Playing the Dealership Game

Customer service is a lost art in favor of the almighty dollar. Good dealers and salespeople will treat their customers with respect, offer competitive pricing and great service. This isn’t magic. It’s one of the main reasons I no longer own a F-150, my old Ford dealer was awful to deal with.

 

I have had a few dealing with dealerships lately.

It was amazing to see the mentality now. I actually had one tell me well we’re not running a non profit here when I was showing him what nada and Kbb said a good price was on a used CRV with a few dings and scratches that my friend was ok with having on the car.

I told him well you kind of are since we are leaving. The few other dealers we dealt with were not much better.

 

I'd try to avoid buying a used car from a dealership if possible.

 

I agree. She was on a time crunch and was ready to buy. I would have never settled but she was ok with some give and take dealing with a dealer.

She ended up finding a nicer one for less. That dealer was slightly better lol

 

WOW. These guys can be cut-throat. Received an email from E today that W had ordered the wrong truck for me, so I called W to verify what they ordered. All sounded correct.

When I emailed E back, they said the interior color was wrong: W was getting a black interior when I had specified the grey. They also said they would make it worth my while if I would come back to them and be willing to wait until 3rd week of December to get the truck. Interior is kind of a big deal.

I just now emailed W to verify the interior color. If it is indeed black, I'm going have to decide what's more important to me, wrong interior, getting the truck quicker, better dealership, or right interior, more $ off, wait another month, less trusted dealership. Almost feels like I'm back to square one.

 

That doesn’t sound right to me. I would tell E to pound sand. Maybe it’s just me.

 

Okay.....

This is my understanding of how Toyota works. One of the sales manager from a Toyota dealer has a daughter and plays soccer with mine. I have got to know him over the last few months and this come up over dinner, drinks, etc.....

My understanding is there is absolutely no way you can order a Toyota and it is built from the factory. Toyota knows almost to the T of what trims, packages, colors they sell and will build. For example they may make 25,000 SR5 in black, then 20,000 Platinum in silver, etc..... There is no way Toyota will do one of builds for efficiency, time, savings. They are going to build basic trucks for the most part with whatever upgrade packages are available. They will make 25k SR5, then make 25k with TRad Off-Road package.

These trucks then go out to the port/distributors. I am also told that based on sales data will determine how many and what trims/vehicles they get. A really high volume dealer may get 10 TRD Pro's throughout the year. Low volume might get 1 or 2.

When "ordering" a Tundra, it is not being sent to the factory and built. All the dealer is doing is going out and seeing allocation and who has what....

Let's say I wanted an SR5 Crew Cab/TRD off-road package/Army Green. I also want OEM Berliner, predator steps, and locking tailgate. They are not ordering this. They either have sold this truck or know they are getting an allocation for one at a later date. They are going out and trying to dealer trade allocation for one to get it in now. They will contact dealer E, offer them a trade of let's say a black 1794 for the army green SR5. It might not have the exact features you want, but once it comes in the dealer will install steps, bedliner, etc.... based on what you "ordered".

This is the reason you are getting the run around from E and W dealer. Inventory is at all time low and they are trying hard behind the seems to swap allocation with a dealer that is getting the truck you want or has it. Nobody will give up allocation right now. It is not just as easy as calling Toyota and have them build a truck. If someone does give it up to another competing dealer, they are going to pay a pretty penny for it and passed down to you.

These 2 dealers are just trying to find the truck you want that dealers have and it is very hard right now.

My dad retired from Honda building Accords and I worked there 2 summers. Absolutely no building vehicles based on orders. They build 40k silver LX, then 30k green EC models, etc...

 

Had a similar thing happen when I was buying my last house. We found a house that my wife really liked, but I wasn't a huge fan of. The sellers were part of a family that owned three houses in the area, and the whole family was selling their houses to move, and retire out of state, and this house was the last one. During our inspection it was brought to our attention that all of the fencing around the house needed to be replaced, and there were many bushes that were poisonous to dogs in the back yard - big issue because we have dogs - but I was willing to fix those things myself. The inspector also noted that the electrical panel needed to be replaced as it was about 70 years old. I told the sellers that I would fix the fence, and remove the plants myself, but that I wanted them to replace the electrical panel, which we were guessing would be about $3K. The sellers absolutely refused to fix it, and they fully expected us to just accept that since we were already in escrow. We submitted our cancellation paperwork as soon as we got home, and their realtor told ours she was "shocked we backed out just because of that.". Honestly, like I said, I wasn't a huge fan of the house to begin with, and with issues like that, I could only imagine what other long overdue maintenance issues were lurking for me to find. Found a house we loved a month later, and got it. About six months later I was driving my the other house and saw they were having an open house, and I decided to drop in and look at their electrical panel. Their open houses were weird because the owners were there wanting to show off stuff, and answer questions, and it just felt smothering. When they saw me I saw their eyes light up, and they came up to tell me "We replaced all of the fencing, removed all poisonous plants, and upgraded the electrical panel to a top of the line one.". I said "Oh cool, I was just curious if you guys ended up replacing that panel - could have been with your family in Utah, and have a few more bucks in your pocket if you would have just done that earlier." - they laughed (cause I'm assuming they thought I was interested.), So I told them to have a nice day, and walked away. My agent texted me later that day saying their agent had called him to ask if we were submitting a new offer - she was pretty surprised when he told her we had already bought a house six months earlier.

 

Ask them for a vin number. When I get into work on Monday I will run the VIN number through my Toyota/Lexus system and give you the build sheet so you know exactly what it is.

