Dealerships charging ridiculous amounts

Figured I would post something here now that I have a pretty decent understanding of how dealerships in the North East are currently doing business. I was originally planning to purchase a new car this year or next, but Subaru decided to kill the model I wanted to buy, so I'm back to looking at trucks. Absolutely love my Tacoma but also considering the new Tundra, especially with how much the new Tacos are.

I know there are shortages, but the dealership behavior these days is absolutely appalling. Most dealers are charging anywhere from 5-15k over MSRP, with a random few dealing MSRP or MSRP and some warranty or dealer maintenance package. It seems they are way less willing to discuss options or take note of what you are looking for, or even return emails/phone calls, unless they find out you are considering a trade, then its non stop harassment. To me, this behavior is uncalled for and unethical, that market adjustment is nothing but profit and last I checked, despite the shortages, dealers are making ridiculous profits and sales.

I doubt it will make any difference, but its certainly worth a shot. After reading that GM and Ford recently threatened to withhold allocations from their dealers if they find out they are adding market adjustments, I decided to reach out to Toyota corporate and give them some information to file a complaint. I was told that they are already looking into it but have not yet decided on a response, I was also reminded that their dealerships are privately owned, which is no different than most other major brands. If anyone else is experiencing these issues, I highly encourage you to reach out and file a complaint, maybe something will happen. Personally I am fortunate enough to not be in a situation where I need to purchase a vehicle, but I know quite a few people that are, especially those now returning to in office work after years working from home. Those types of people may not have the opportunity to wait or walk away and something really needs to be done about it.

Rant over.

 

This will really get the rants going, even though I'm not a fan of some dealers' tactics:
- Dealers have a fair amount of real estate that they have to pay taxes on. That and the utility costs ain't helping their bottom line.
- Dealers have a minimum number of employees to keep on the payroll just to provide the services we customers need and allow them to keep the doors open.
- Manufacturers have expectations as to when they get paid for the vehicles shipped to the dealers.
- Unless the dealers are moving enough vehicles to cover their overhead, they still need some way to maintain their cash flow. Their alleged profit may be nowhere close to what's needed to cover this.
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I actually like the dealership I've worked with for over 40 years. Not so much for their finance officer(s) they've been through though.
Parts department treats me fair. Service department management and shop foreman look out for my interests. Techs are what they are - some are good and want to learn, others well, they just don't want (or aren't capable) of working or learning.
I trust the shop foreman to look over the shoulder of the tech handling my vehicle and make sure he/she doesn't screw up too badly.
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The overall situation sucks for sure. I'm happy that my '21 TRD OR arrived before all this crap started to happen, and I have serious sympathy for anyone looking to buy under the current conditions. However, I am hopeful that my dealership will survive this perfect storm and will be able to continue to service my Toyotas in the future. If it means that I have to pay a bit more now, I can do so knowing it'll help keep my dealership in business.
BTW, I also support my local independent shop as well. Not everything service my vehicles need has to be performed by the Toyota dealership.

 

They promised to sell me a truck at MSRP, two years ago I would have haggled, right now I’m just hoping they keep their end of the bargain.

 

Stealerships being STEALERSHIPS!?

Oh my!

 

I definitely agree with you there and I cant speak at all to their overhead or costs to keep the lights on, but from what I've heard, they are still getting the vehicles in to hit their quotas and usually exceed them, they just arent staying on the lot long to ever appear that they have the inventory. It seems the inventory is coming, but also going so fast it makes it appear that things are slow. I've honestly never seen dealerships as busy as the one's I've visited lately. Again, there could be more to it, but it seems so sporadic its hard to say. I could understand a little bit extra, or even a percentage, or the typically shady service packages that you might get something back from, but nope.

 

That's about how I feel these days. Just hoping for an MSRP offer with a somewhat reasonable lead time. Thankfully I can wait a bit, heck, might even end up getting a 2023 model at this rate. Few years ago I would have never paid MSRP, now thats all I hope for.

 

I have a buddy that is the lease manager at a local Toyota stealership. He recently told me one of the newer tactics is that they keep a bunch of their inventory off site, to give the illusion that the pickings are slim and a customer is going to have to pay the 'adjusted market value' of the 'few' new vehicles that they have available. As soon as a vehicle gets sold, another one comes from the storage lot to take its place for the next sucker.

 

Everything is out of wack with pricing. Have you see the prices on the used truck industry? it just crazy right now definetly not a buyers market

 

That wouldn’t surprise me at all. Around here it seems that they don’t even have anything based on the wait times I’m being told. I’ve seen a few on the lot that are usually sold (but really just have a deposit on them) and the incoming ones are all reserved. Granted I won’t even entertain the ones charging the markup, they usually have at least a couple available but they can kick rocks with that nonsense. I saw a used truck with 750 miles on it trying to be sold for 10k over msrp, which is absurd

 

If I was in the market I'd hire a PI to watch the daily goings ons at the dealership.

 

That’s part of why I decided to upgrade. I figure I’m going to need to upgrade within a year or two and I don’t see dealers coming off msrp until things calm down but I can get way more than expected for my Tacoma even with 143k on it.

 

Yeah its bad, if you can buy a cheap used car and wait it out do it, give it 6m-1 year. Called a local dealer earlier this week who had a manual taco just arrive in and they quoted me 3k over sticker, i said i are you serious? I'm also trading in a desirable truck and they called back 2 days later and said msrp with trade. Now going in tomorrow to see what low ball offer they come up with and for a test drive. Just stick a small deposit among many dealers and see who calls first, and or call dealers in more secluded areas and be prepared to travel. No longer stick with the local guy for a great experience, just get a new truck and enjoy life.