Picking up Your New Tacoma from the Factory Yourself

A friend of mine ordered a new Vette and he picked it up right from the factory as it came off the production line then drove it home. I asked if I could do that with my new Tacoma I ordered and they said NO. Im sure a lot of people wouldn't go through the hassle of doing that but I would, I think it would be quite a thrill, just wondering if anyone else feels the same.
Just picture your Tacoma rolling off the assembly line, they hand you the key and you drive home. I live on the west coast of Canada so I would see a lot of country coming back plus I would be doing that in my new Tacoma..

 

Toyota won't do it. All vehicles go from factory to port, and from port to dealer. $900 delivery fee regardless of distance to/from port.

If you want that experience, just buy a Taco from Cavender Toyota in San Antonio and drive it home. Or call my guy here in Austin, we're only 69 miles from the factory.

 

You could fly to Texas and get one from a dealership near the factory. That's about as close as you get to "off the factory floor".

 

not really since it still has to go to the regional port to process before it even arrives at the dealer. I think the port for GST is in Houston, TX.

 

That would be great however with the Canadian dollar being what it is, that Tacoma would cost me close to $50,000

 

When you buy a Corvette from the "factory" it's delivered to you at the Corvette Museum located across the street. You still have to pay the destination charge PLUS the OPTION "R8C" and that's an additional $990.
It's pretty cool but not worth the bucks to me.
Mike

 

If you want an amazing "pick it up at the factory" experience then buy a Volvo...seriously.

Free flight for 2 to Sweden, free hotel, free meals, free factory tour, and you can often get the vehicle cheaper than at the dealer. They have been doing these since 1960.

Sure it's not as reliable as a Toyota but everything else about the vehicles they produce trumps Toyota.

 

European manufacturers do this sort of thing routinely. When I worked as tech at a BMW dealer, there was something called European delivery. The salesman would order the customer's car, the customer would then fly to Germany to take delivery of the car and have a European vacation. When they were done, they returned the car to a designated spot and fly home. Several weeks later the car would arrive at the dealership where we would inspect and clean it.

They had a similar thing at the Performance Center in South Carolina. The car would be delivered there (or in the case of the Z3/Z4/X5 at the time, now X3 and X5) the car would be built there. They had road courses and off-road courses where you could drive your car or factory demonstrators. In some cases, they had professional drivers would do hot laps with you in a factory M5. That might've been an extra charge, I don't remember.
I think the Performance Center delivery would've been awesome!

It's one of those things that it costs a lot more money to do special things, even if it seems like it's less work to not put this particular truck on a train or car hauler.

 

Looked into those as well. They are good and pretty much the same as Volvo's (e.g. European vacation, drop off at depot, shipping to N.A.) but the onces for Mercedes, Audi, BMW are not free like Volvo's. You have to pay for plane ticket and hotel.

 

You can however build the engine on your Vette IN the factory. I think that is for the Z06 only though.

 

Your friend paid the same destination fee as every other Corvette buyer did

 

wtf, stupid enter key....

anyway I was gonna say, vettes are nice and everything but up here, its just a summer vehicle. you still need a proper winter vehicle. not everyone can afford 2 daily drivers.

 

So the destination fee is just a money grab ?

 

Really? Do you understand nothing about business?

While I don't know the specifics of the contract between GM and the car carrier my guess is their contract says they move EVERY car that comes off the line. When I was there in summer of 2014 they were producing 126 cars a day. The museum cars were treated exactly like every other car, even receiving a car cover for the ride across the street. That day they delivered 11 cars to the museum.

In contrast I visited the Tacoma/Tundra factory in San Antonio last December and they're rate was just over a 1000 trucks a day. The trucks are built on the same line using flexible tooling in order to even out touch labor throughout a shift.
Mike

 

Had a friend that did that for his Y2K and 2010 Corvettes. He like the VIP treatment and having his cars on the showroom floor of the museum for delivery and driving them home for the fun of it. If had his money I would do it also.

 

That sounds interesting, so they let you see the whole process from beginning to end..?? Id love to see that, do you have to make an appointment to go through or can you just drop in..?

 

Both plants required a reservation via the internet.
Neither plant will let you see the stamping, weld or paint shop. I got lucky with Toyota because the large group that was scheduled at the same time didn't show. I had a private tour with a driver & guide.
The Corvette factory is a walking tour.
I always look for factories to tour, sometimes you only have to ask. I've been through the Land Rover factory in England, a couple of Caterpillar plants, Yamaha jet ski & side x side factory, and a few other GM & Ford plants. Also a bunch of smaller ones.
I'm a Manufacturing Engineer at Lockheed Martin and I've given a few tours of the plant where I work. We build the C-130 Hercules and the mid fuselage for the F35.
Mike

 

Hmm I could see doing Bowling Green,Stuttgart, BMW Welt,BMW USA PDS or even Volvo Sweden which all offer a grand delivery with related stuff to do on location but don't see the draw of Toyota San Antonio lol.

 

I was there and had lots of free time and assembly is the business I'm in.

 

Wow, that sounds awesome, you are so lucky to have done all that, It would be such a thrill to go through the Tacoma plant, I would really like to do that but I don't know how to go about doing something like that, I guess I could always Google it..