 

Very true but as you said it is important to start on the foundation of respect. If they give you a reason not to trust them, don’t!

As for finance, no their job is not to make friends lol. They have about 30 minutes with you to pitch about 5 different warranties and insurances. Some people loves warranties and insurances, most people don’t...

I don’t. But that’s one of the dealerships best profit centers but there is no cost or upkeep to selling these products. Obviously there are profit margins they work with but nothing like the costs of buying cars and making them sellable.

 

I’d make sure you get the truck you want - don’t settle, even if it means waiting a few more weeks. Similar thing happened to me. I ordered a car a while back and when the dealer told me it was ready to be picked up I went to look at it and it was the wrong color! The dealer was great to work with and said no problem and got me the color I wanted a few weeks later.

 

One more vote for W

 

I'm not sure that's completely accurate. When I was shopping for my truck, I was unable to find one within a hundred or so miles of where I was. I did find a dealer willing to work with me. I configured a truck, they went to Toyota and got a slot, told me when the build date was and when I'd see my truck.

Now my truck isn't anything that unique. 2020 Barcelona Red 1794, TRD package, Berliner, bedrails, running boards.

I *think* the dealer simply got the next scheduled build of that particular configuration allocated to them, rather than Toyota setting up a special build. But they very much worked with Toyota to get a particular configuration of truck allocated to them before it was built. And this was a very small dealer. Pre-Covid.

 

The plot thickens.

W does, indeed, have the wrong interior color arriving this week. Wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, but if you spend that much money, it's definitely nice to get EXACTLY what you want.

When E said last week they'd make it worth my while to wait until December to get the right color from them, they weren't kidding! They came back today with an offer $5k less than W's lowest offer, and should have everything right! I have an email out to them now to verify ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that should be on the truck, and to confirm there won't be any "little surprises" monetarily at signing other than tax, title, and license.

If they had offered $500 off, it would have been a harder choice. But $5k is really significant, needless to say. I don't think I can justify not waiting it out for that kind of incentive. At least they know I'm willing to walk away if they don't get it right.

 

Thanks much, I really appreciate that!

At what point do they have the VIN? Is it at the beginning of the build or when it rolls off the line?

 

Yes, this is exactly what these dealerships have been doing for me, changing the build of the trucks to my specifications that were already allocated to them.

 

Before they finish production of the vehicle. I would say about a month before the vehicle arrives at the dealership.
Honestly, if you want me to run the VIN of any of these vehicles just let me know. It only takes me 20 seconds so it’s a piece of cake.

 

VIN# sent for a test.

 

Got it and sent!

 

You can't look it up by dealership by chance, can you? I just sent an email asking if they have the VIN yet and can send to me.

 

I could if I was a Toyota dealer. I work for Lexus so I am only able to look at Toyota’s by VIN number

 

I’ll shed some insight since I have direct experience on this topic.

You absolutely can order a vehicle through Toyota. I have done it twice since 2014 on my 2014 and 2019 4Runners. They were both custom spec’d by me and ordered directly from the factory. Wait time was 16’ish weeks from Japan (pre-Covid). The problem was finding a dealer willing to place the order. I had half a dozen tell me it wasn’t possible before I convinced my local dealer to call the district manager and put the order through.

I again was in the process of custom ordering my Tundra when the dealer had someone back out 2 weeks before it arrive so I grabbed it. While it is not the easiest thing to do, it is possible. I’ve found dealers provide a lot of pushback since it’s a bit more work for them and much easier to sell you one they currently have or already ordered and have incoming.

 

Yep, I had one overfill the tranny on a car I bought for my son. An overfilled tranny will cause it to shift firmer. Guess what happened when I took it to the proper level. My fault for not making more of a stink about it when I checked fluid before buying.

 

You can look up VIN's here. https://www.toyota.com/owners/my-vehicle/vehicle-specification

 

So someone posed the question to me: why would a dealership (E) drop the lowest price so drastically for me (by $5k from their last "lowest") when trucks are a hot commodity right now? Why not tell me to shove off if I don't want their deal, or tell me to go with the other dealership, then sell the truck higher than what they've agreed to for me?

What's in it for a dealership to try to get my business sooner rather than later right now? If they had 30 of them sitting on the lot, I'd understand. But at the moment, they have 2 they got in within the past week, so I'm sure they'll go fast. Maybe some of you who work at dealerships can shed some light on this for me

 

It doesn’t. The only logical thinking is to take a deal from a competitor but most of the time dealerships would lose $500 to do that, not $5000.

I would be very interested in seeing your full pricing breakdown to see how they are planning on saving you an additional $5000 and get it in writing and sign by their management.

Until then, it is just something someone said.

 

I know that the $5k includes the current $1750 incentive from Toyota, but that still leaves over $3k to make up.

I'll be interested to see it, too.

 

Just have E write you up an agreement and sign it. Done.

 

Well I just came from one yesterday, '19 PRO 20k miles, they want $51,8 for it, my credit was fair, bit they wanted a good chunk for a DP

 

So what I have on order is a '21 Crewmax SR5 with upgrade (bucket seats/console), deck & rail, spray bedliner, upgraded heated tow mirrors. I didn't want anything else, just a basic truck. Not even alloys. E started out at $47k, and are now down to $37.4k. Truck should be here in a month.

I did say I'm going to pay cash for it, so maybe that has something to do with it?! I have no idea how dealerships view financial considerations.