2022 Tacoma Discussion

The deposit for an allocation business is weird, I have to say. In California, the deposit is fully refundable, there are no formal terms, it's just a marker to indicate you are serious. I'm not sure about other states as far as the deposit, as it may vary by state law. Regardless, the truck doesn't even have a real VIN at this point, so there is nothing really to contract.

Just to give context, I've canvased 6 dealers in my immediate area, and all are starting at $5k to $10k (!) markup for the build I want. But there just isn't much inventory, and it's challenging to get dealers to compete on price with apples to apples vehicles.

To put down a deposit, yes, they want to come to terms on a price. Financing and down payment discussion come later.

I did this with one dealer, then got a better number from another dealer, and asked to get my $$$ back from dealer #1. Legally, they must refund the deposit. My offer was simply that I'd like to part ways well in advance of the truck reaching inventory.

Now they'd like to come back to the table, which is fine. I'm sure it varies by dealer, but the lesson here is that the deposit absent any written agreement can be the entry point for the real negotiation, if you have some leverage. If you are working with an honest salesman (haha), it may be a different story.

 

Did they mentioned anything about how hard it was for them to allocate for a Pro? Trying to order one in Calgary here.

I'm sure they are happy to order one if they can as these things have like a $6,000 profit margin and with no discounts every one of them is a great sell.

 

The deposit down is not for an allocation or at least a guaranteed allocation. The deposit is just a dealer tactic to get you secured to them and then string you along while they wait to get the allocation accepted. Some dealers take months and months due to supply and demand and they can’t get that allocation approved. Dealers really never had to hope and wait to request certain builds that were in the pipeline and if they wanted a one off they would probably be a month or two from hitting production for that configuration. Now a days everyone wants a truck and there isn’t enough to go around.

These days every dealer in each region is requesting anything that drops on the list twice a month and from there it’s up to the regional folks to do the disbursement to each dealer. Some get more, some get less. Some wait less time, some wait more time, and some folks have to go to another dealer because that dealers wasn’t going to get one in.

I’m surprised that you can even get dealers to fight against each other just due to no inventory.

 

Well, it's still going to be a pillow fight, since the stopping point is almost certain to involve some 'market adjustment.'

As to how this happened, I had been making inquiries widely, before deciding to work with one salesman at a nearby dealer who has not been blowing too much smoke. It so happened that a follow-up from one of my earlier inquiries yielded exactly the build I was working with my 'select' salesperson to procure. Then he came up with an on-target allocation a week later. In both cases, these are vehicles that really are being built, not 'wish list' items they hope to pull by request or trade.

Even though the markups are crappy, I'm being professional about it despite hating it, which is better than most buyers, I think. So the sales guys/gals seem to prefer working with someone who's taking the high road. And I've done enough research to know that I'm out of luck to reach MSRP in my market if I want to buy in the next few months.

Short story, chasing a lot of leads, having some luck in timing of allocations, and not being a jerk has me in an OK, but still not great position.

 

speaking about the Canadian trucks, 2021 army green was a premium only colour of trd's. I assumed this to be true for 2022 lunar rocks.

 

diesel will never come.

 

Yeah I have a 2017 rx450h. Was going to say the same thing. I’d have to have all the stars aligned and really try hard to hit 30

 

I see. I did this for about 2 months with about 15 dealers in DFW and about 5 others within a 5hr distance. Just to get one to even try and get one allocated was a pain, nobody wanted to even try due to supply. The ones that did wanted to try and mark up or play with the numbers too much and still no guarantee but eventually I got mine at MSRP and knew that going in. Good luck and hope the wait isn’t too long.

 

Exactly, I've been at this for near two months now. There are some dealers within a weekend trip distance that say they sell at MSRP, but then they throw in a bunch of add-ons to pad their margin or to 'trigger' an exclusion from a 'sell at MSRP' policy. A few vehicles do make it to MSRP, but tend to be more expensive premium option packages and/or less desirable colors. Dealers with lower markups also tend to have more 'useless, high margin add-ons to compensate.

After my last survey of my local dealers' 'future' inventory, it's safe to say nothing is likely to turn up with a delivery date prior to 2022. At which point I have no idea if inflation or supply chain issues will have improved or possibly even gotten worse. And no one wants to try to pull in a specific request--it's only what they have allocated or can trade for.

California is just way more expensive in general than TX, so if it's hard to find MSRP there, it will be near impossible in CA. The dealers who can just talk straight on OTD pricing and line items costs I can work with on some level, knowing what I know at this point.

 

I am having a hard time with the lime green. I guess it will grow on you

 

It looks like it already did.

 

The dealer we ordered through said they typically get 2-3 of the halo color every year on the pro. They said they ended up getting 6 lunar rock last year. If you aren’t picky on color it will be a lot quicker he said.

 

Can’t believe how things have changed so quickly. A long way from $4,200 off sticker for my 2019 two and a half years ago.

 

its pretty much a wash with the increased trade in values.

 

That seems to be the advantage right now if you have a decent trade in vehicle. Those who are buying outright are the ones in a position to overpay.

 

That’s true. My old 05 with 300k has doubled in price from what I paid 5 years ago

 

I think it could be a wash with the increased used vehicle prices.

 

Haven't seen a new Taco on local dealer lot since last spring. They have several used ones selling for more than they were new. They even offered to buy my 2011 when I was there picking up a part.

 

I like Cement much more than Lunar Rock.

 

IMO, a diesel option in a Tacoma would be very needed. I personally don’t think there was anything wrong with the 3.5L v6 Toyota used, but not including a “heavy duty” truck engine option in the Tacoma has forced people to consider other brands like Chevy. Toyota thinks that just cause people are buying a mid size truck that we don’t need a work horse engine. Thats just not the case. A Diesel engine would be greatly needed.