsheet on the cost of ownership for 4 years, and ordered a TESLA! The GM claimed the need to add on tons of stuff to keep parts & service afloat. WHO GIVES A SHIT???

Dealers are claiming poverty when really they have been making record profits.

 

I've done this. My wife gets the "big boobie" discount. She's also Filipino and has years of experience haggling over the price of a 50 piso fish in a crowded wet market. These salesman don't know what hit em as we drive away in whatever car we came for.

 

That is such Bologna!!!
Good luck OP
It looks like a bunch of members here can at least connect you with some positive experience dealerships. After all that's what we are here for!

 

When I bought my WS6 Trans Am, I was in a situation something like that.
CA. did not have hardly any of them around so I went to the manager of the place and asked him if he would accept car builds from Detroit and he said yes.
He told me he would add $750 for "handling" to the final price.
So, I got on the Pontiac website and build the Trans Am I wanted.
They said three months and I said go. They charged me $3000.00 to initiate the build, three months later I get a call from the dealership saying a car was delivered to them.
I go down there and there she is; black, six speed with light interior, (I didn't want black due to the heat)
As I stepped out of my car and walked over to my WS6, there were three sales guys trying to sell it to people who were standing around looking at it.
I told them to please get away from the car as they were peeking into it.
They got huffy and before I took a step at them the sales manager came out and told them I was the owner.
True story.
I wrote a check for the remainder of the cost and drove her off the place.
My wife who watched the whole thing said she would of paid to see that go down.
Sales pukes are a different breed of jerk sometimes.
Hard to find a decent one.
We should all be able to side step these guys and just get on line, build it and pick it up when it arrives.
The sales guys do not want that to happen.