Educate me on ordering a new truck

Awesome that you went to St Louis! I would fly in from CA to other states as well to get 6MT/AC. What app or website do you use to keep looking for the right model? I haven’t found a good one for new cars except for CarGurus or cars,com so far. Toyota doesn’t allow to search more than 500 miles.

 

When I wanted to buy a tacoma none of the local dealers had what I was looking for. One even suggested I go to a larger regional one in the boston area which I did, but they had nothing on their lots. They looked on their computer to find something close at another dealer which came up empty. I had to have one built getting all the stuff I wanted, plus some options I didn't. At any rate over 2 months later I had the truck. All the negotiating I did was done over the phone.

 

What region did you end up ordering from? I’ve been told Toyota isn’t allowing orders. Thanks

 

What dealership or region is taking orders?

 

Pretty sure you don't really "order" one. You tell them what you want, and you hope one gets built with those options and gets allocated to the region/distributor where you put in the request. As zoo_truck mentioned, the one he got also had options he didn't want.

Did a search, and there is only ONE AC MT truck in build phase/transit within 500 miles. But there's over 99 if you remove the Sport MT option.

 

This was just before covid, it was the northeast region. I spoke with a local dealer yesterday buying brake parts for our Prius...says they can't get these trucks, that Toyota has cut back on production. Their still charging msrp or above which is bs imo.

 

I used CarGurus, to locate mine. Dealer would only go out 500 miles. I located what I wanted, it was out 800 miles. Dealer said we won't get it, trailer it that far. I said fine. I'll fly down there buy it, drive it back. Hour later Dealer called, truck and trailer leaving in morning to pickup your new truck from that dear. I said not paying extra. They said no extra charge.

 

Same! Had to keep calling dealers and having them search their area, then call one outside their area until a dealer in VA finally sent me a screenshot of the national allocation list. There were ~5 in the exact configuration I wanted and one of them wasn't spoken for. Flew from Oregon to St. Louis to buy it from the dealer in Herculaneum and drive it back. So much for a break-in period.

 

Man, you scored big time!

 

Love it! What we would do to get the one we want. I’d take a road trip too I guess! Thanks for the story

 

There is an entire thread on wait times. I'll tell you what I know about Toyota's allocation system.
You can go to certain Toyota dealers and have a salesman put in an allocation request for the Tacoma build of your choice. The information is sent to Toyota manufacturing as a "request" but is no guarantee that they'll build it. I have heard of folks still waiting after 8+ months and no truck they allocated requested and those that have gotten theirs 4 months after an allocation request.

Its best to go to medium to large volume sales dealers as Toyota would be more accommodating to those vs small sales. Majority will require a $500 refundable deposit and there is some that asks for a $500-$1,000 non-refundable deposit. During my search I had deposits in with (4) different dealers in (3) different states (DO NOT KEEP YOUR EGGS ALL IN ONE BASKET).

Long story short I bought a truck I found online but was pre-sold, but customer backed out and dealer called me back after they wanted to sell me an Army Green incoming truck identical to my build. Dealer 1 received the truck 5 months after paperwork, Dealer 2 received the truck 4 months after paperwork and the other 2 I never heard back from them if they got the allocation request or not. I was able to get my deposits back on all luckily and being the Tacoma I speced out was a 6 speed manual, dealer had no trouble finding a buyer.

If you want a great buying experience in the south New York area, PM me and I will get you their contact info. It was well worth the 14 hour round trip I made to get the exact truck I wanted (Lunar Rock/Access Cab/6MT).

 

For my 6MT Access Cab, I ended up with the premium tech package which has the larger radio screen, heated seats, Sirius radio (wasn't impressed at first, but now I love the package). That's the only option to get. Other than that - port installed accessories can be purchased at a later time for better prices such as the tonneau cover, bed mat, floor liners, etc. Do not do the OEM lift - so many better options out there (Eibach, Old Man EMU, Bilstein).

 

Which dealer was it?

 

When I was looking in summer 2020. No one had what exactly I wanted or really wanted to work with me they didn't seem to care at least the southern PA dealers didn't. I ended up searching inventory on cargarurs.com
I found a dealership in the Baltimore area that had close to what I wanted. Emailed the sales manager. Told them about the truck I seen on the site. Asked if it was available and if not gave them some of my preferred colors, trims, and options, when I was planning to compete the deal by and how much I expected to put down and that I was pre-qualified for credit union financing.
They actually responded back with a reasonable deal on a vehicle they could pull from another dealer lot. I put in a $500 deposit. Unfortunately that truck they couldn't get but they continued to work till they were able to find an allocation they could get for me. Took over a month for it to come but save for a few accessories I could add it was perfect.
You just got to be flexible and willing to wait some.

 

You can change your location on the Toyota inventory search to keep creeping past the 500 mile radius. All the dealers I talked to said at this point if it’s not being built yet the truck can still be cancelled because of some part shortages. They can tell you what stage the truck is in, waiting, production, in transit. I searched all over to find my exact setup.

 

Escanaba MI

 

You can't custom order due to their production system. Toyota would build whatever they want to and send them to where they think it will sell based off previous sales. There is a preferencing system for dealerships to put what's preferred, but it still wouldn't be a guarantee you get your exact same spec.

You pretty much have some criteria you give to the dealer then the dealer will wait for an allocation to come through if they can't find a truck in another dealer to trade with. Some dealerships wouldn't want to go too specific, like the dealership I got my truck from would let me know no matter what color truck got allocated to the dealer. To put your name down, some dealers would ask for a deposit and others would only ask once they got a truck coming in for you. I'd say most dealerships' deposits are refundable, but some dealers' deposit are not refundable. You just have to ask.

I live on the West Coast and anything manual would be hard to get at least around my area. I got my truck, TRD Off-Road Double Cab 5' bed manual, during summer 2022 and it took me 6 months to get mine, and that's somebody who decided to back out from getting the truck. An access cab manual would be a harder find as they only come in one trim level anyways.

It may be different right now, but what I did when I was searching for my truck is that I put my name down on every dealership that doesn't have any markup (this was during 2022 when a lot of dealers were tacking on markup) and that has a refundable deposit. I'd say be open to traveling to dealerships far away, but beware some would only sell their vehicles to local customers. I'd say be open to accepting a lot of colors, packages, etc.

Depending on what type of off-roading you want to do with your truck, it may be worth taking a look at aftermarket skid plates and sliders (there's bolt-on options) because the aftermarket does have some beefier options.

 

I'm in the Bay Area. what region of dealerships did you put your deposits down on? I think I'm going to do the same to see if I can get 6MT AC. thanks

 

I sent my dealer my build specs, they were able to get it exactly as I wanted. I put down a deposit and picked it up several months later when it arrived at their lot

 

Sunnyvale and Walnut Creek in the Bay Area.

Longo in El Monte in SoCal.

I also did Salinas when they weren't doing markups. But during summer 2022 they changed to marking up their vehicles.

You can also try One Toyota of Oakland.