Are Toyota Internet Sales Managers complete idiots or is it just me?

so is that how you actually set up your purchase? you simply emailed out to mult recipients, sifted through what looked like valid replies, emailed back the chosen one, set up a single meeting, and closed the deal in a visit? i'm curious if that worked as you described it.

 

Not me, it was DCSBFTMFW...

 

It worked great for me. I went through my credit union and they had three local dealers contact me I setup an appointment with the first dealer and from there everything went fine. In my case I think timing was the key. This dealer was starting to order their 2017 allocations and I was able to get exactly what I wanted

 

Yes, I just did this in August for a friend. Sent messages on Wednesday morning. Winner after two price offers (by email only) had signed paperwork in person by 5:30pm Thursday. Called to say they won, we'll be there before 5. Showed up and they wanted to take a cut at her trade in, they wanted it (in MD a trade-in lowers taxes due so benefited friend vs similar CarMax offer), then deposit made because they had to get it from another dealer. Picked up on Monday with final paperwork highlighted and ready when she walked in. Easy.

 

Usually Internet departments are better about orders, but they arent always

Dealerships sales people want to sell trucks NOW because they are only paid when they sell a truck. They don't care about any future sales because they may fall through and they want to be paid NOW. They can only sell vehicles they have on their lot because Toyota will only take requests in allocation

tell them to eat a dick if they won't help you. That will either make them help you or you need to go somewhere else.

 

I agree kind of. I would assume it costs the dealership less to order the truck and have it sold before it's built, less interest in financing for them, less work for a sales man to sell a truck. Yes moving the truck on the lot is important, but having a buyer ready before the truck comes in must be a win for th dealership

 

I told that to every dealer i tried to order from and they all didn't care. Very few salesmen give a shit about the dealership making money. They want to sell a truck NOW

 

That is how I bought my BMW motorcycle. BMW is very proud of their bikes, and notorious for not dealing. I emailed every dealer within 200 miles of me with the specs I wanted on a bike. I explained I knew what MSRP was so no need to quote that, I wanted an OTD price. Several responded with requests to come in to the showroom to discuss it. F that, delete. One responded with a quote on one they had that was not exact but pretty damn close. We worked the deal via email, I drove up and it was sitting out front with the requested accessories added on and waiting for me. No fuss, no muss and I saved $1,800 over the local guy.

 

I was in the same situation with a lot of the dealerships I spoke with when looking for my 2014. Two of the worst...one guy told me (in Feb 2014) that they were no longer making 2014 TRD OR with navi...and the other one gave me the same treatment that OP described. "We have a black T-Force 4x4"..."I want the Off-Road...I like the way it looks and the features it has...I don't want an SR5 with aftermarket extras"..."We can put the Off-Road stickers on it for you."

Hopefully OP didn't yell at the salesman because that's really not gonna motivate them to do their job for you. Just tell them "Ok, well thanks anyway, I'll find it somewhere else." Or in OP's case "...I'll find a dealer who will give me a quote so I can buy a truck."

 

In a nutshell, yes. I just did this four weeks ago. Specifically, it was actually about fifteen dealers within a reasonable drive. I left out the closest dealer, whose service department we already use and like, and with whom I'd worked up Costco pricing (in person since they won't do Costco pricing over phone or email).

I received three good offers from dealers I hadn't visited or talked to on the phone, all lower than the Costco pricing. I received no response from most, and a few claimed nobody was selling the TRDORs for anything below MSRP.

I then took the lowest of the three offers back to the closest dealer and met with the salesman again. Told him I had a problem I hoped he could solve for me. I said I would like to buy from them but had this other offer for substantially lower. Could they solve this problem for me? If they could, I'd write the deposit then and there.

Sales guy hemmed and hawed for a minute about how they'd be losing money, but he went and got the sale manager who sat across from me and we negotiated directly face to face. (yes, very surprising, not the usual run-to-the-high-castle relay).

I ended up writing the order that night, with the bottom-line OTD price we'd agreed to. A couple days later they called to say they'd found one coming in on the 15th that was almost exact, only difference was the OEM Tonneau I wanted; they said they'd swap the tonneau off a different truck. On the 20th I took delivery of my exact order, nothing extra (no ToyoGuard bullshit!!), at the price we'd agree to. Ended up at $39700 plus tax & title, $3277 below MSRP & fees of $42,977 plus tax & title.

