How much should I demand from a dealer who screwed up?

I have no idea what makes you think they owe you anything except the $500 deposit, hopefully you have a receipt for that.

As for the truck, I just got my Tacoma TRD OffRoad on 12/11/23, I was aware of the current market conditions, especially in the SF Bay Area where I live, looked all over the area, visiting many dealers and asking prices. Full range of dealers trying to get what they could, one still charging $5000 over msrp! (I actually laughed at them) I visited one about 15 miles from my home, they were dropping $2000 off msrp, not enough. I had a quote from a dealer from So Calif for over $4000 off MSRP, basically $42600 or so OTD. I have a lot of Southwest miles and the So Cal dealer was a short ride from the airport, I was content with flying down and driving it home, but it wasn't the color I wanted, I would have settled if needed. Went to the dealer I eventually got it from, originally the salesman said best they could do was $44900 OTD (sticker was $42300) that was as good as they could do he said. I showed him the quote from the other dealer, he took it to the sales manager, came back saying the best they could do was $44200 OTD.

I shook his hand thanked him for his time and walked out to my car and drove away.

A couple minutes later the sales manager called saying I didn't give him a chance to come out and talk to me, I told him we were too far apart and I wasn't interested in wasting my time or theirs, not that I really cared about theirs any more than they cared about mine. I told him he could match the quote or I will fly down to LA and get the one from there.

I walked out with my Grey 2023 Tacoma TRD Off road for $42600. He whined about not making anything on it and a bunch of other crybaby stuff, he wouldn't have done it if he was "losing" all the money.

Take your business elsewhere and do your homework, one more bit of advice, do not trade them your vehicle, sell it on your own, you will have more leverage on getting what you feel is fair not confusing things with a trade in.


my 2 cents...

 

I've been to 2 great Toyota ones and one that was mediocre. CJDR ones have almost all been universal shit from either poor customer service to downright rude douchebag behavior, and they all eventually wound up being completely incompetent in the service departments. The one GM dealership I went to was so infuriating I'll never go to another. Mazda was stellar, even though I didn't buy from them. Subaru one was solid on the sales side, and pretty good on service. Communication was poor though. Ford I have exactly a 50/50 experience with. One was downright scumbag dirty dealing type, and the other was very solid for a buddy. Nissan has been very middle of the road, but always overpriced.

 

Small town so the Ford, Chevy, and Dodge is all local, otherwise it's 100 miles to the others so, honesty, probable the difference. Just venting a little on the couple of Toyota dealers that I happened to deal with.

 

Was the truck purchased ?

 

Ignore me, I get this way after a few White Russians. LOL

 

All good. The foreign autos are all over 100 miles away for me as well. The others are closer, but still not local. Perk to being out in the middle of nowhere; nothing is actually local.

 

Since most dealerships are owned by a corporation, investors, or wealthy athletes and coaches, it doesn't matter if it's Ford, Toyota, Honda, BMW, etc. They are all owned by the same handful of people or corporations.

In AZ we have some family run franchises (Larry Miller, Earnhardt, Jones, etc)
or corporations (AutoNation, Penske, Van Tuyl - purchased by Berkshire Hathaway)

Story about Van Tuyl Group, they own a lot of franchises in middle of Phoenix, they were so bad with customers that police had to be called to break up disputes. They would take your DL and keys for your trade-in and not give them back to you. Even throw your car keys on the roof.

 

One more reason to NOT trade your car to dealerships.

God help any clown that would attempt to keep me hostage by hiding or God forbid throwing my keys on the damn roof!

Someone would need to call the cops and an ambulance

 

I’ve been there, two and half decades ago. My mother was going to trade her minivan in, for my down payment (had a deal worked out w mom and dad). Short story; salesmen didn’t want to give keys and license back.
I’ll save you the bravado; but I asked my mom to go outside, and threats were made, and they alleged to have called the police,,, at which point I said I’d wait for them haha.

 

This whole buying a vehicle on Amazon trend is starting to look better and better... I need some people to be the guinea pigs first though. Perhaps the 4th gen crowd.

