Fun truck for 2 weeks !!!!

Same. We are holding off on my wife's next car and I held off on my 24 Taco purchase cause I feel like there needs to be a reset in how dealers treat customers now and from market analysts and industry sources it appears that reset / the pinch is starting to be felt finally. Just gonna wait my time before our next vehicle. We are in no rush, paid off 22 and 23 with plenty of life left in them.

 

I would buy a Tesla or Rivian instead so not to mess with jackass dealers, unfortunately they don’t make anything that fits my needs currently. Of course for the price of a Rivian could buy two mid grade Tacos.

 

No brand is worth a shitty dealer. I had nothing but great service at my local dealership and we were heavily leaning towards buying a RAV for car #2. So off we went, we enjoyed the test drive, it looked like a great car. That is, until I saw from the passenger window the $7500 mark up. On a RAV. I asked about it, and the sales guy said verbatim "Yeah that's not negotiable. Whether it's you or the next guy, this car will be sold today."

I've been a customer of the Mazda dealer next door ever since, and it was that one singular sentence that made me go spend money elsewhere.

(We also stopped by a kia/hyundai dealership for funsies. That sales guy said absolutely zero from Hello all the way through the test drive. I honestly thought he had a speech impairment until I gave the keys back, thanked him and turned to leave, when he finally said "wait, what, you aren't buying it???" I just cocked an eyebrow, said zero, and walked. )

I'm the same. I have low tolerance for bullshit. I might not get angry if you feed me bullshit and I'll even play along with the conversation, but I'll certainly refuse to open my wallet or have my time wasted.

 

And this Toyota dealership now sells Rivian

 

After busting my ass and being frugal, fortunate enough I don’t have to finance. I’ll dress a little ratty to see how they treat me. T-shirt with holes and stains, dirty jeans, my favorite sweat stained ball cap, old pair of work boots. The Triumph dealer lost a Speed Triple sale because none of the salesman would give me the time of day. Went down to Honda, they were very attentive and made the sale. Told him about the guy up the road after I plunked down the cash for a new bike doing the paperwork, he said yeah we don’t care how you look, we’ll take your money.

 

Well crap… lol!

We have a stand alone Rivian delivery/repair center, swung by there the other day to have a look see, really like them, so much better than a Tacoma, and at that price they should be. Unfortunately don’t think it would be a very good travel rig. Too many compromises. Bed too short and the whole trying to find charging stations on the road. Can barely find gas in Baja, sure chargers don’t fair very well either. Haven’t been down there in something like 15 years, maybe things have changed.

 

I love it. After my first retirement I grew my hair down to my back and grew a beard (which I was not allowed to do in my profession). I also have a decent amount of ink on me. I went car shopping in a tank top and salesmen kept walking me into the used lot while I'm asking about a new expensive (at the time) truck. Every dealer treated me the same. I was not coming home without a new car that day. I ended up at a Land Rover dealer who treated me like gold. No judgement and I bought the truck. When I told him my experiences up until that point (mind you we are in Long Island, NY and dealer close to the Hamptons where the elite play) he replied " if I judge a person on their appearance I will never sell a car. The mega wealthy walk in here looking like bums off the street and plop down cash all day.. I judge no one" ! The first stop was the dealer that gave me the biggest bum rush. Pulled up and showed him my new truck and told him to go fuck himself!

 

Love it! Learned that trick from my grandfather, my father-in-law who is a rancher is the same way. He’ll go in right after combing off the fields, and then buy a 1/2 dozen trucks for the ranch. Lol! They use base model SRs for running around and tending to the irrigation ditches.

 

Used ones though which is a whole different story. Buying a new Rivian is done entirely online without salesmen, you just show up on delivery day, digitally sign an acceptance of the vehicle and drive away.

 

i had another truck in my past that puked a motor. the Dealership had to fix an oil leak and the knucklehead...ahhh..not the point of the story, sorry.

anyways, i was younger and didnt overthink things like i do now. that truck ran awesome for years. they did it all in about 3 days. this however, was not a Toyota. i think a new factory motor from Toyota installed by a tech will be just as good.

 

I didn't go look at them to see if new or used. They had a brand new bronco in the showroom a while back while they were hard to get and marked it up $30k!

 

I appreciate the input. Helps me be a bit more confident in the process. Much appreciated.

 

@BronzoTaco - sorry to hear about your travails and the ensuing madness. Best wishes for a positive outcome. No one should have to make their first 70 posts on a forum about something like this.

 

@BronzoTaco I called my local dealer just for the hell of it, and they said that for warranty work or recalls, when they’re able to provide a loaner they get reimbursement from Toyota at the same $60 daily rate you mentioned. Not that you really want to talk to the dealer again, and maybe they already know this (how could they not right?) but perhaps this is an option that would get you into a vehicle without having to lay out your own funds with a rental agency.

 

Weird...

 

key words here

 

Well obviously didnt think anyone was arguing that.

 

There used to be a thing called 'Toyota Care'. It meant that any warranty repair taking more than 1 day in the shop will be allowed a rental unit. I took advantage of this service twice back in the late 00's. You could even call them and have them handle everything with the dealership and just bring in your vehicle and drop it. If you look it up now, it's just a 2 year service contract. Toyota Corp. is not what it used to be, so one should not expect their products to be what they once were. It all started going downhill around the time of the stupid gas pedal/mat thing.

 

Maybe it's now "Toyota Doesn't Care"

 

And everyone clapped and high fived you?