While I technically ended up at a price $300 above the lowest offer, I also avoided repeated trips to a dealer an hour away in favor of this one that's four miles away. The close dealer also includes lifetime powertrain via Fidelity, which has value to me since our prior two Toyotas were retired with 240,000 and 170,000 miles respectively. They are also have a relationship with my credit union such that I did credit union financing right at the dealer for the same 1.3% 48mo I'd have gotten schlepping back and forth to my CU a couple times. So to me that all was worth $300 additional.

I also did the same process eight years ago buying a JKU, only then I didn't have a local dealer I wanted to use, and bought it from a dealer 50 miles away having agree to price before ever setting foot in their dealership. 20% off MSRP, but it was also mid-December 2008 when nobody was buying anything, so they were pretty motivated.

 

Some of you guys must have a shit load of time on your hands. What is your time worth?

 

3 hours of initial googling dealers info and sending emails, 2 hours of follow up correspondence and negotiation to save $1800 works out to $360 an hour. YMMV.

 

Weird that they don't treat you better...

 

I was close to this, except I closed the deal over the phone. I only stepped into the dealership to pick up the truck. I think I caught the dealership by surprise as they were scrambling a bit when they figured out that I had actually agreed to a purchase price without ever coming in. They called me and tried to sell me on their financing, and all the other extra BS. I asked what their rate was and they were a quarter point below my credit union. My credit union said they would match the rate if I had a paycheck directly deposited to them. I declined as that would not work for me financially but I did pay the extra quarter percentage point as I valued their convenience. Not dealing with the sales force was reinforced at pick-up as the sales person who delivered the truck to me was mediocre at best. He was a bit on the arrogant side and full of himself. Glad I did not have to deal with him for negotiations.

 

Not to mention that you would have spent at least 3 or more hours AT the dealership working the deal. Assuming that you received the same discount, your math should be figuring just a couple extra hours of work for the $1800 savings. Closer to $900 an hour. And not dealing with the hassle of negotiating....priceless!

 

I did this when helping my Mom buy her new Subaru. I knew what TrueCar said the price should be. I sat down with the saleswoman (who acted like someone who should have worked at an art gallery) and was told that the MSRP was the price of the vehicle and anything above that was the dealer's profit and they need profit to operate and how much would we like to give them. They then came in at something like $2,000 under on the trade. I told my Mom to get up and we were leaving. BLEW the saleswoman's mind. Went to another dealer that had the right model on the lot, got a trade appraisal before we talked price of the car, said this is what we're paying with that trade and made the deal. Was there maybe $100 or 200 left on the table, sure but it was quick and easy and my Mom was pleased.

I bought my truck over Facebook Messenger (seriously), but I have a friend who works at a Toyota dealership, so we went back and forth a small bit. His price was almost rock bottom compared to TrueCar, etc and it was the end of the MY and having had my old truck totaled, I was needing a new truck sooner versus later. I knew finding my exact configuration would be a bit difficult (MT with Premium / Tech) as there were none listed in the US on Cars.com or AutoTrader.

The key is to figure out if what you want is in the pipeline and then find a dealer who wants to grab the allocation for you. If you can't get that, you can't argue price unfortunately.

 

My pops lined up a Tacoma through the Internet salesman. They got the deal hammered out and he offered to make a deposit before picking it up and they said no. He goes to pick it up a few days later and they said oops we quoted you $1,000 too low. The deal wasn't binding since he hadn't put any money down, so he said fuck you guys and left. It's either incompetence or dishonesty, not sure which, neither would surprise me.

 

Here's my experience with a couple of dealers. I'd find a truck I liked in the new inventory on a dealer's website. I click on "get internet price" and it lets me send a message. Me: "How much for this truck?" Dealer: "Blah blah blah, Come in and take it for a test drive." Me: "So what's your best price for the truck?" Dealer: "It looks like we sold that one. Come in and we can show you this other one."

I finally found a dealer that gave me a straight price. They didn't have the exact truck I wanted, but they found one headed for another dealer and were able to divert it.

 

Pulling the email addresses off of websites and writing the email took no more than a couple hours while I was watching TV one evening.

Doing so saved me ~$1100 off of the Costco quote.

$500 per hour while watching TV seems like a pretty good rate. Got something better? If so, share!

 

I also remember that when I went to the Toyota dealership I made some comment about how the TRD Sport hood scoop was just for show. Salesman said it was functional. I asked how that could be since it was closed on the inside...his response "oh yeah"