Experiences with "ordering" a new Tacoma?

Do a Advanced Search on Cars.com, plenty of MT's with minimal extras.

 

..I ordered 2 models when I got my 17, a Sport and a Limited, optioned out as I wanted. I am friends with the fleet manager at a Toyota dealership and watched as he managed the two truck orders, what he did is go to all the trucks in the "que" in the computer and picked two that were close to what I wanted that were not in firm build yet and changed them to the exact build I wanted on each. Basically found a Limited and Sport that was close to what I wanted and changed to my exact requirements. The Sport came in first and I took it, when the Limited came in, he just sold it on the lot as any other truck.

 

Lol no. It wasn't until 1995 that Toyota built their first truck in the US. The first trucks, the Stout, came to the US in the early sixties. Then came several versions of the Hilux sold here. Then they dropped the hilux name and it was just a truck. The Tacoma name started with first production here. The distributors helped get around the chicken tax by adding seats, wheels and tires, etc at the port.

 

I got my SR5 AC auto 4wd with NO OPTIONS except for TOW pkg. back in 17. They could not find one anywhere in our area (Missouri) It was ordered to be built -I got it 7-8 weeks later. Get to know your dealer -once again -walk out if they won't work with you.

 

Yes! You’re right. They were sending over the frame and parts and assembling some here.

 

I used TrueCar when I bought my 2016 in Dec 2015. At the time many people were paying over MSRP and thought they were getting a smoking deal if they got it at the full sticker with no "market adjustment"

What TrueCar did for me was identify the dealers that wanted my business. I selected the options I wanted and completed the process with TrueCar. 3 dealers contacted me with pricing within 24 hours. None had my OR on the lot. One wanted me to buy the Sport they had in the pipeline to be delivered, one was just lame and one said No problem, I can have the exact build allocated as you specified. I'll place the allocation and let you know when it is accepted. When it gets here you can come test drive it, if you don't like it I'll put it on the lot. Got it for just a bit over invoice, no deposit placed.

I never set foot in the dealership until it was delivered. And I haven't been back since.

 

This is good advice. Did it a few days ago and the closest for a light color Off-Road was 400 miles away, lots in your neck of the woods though. Did another search after your reply and there are now a couple 300 miles away. Hmmm.

 

That'll be a fun day-trip. Go for it!

 

One of the first things the dealer told me was and I quote "We have made it our number one preference from Toyota this month" as well as "We have preference on this day so my dealer trader was able to submit for the exact specs you are looking for on our next factory order" Apparently that meant nothing much at all. When I ordered my 2016 a totally different experience. Told the dealer what I wanted, settled on a price, they "tweaked" an allocated truck they had coming to my build, Toyota accepted and 6 weeks later my truck was there. I believe the dealer CAN make it happen if they want, unless it is a very unusual order. I'm thinking also that since I got such a good deal, I might be getting pushed to the back of the line and they use their allocation for some jack that might pay sticker. Ya just never know.

The thing that seemed odd was how willing they were to make me a solid deal so easily, end of year quotas maybe? But now suddenly its just not possible to get my order placed and accepted. I'm rather confident that the GSM will be able to offer me some real answers when I roll into his office this Monday. If he doesn't I'm sure he will enjoy all the free word of mouth advertising about his dealership that I will be happy to share.

 

I just got my fully loaded 2020 TRD OR this week after “ordering” at the beginning of December. It was harder than I thought at first to find the color/options I wanted.

I went to two dealers to get a price and they both told me the same thing about just swapping allocations with another dealer. I said I want one that hasn’t sat on any dealer lot. I told them the options/color I wanted. They found a scheduled production unit that hasn’t been built yet but had all of those options. It was set to be an allocation for another dealer somewhere. They asked that dealer to swap allocations for one on their list. They secured this car would be delivered to the dealership here locally. They called me the morning it was set to be delivered. Once delivered later I drove up and the car was in their garage with a tech doing a delivery inspection and I took the keys straight from the tech and drove the car out. Went inside and paid for my brand new car with all the delivery stickers still on it and then drove it home. I didn’t even have the dealer wash it (requested they not wash or remove anything as I wanted to do it).

 

HA! Yes! Same boat here. I went to the local dealership back in October looking for a 2020 TRD Offroad with a manual trans, dealer said they've have to "order" one (put in allocation request). So I gave my $500 deposit and left. Checking back in December, they said the allocation hadn't been accepted by Toyota yet and that the longest they've seen an acceptance take is 3 months. Finally last week, the salesman said the regional manager (Gulf States Toyota) was in their dealership and would "accept my build request himself so we should see an allocation date in the computer within 10 days".

Unofficially, he says my truck will probably be in the "April/May" allocation. So I'm guessing the December batch of trucks was already allocated early on (before October), so my allocation request sat as pending until their next allocation approval cycle (January) to be included in the next build batch (April/May).

Just guessing on that last part, though.

My request wasn't uncommon either, 2020 DCSB TRD Offroad in MGM with a manual transmission and no extra packages. I have a cars.com search which shows about a half dozen matching trucks at dealers around the country, but none within 700 miles of me (and none in the "Gulf States" distributor network).

 

That's the only reason I don't just cancel my order and go buy one off a lot from a remote dealership... I'm trading in my current car as down payment, and I don't want the first 1000 miles on the truck to be constant RPM highway miles.

 

Yup. I'm in Austin and found matching trucks in Arizona and Georgia, but the dealer balked when I asked if they could do a dealer transfer to TX. No manual Tacomas at Gulf States dealers, apparently.

 

They have to dumb it down for us simple-minded customers.

 

That's where my dealer was good in managing my expectations. I was on the fence about a MT (no problem where I live and play, but I find myself driving in heavy city traffic on my work commute sometimes), and he explained how it would be very difficult to sell a MT in the NY/NJ area should my deal fall through and he was stuck with it, especially one with all the options I was looking for.

 

After many "discussions" with the GM of the dealer I'm working with Toyota has finally accepted my sold/build request. Per my dealer, They reached out to their district manager who stated that there was a "mixup" within the distribution system on their end. At long last the truck was allocated and I have received a build date of 3/4/2020. Thank You to everyone for your help!

 

SR5 with Access Cab could not be located anywhere in the U.S. (well, one in the far northeast, wrong color, I'm near the southwest coast ) as Toyotas marketing research indicates nobody wants them, so, February '19 my local dealer submitted a change request to the models they were allocated, which was accepted right away, and our 2019 was delivered three months later. All this without even a deposit placed.

Did the same thing for our 2020, which arrived after three months, and I took delivery of it three weeks ago.

 

When shopping for my 2020 the Toyota website located the truck I wanted and I called the dealer to buy it. I then found out the truck never existed but they “could get me anything” or the truck was on order and in theory would be there some day. I like my Tacoma but their internet inventory system is completely useless. I won’t drive hours to buy a car, almost every dealership adds some BS they kept secret until you arrived.

 

Dealer order in Sept was easy for two ‘20 Tacomas (manual AG Pro with mud guards and a 2wd Sport auto with led headlights, tonneau cover, mud guards, bed lights & basic tech pkg). Price was negotiated and the dist. confirmation for both truck orders was forwarded to me later during the same week.

Manual AG Pro was delivered in Nov and the Sport arrived in Dec.

 

I flew to Tuscon to get mine, then drove it back. I originally found it on Autotrader.