1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

I told Rebecca to talk to you about this when we meet up in a couple weeks, she went into Toyota to try and put a deposit down on a Grand Highlander and they don't do that. So they asked her to fill out a spec sheet so they could try and match inventory with what she wants when it comes through, she did that and then asked about pricing....of course they have a huge dealer markup on those.

She wasn't expecting that at all and even told him she was going to buy it outright if they'd do MSRP but he said nope, so she walked. I don't know enough about buying new vehicles to really give any good advice on that so I figure you're the guy to talk to about that crazy world lol. I just know that dealer markups are common practice on high demand cars but she might just have to shop around. The Toyota dealership near us is notorious for being overpriced on everything, parts, labor, vehicles...

 

I replace all owners manuals with a Gideon Bible with a cutout inside the shape of a fifth of jack daniels.

 

I heard you can "report" dealers to TMS/corporate.

Toyota wasn't going as hard as Ford on Dealer crackdowns, but they are doing it to a degree

 

Yeah that's egregious, I'd personally have you flogged if I made the used vehicle rules. I had to do hours of research to find manuals for the security systems... none of which exist in TIS anymore. Should write the LC buyer a damn apology letter and ship that stuff to him.

 

I just call that an emergency fire starter kit. Sounds like good preparedness.

 

One kit, many kinds of fires.

 

I get your frustration, it sucks.

I think I dealt with that on a vehicle or two in the past; the real reason though is I just flat out forget.

I always remove everything mainly to clean it out. Old crumbs, wadded up paper, loose change, all sorts of shit I keep wrapped up during my ownership.

The manual gets put away in a small box with other paperwork (in this case, receipts for the work done, manual, etc) so I don't lose it. Then, I forget all about it

 

Yeah but most times they don't care to do shit if a store is hitting their numbers

Corporate only cares that you're turning over inventory, cause that means the selling dealer continues to fill allocation for their orders

Been there done that

 

Yeah dude when you guys come down I'll shoot the shit with you guys about that for a bit; just sucks but she may just have to travel a little maybe an hour even

Worst case I can always check shit out here; having been in the business I'd just get right to the point with them

 

Pretty sure Corporate cares about Brand Loyalty/customer experience too.

but yeah its more like leaving a shitty yelp review than forcing an actual change

 

@Speedytech7

When I get rid of the GX at the end of this year, be sure to tag me to make sure the owner's manual is included

 

Stuff it in one of the back cubbies now. That thing will be gone before anyone even has time to process that you had it.

 

In other words...

Toyota Corporate:

 

Money

If people are still buying, corporate will give two shits less

A ton of people, and I mean a lot have to complain about said markups; it doesn't help when there are other buyers that do pay the markup though

Then you've got buyers that complain about MSRP alone

See the thing is, people can complain about anything but if vehicles are selling, it don't matter

 

I'd like to complain that you don't agree with me.

my whole entire minute is ruined.

 

Exactly

Having been in the business for 11 years, you'd be surprised at the number of people that have voiced to us how far they went with their complaints, specifically against the Gilroy store (15mins away)

They were marking up Hellcats over $15-20k, Scat Packs at least $8-10k, same with Rubicon Jeeps and more

The same corporate workers that would see us would see them and I'd hear it straight from their mouth "they're still turning inventory"

On the other hand we always sold out of our premium vehicles cause we marked nothing up, ever

 

I'm probably up to 3 pages of reports by now

 

Imagine paying a penny over MSRP for a Scat Pack...