Are the dealers selling to themselves??

So I’ve been looking for a new Tundra for the last few months since I bought a new F250 and realized I’m just a Toyota guy. I’ve had a few dealers lately that have contacted me about new Tundras that I was not interested in because of options or color. One dealer told me that if I wasn’t interested that it would be sold to a wholesaler. Then the same truck shows up on the dealers used car lot for a significant markup as a used or certified vehicle. I’ve seen several around here doing it now. The dealers that I have always dealt with sell there vehicles at MSRP, I guess that’s how they are going about it instead of selling above MSRP on new Tundra’s.

 

Ya one way or another, dealer gonna make their money, saw new saying sales person is buying the new car and trucks and sell it used for more profit

 

Yup. They catch flak for gouging on new vehicles, but manufacturers don't care what they do with "used" inventory.

 

Dealer I purchased from was about to do it to my Limited before I came and bought it.
Happens too often.

 

If I had to guess, Toyota gives more allocations to dealerships that can move more new vehicles more quickly (fact), and possibly even more allocations to dealers that are selling at MSRP. I know the truck I got was the personal allocation of the sales person I bought it from. He only let me snag it because a red one came available and he wanted the red one more than MGM. So they are definitely selling them to themselves, but are they reselling them back to the dealer to make money? Seems plausible. I honestly considered listing mine on the private market to see if I could turn a profit, but decided I am not a complete turd.

 

It's really bad at Edmark Toyota in Nampa, ID. Every TRD PRO is "used" with less than 100 miles and being listed for approximately $100,000. Not a coincidence.

 

The dealerships are getting them back one way or another. I think that's one reason we are seeing so many trade ins for a different model or color being allowed. When I purchased mine and had the AC issues, I can't help but wonder if that's one reason it spent so long in the shop. The dealership offered numerous times to "buy it back" from me. Even once I finally got the truck back, every time I would call them with a warranty issue they would offer to buy it back.

 

I wonder how all the salesman are making it. Wonder how they feel about this practice… I just don’t know how they are making money when there is no inventory and their allocations are nothing compared to a few years ago.

 

The salesman I had was retired from another job. We talked about it and he said he couldn't do it without his other income. He said he could easily go 30+ days without a check now!

 

Amazing some dealers can come up with new ways to hit lows.

 

I’ve used the same dealers and same salesman for numerous new Toyota’s.. they have been there for years, next time I get in front of one of them I’m going to ask them!

 

Ive seen several dealers doing this for years now. Toyota is a "turn & earn" system when it comes to allocation so the quicker you move them out the quicker you will earn more vehicles. Price that they are sold for has no weight what so ever on it though. Its a fact though that a used 2022 Toyota will bring more than it does new, as crazy as that sounds. I sold a couple Tundras to a used car dealer a few months back, he paid me $5K over MSRP and took them back to his lot and sold them for a profit in less than a week. He calls me every time I get a Tundra and offers me $5K over sticker for every one I get but I havent sold him any others but those 2. Trying to keep some for our local buyers so I told him those were the only 2 Id sell him for now. I recently sold a Capstone model and it actually sat on the lot for 29 days which is unheard of for a Tundra. Just before we sold it to a local customer I had thought about running it to the auction...MSRP was $76K and they are bringing between $90K and $95K at auction right now (thats what dealers are paying for them). I figured why not, especially since it was just sitting here anyway. Now as for the buying them here just to flip them over to used inventory and sell them for a higher price, we have never done that and have zero interest in doing it to be honest but I will utilize the auction if dealers are crazy enough to pay it.

 

Mike - WOW.

Where are you located? Is this true everywhere in the US? Is it true for all trim levels? For instance, would my SR also sell above sticker or is this only happening with Capstones and TRD Pros etc?

 

Im in Virginia. I dont know about the lower trim levels to be honest as the ones Ive been watching are on the higher models (Limited, Platinum, Capstone, & TRD Pro). Id say for the most part though, yes its pretty much everywhere right now. If you want to get an idea of what you can do, plug your info into either Vroom, Carvana, or even CarMax website and see what you can get offered. I will say though that sometimes those operations will pay an extraordinary amount of money for a vehicle and then theres been times where, in my opinion, they are a bit light and Ive given customers more here at the dealership than they were offered online. Auctions are where its at right now though because you have 100s if not not 1000s of dealers competing and bidding on them. Ive been saying it for quite a while now, this market is insane right now.

 

I've never heard of this "scam"

 

Thanks, I did give it a try with those websites but they all say something like “we haven’t seen a car like yours in a while. You’ll need to come in for an in person inspection”. I really hate doing that without knowing ahead of time what is their starting point. Any other ideas on how to get an estimate of auction value?

 

@taysdad message me your VIN and miles I can look it up

 

I’d love to have me a MGM platinum short bed of anyone know where I can find one at MSRP or damn close. VA, NC ,MD or something close. I’d also take a wind chill in a heartbeat. Hit me up if you know where I can get one.

 

@Hammerdog PM sent

 

Some Dealership have there employees order the truck comes in employee buys sells back to dealer and dealer marks up to re sell

 

*SOME Dealership have there employees order the truck comes in employee buys sells back to dealer and dealer marks up to re sell

I fixed that statement since only a very select few practice this...others just sell them to customers the normal way

 

Mcgeorge Toyota just had 6 used 22’s show up in there web page. All with 4 miles….

 

Toyota is pushing turn rate on in stock inventory right now more than anything. The allocation of fresh inventory is strictly based on that at this time. What they are doing is buying their own inventory to hit that turn rate then selling them as pre-owned to kind of work the system I would assume. I dont work for them but looking at everyones numbers on the last day of the month I was questioning this myself so your comment validates my thoughts.

I just looked, they have 14 total 2022 and 2023 models that just flipped into used inventory with less than 5 miles on them....crazy

 

I get that but are they jacking up the prices on these trucks.

 

I dont know, when I looked they still werent priced yet. Im sure they will though. Trust me, Im in no way agreeing with this approach because it just fluffs the numbers that are sent to Toyota but thats my opinion. In other words, you didnt actually hit your objective...you bought your way to it. Thats weak in my opinion.

 

Wow. I can’t imagine that toyota would let this happen. Let’s face it, if the dealer looks bad so does the manuf. And I also can’t imagine someone needing a vehicle so bad that they will pay over MSRP for a used one. People have really lost their minds.

 

So many people are paying over MSRP for used cars right now, its nuts. We had someone wanting to trade a 2022 Sienna in at our Chevy store yesterday. The GM over there called me to see what its worth...sticker was $38K on it but I pulled auction transactions...dealers are paying between $45K - $48K for the same unit right now. Thats stupid

 

Toyota is 100% letting it happen, they have become a worse offender than Ford. Unfortunately, if people would stop paying the ADM or MSRP+ used, we wouldn't have this problem. But it doesn't seem to be going away because people want it now.

 

At my local dealer when I asked about he availability of Tundras in May they said get on a waiting list and it would be 8 months but when I looked out in the parking lot there were 4 of them and was told they were owned by sales staff and managers. I definitely think they butter their bread before they butter the customers....

 

Dont know if they will do it, but Ford said it was going to pull all dealers and sell straight to the public.