 

I highly doubt you got 25% off a Tacoma anywhere in the US.

My 16’ SR was MSRP $25,900, it took me 4 1/2 hours to get $1,500 off, and for them to minus the $700 Ceramic Coating and $200 door edge protection.

It was a 4x4 Brocelona AC Manuel in the Bay Area and the sales kid let slip it had been on the lot for over 4 months.

Finance dude said good job for getting under MSRP, he said they don’t do that very often especially seeing how the 3rd gen’s came out just a few months before.

Then I sold it 2 years later for $29,500

 

I wish the anti-trust laws were being enforced. These "families" that own more than one dealership, and other entities that own every dealership withing an area, stifle competition. One of the reasons the public gets the idea that haggling is impossible, because these entities monopolize the market and in order to get a good deal you have to travel.

Larry Miller is in Utah too, and own a butt load of dealerships.

 

Good catch - it was 2008 that I had the deal for. You are right the 1 series was new and I thought I could finally afford a new BMW - I was actually considering a Pontiac G8 which was essentially the Aussie's GM version of the Holden Commodore that was in the same price range. But the G8 had a lot of cheesy fake scoops etc. but a great engine and tight suspension. The dealer was not near Fort Bragg (they were somewhere outside Raleigh NC about 1.5 hours away) but it didn't matter since I was going to get the car I SC and it was a great deal . . . . or so I thought.

 

The thing I remember most about the G8 are those 1980s looking status lights top dead center on the dash.

 

The best dealer experience I have had is Subaru (Flow of Winston Salem). I asked them if they would match the "New Car Deal" price I got from USAA.
They said they would. Turned out the sales guy looked at the USAA price and told me he could beat it. I couldn't believe it, I was willing to pay more but he gave me a few grand less - that had to hit his commission. I don't know how car sales work but they must have a bottom price that they will take. They have a great reputation - they have fixed stuff for no charge. People were complaining about how much Nav updates were on the Subaru forum I got mine no charge. Key fob battery replacement - no charge minor stuff that they could easily take advantage.

About car prices; The guy at the credit union told they never pay what is on the "invoice" (MSRP is meaningless - a made up number) due to incentives, hold backs (whatever that is) or big dealers get discounts for buying in bulk (I guess kind of like wholesale) he told me sometimes a few dealers will get cars together to get a lower price from the manufacturer and so on and so forth so you have no real idea how much the dealer has paid for the vehicle. So what my dealer paid for the exact same truck your dealer paid for could be very different.

It would be very interesting if the folks who have dealer experience could tell us how it really works because there is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to new vehicle sales.

 

Its a sellers market. You either have to understand that you can buy the truck for X amount or you can step aside and have the guy behind you buy the truck for the same amount. Nothing says that market wont crash tomorrow but with the way people spend money now they would just rather rack up large amounts of debt than do without something.

 

I'm not thrilled about the EV shift, but I really like the business model of eliminating the dealer to purchase a new vehicle. I think a lot of people loath the car buying process.

 

Yup... MSRP is a made up price. Very few dealerships, probably less than 1% own any cars. They "floor" cars which are owned by the manufacturers. But they must sell what they get or they get penalized. If there is a vehicle on the lot more than 90 days they are taking a hit on it. "Hold backs" are the money the dealership gets for selling the car regardless of what they really make on it. It is a guaranteed price to the dealership. If you want to shake up a salesman, providing he's been around enough to know what a hold back is... ask him what the hold back is on a vehicle. Civilians aren't supposed to know about it. The dealerships don't really even want their sales force to know that there is a hidden profit margin. And the profit margin on a less equipped vehicle is less than on something with a lot of options. The negotiating room on the basic vehicle is maybe ten percent, if that. But there are a lot of vehicles where the options double the price of the car. The real negotiating room is in the options. I've seen deals made where 50% off on the options was done.

 

I really enjoy how this thread has both people complaining about dealership monopolies and people wanting Amazon to be in control of more of our lives.