Dealer website

We went to a dealership today after they told us that they knew of a sister dealership who had what we were looking for. In the end, they were going to sell us a truck that was already sold. Their price was way out of our league anyway, but I would have loved to have said yes to their deal and then see them shit a brick when they called to find the truck at the other dealership. I had spoken to other dealership a few days ago and already knew their truck was sold. They wouldn't tell me the dealership they thought they had one at until my wife started shitting a brick. Then we lolled and they paid us 10 dollars for parking

 

Did the dealership not expect to be caught selling a vehicle that was already sold? Wow! So when they tell you the truth and the say that it will be 8-10 weeks to get the truck what would they expect you to say then?

 

They never called Hamer to find out it was sold or not. I wanted to see what they would say. They told us they had one coming in 3 weeks, which is also a lie, and told us they would sell it to us for 3000 over msrp. We left

 

Wow. Is that the best you got? I expected something much better from you. (not really)

Move along......

 

$3000 over MSRP? I made a deal today at $1000 less than MSRP.

 

Their place was shitty and they don't look to move much product. They have to get what they can get. And with a low production model like the 7568, they will get that price within a week of receiving it

 

I got confused on this website issue a month ago when looking for a DC manual. Once I realized every major dealer in Texas or AZ or NM (not CO for some reason) listed the same total number of Tacomas on each site, I knew it was a "shared inventory/freight" situation. Once I started making phone calls, things started to fall into place. I still had to fly and drive 350 miles to do it, but that beat the projected 12-16 weeks out for a MT without the glass sunroof.

 

This is not unusual. Many dealers will show trucks in the inventory (usually using only stock photos, not real ones) to indicate a vehicle they have ON THE WAY. Unless they actually show photos of THAT VEHICLE they don't have it. Plus, you really should have called them before driving an hour.

 

Agree with OP, it's a shoddy business practice.

 

In my recent experience even calling is no guarantee. I set up an appointment with a Ford dealer to test drive an F150 supercab, internet showed 5 in stock, salesman said he would have one out in front waiting for me. Got there and they didn't have any. The two Toyota dealerships I dealt with were much better, their online inventory seemed to match what they actually had.

 

Shaddy or not it is very common practice. I was looking at boats for a specific model and this dealer had it listed. I called thhowem up and they told they can order it for me but they don't have one in the lot. It's just how this industry works. Learning experience for you OP. Now you know.

 

you should always call.
I've had this happen with so many other things before where online stock says its there, then get to the store and they say no, or cant find it.

The sales reps attitude was wrong, shouldn't have laughed.
But them not having anything that was listed online, with the way so many places are these days not even their fault. You should've called ahead. Especially if it was a decent drive away. If its down the street who cares not as bad, but if you're going to be driving its probably good to call ahead.

The dealer I just went too told me yes we have them, they had all the keys etc then when I went to go look they were actually in their storage lot 10 min away that they couldn't take me to

 

As someone who sells Toyota's for a living, I would like to respond to a few comments here. First of all never assume anything is in stock because it is on the website. Sometimes it takes a few days to get a vehicle listed and it always takes a few days for the vehicle to come off the site. Real pictures mean absolutely nothing except that the dealer had the vehicle at one point. At my dealership we don't take real pictures of most of our new vehicles simply because we don't have the time. Listing, removing, picturing and general site maintenance all take a back seat to actually selling vehicles.
If you live in the middle of no where, I get it, but why would you drive more then 30 minutes or so to see/buy a truck? Yes these trucks are hot, but they are still making them every day. Find a local dealer with a good internet person or sales rep and get them to call you when they have one for you to look at/drive. Then they can get you what you want and you get to build a relationship at the place where you spent your hard earned money.

 

If I am going to drive an hour one way normally I'll call to verify my shit is as expected. Good lesson

 

This all comes from the customers' never ending quest to save a few dollars. For as long as I can remember, people who talk about buying cars, constantly talk about driving hours away to a big city dealer to save themselves $100. (How this makes sense economically, I have no clue.) So after so many people doing this for so long, eventually the small town dealers lose enough business and sell out to a big town dealer who is buying up all of the competition. Now that big town dealer owns all the little town dealers too, combines their inventories and lists the same cars on each and every website. Plus, since it is all 1 big company now, the good old relationship building that used to happen between small businesses and their local customer base is gone. A whole lot less customer service and a whole lot more cut throat crap from both sides.

As a former salesman during college from a small town GM dealer, not only can we go get any vehicle you want and match basically any price, we were way more likely to take care of you if anything ever happened. Plus we valued our reputation way more because we depended on it for business. This meant way better customer service. But when people come in a screw around with us to get us to lower our prices below invoice to match a big town dealer quote, then have that same customer go buy from the bigger dealer anyways for a $100 difference, we aren't very motivated to go to bat for you with GM when you're sitting in our service department with a issue of some sort.

 

I'm looking at 3000 dollars difference. We don't have any small dealerships around me. There 71 Toyota dealerships within 40 miles of my house.

 

That's a different story. I am talking about people who have a dealer in their home town and drive 100 miles away to a big city to save a few hundred bucks or so.

 

Websites for auto manufacturers seem pretty archaic to me, but maybe I don't give them enough credit. Seems like it would be easy enough to link inventory with website software such that if a vehicle is in stock, it shows in stock. If it sold, it's pulled immediately...or at least overnight.

One dealer around me only shows vehicles available. And it's update pretty regularly. Everyone else list everything.

A few other dealers shows only stock photos for almost all vehicles. A few others shows actual photos of vehicles listed as "Available".

Needless to say, over the past few months, I've sent countless "is this vehicle actually in stock" emails.

 

They can't always make a difference. But there are a lot of scenarios where they can and if they don't value you as a "customer," they probably wont go the extra mile for you.

 

Which is why I let them do my service and why I offered $500 more than the invoice price another Internet Manager sent me from a smaller dealership. I had to show my dealer their offer and added $500 to give them a chance at selling a truck. I even tipped the sales guy and Internet manger $100 each. But they cannot do anything about the issue with a 440hz tone eminating from the vehicle between 35-45. To be honest both new trucks I test drove had the same noise. The service department went to bat for me only to be pushed back.