Not a Single Taco to be Seen

My home dealer is the biggest in the state. I had to run in for something, but there wasn't a single, not a one, Tacoma on the lot.

There were only three Tundra's, One Rav 4, still wrapped in plastic, but a slew of Highlanders and Corollas.

Never seen anything like it. Last time I was there for service, in June I think, there were at least 30 Tacoma's on the lot.

 

And thats why they never really go on sale or haggle on price for them. They sell themselves.

 

Not surprised at all, I have about 5 Toyota dealerships around my area and noon of them had a single Tacoma. I ended up driving 3hours to get my new 2020 Cement and that’s after giving a 500 deposit over the phone so they can hold it for me. They were like 3 people already looking at the Taco according to the sales guy in which I believed him b/c on guy ended up staying at the dealership for all the time in hope that I wouldn’t buy it. Pretty crazy.

 

Toyota hasn't recovered from the 8 week interruption in Tacoma production in the spring....and won't for a long time.

 

ever since april the local dealer here started running low on tacos. it sat at zero for a nice long while, with sporadic inventory coming in; one MAYBE two. about last week there was a big influx of tacos, all the way up to 25. the sign is a telling one that production seems to be back up. the 4runner stock is still abysmal though, and thats what i really care about right now cause i want to score me a 2021 nightshade.

 

I had a small case of the trade-in jitters when the 2020's came out. But now that I'm seeing the effects of the pandemic on dealer inventories (low) and prices (high), the jitters are all gone. I'll keep my 2018 for a while.

That said, according to Credit Karma, the value of my truck went up $2875 last month

 

Back in feburary and early march dealers here had plenty of them. By the end of may only 2 or 3. Even back in january when i had to order mine as dealers only had the most popular colors, and trims on the lot. Pretty hard to cut any deals under those circumstances.

 

Production resumed to 100% in mid May. But 8 weeks is an eternity in terms of missed production on a high volume vehicle like the Tacoma. At 90+% production capacity they could barely meet demand pre Covid. Throw in an 8 week hole and that's a very long journey back to healthy inventory levels in the field.

 

Dealt with this all summer. No Tacomas anywhere near me. If there was one on a lot, it was already sold. At the stroke of 8:00 pm on August 31st (when the dealership 90 miles away was shutting off the lights) I signed the deal. The relief was overwhelming. It was the best 90 mile ride home I’ve ever had.

 

i do agree that itll be a bit before we have a sea of tacos again, but 25 showing up just like that was a nice sight to see. here in hawaii, we sell A LOT of tacos lol. the one thing there was a nice surplus of even through this whole ordeal was siennas and corollas .

edit: heres our inventory. we usually are known to house, or atleast have a nice steady stream of tacomas and 4runners.

 

The dealership nearest to me currently has zero

 

My dealer usually has 50 on the lot at one time. Stopped by and talked to my sales guy and looked around. They had 3 Tacomas on the lot.

He tells me just about everything he has inbound, 95% at least, are already sold.

What they did have a lot of are Camry's. Apparently those aren't selling so well. People want SUV's and Trucks for the end of the world that is coming as we get towards November.

 

That has more to do with the production capacity of the Kentucky plant than it does slow sales. They were the 1st N American plant to resume production. They're also Toyota's largest plant and highest production volume outside of Japan. Last I checked they were capable of 2200+ units a day at 100% cap

 

ours was at zero for a nice long while too, months infact. hopefully your dealers get some inventory soon!

 

I’m not surprised, my future son-in-law just purchased one he looked everywhere were in NJ and he went over 3 hours into PA to purchase his.

 

But of course the demand dropped in a similar proportion

 

I bought a 2020 Taco last week. My local dealer was the same way. There wasn't one of any trim level for me to test drive when I got there. I had to put a deposit down to secure it and then wait a week because it was coming in on a dealer trade.

 

Yep. My local Toyota hasn't had any Taco's for about a month. They had 3 or maybe 4 when I drove by today.

 

I went to the dealer last week . They had 4 ... lol 2 sr5 and one sport and off road .

 

Not nearly as much as Toyota had projected. In fact, on line sales were quite robust considering the circumstances....across most models. Took them by surprise actually. 8 week production hole and higher than expected sales during that time frame decimated the normal 30+ day supply they like to keep in the field.