Car Dealer/Online Experiences/Recommendations

I'm in the market for a Tacoma (located in South Bay in Sunnyvale area) and looked around the NorCal forum for a thread on this but couldn't find any recent ones. I wanted to find some information on where you guys have bought your Tacomas around here and how much above/below MSRP has been paid. I have a few possible avenues such as fleet pricing, Costco pricing that may help with the price (if they're honored) or can use Cartelligent. On the 3rd Gen forum I see lots of people paying close to invoice but it seems like Tacomas are priced signficantly higher in Northern California and people are paying much closer to MSRP before TTL.

That being said, if you have any dealership recommendations or places I should avoid I'm all ears. I'd also be curious if anyone has had any experience using Cartelligent for their Tacoma purchase. I used it for our VW Golf Sportwagen TDI purchase and it's really hassle-free but I'd be curious to see if you were able to get any budging on pricing/financing through them. Also, this would extend to financing options as well (if going direct through the dealer or if you went through a 3rd party such as a credit union). I'd consider it a wash if I paid slightly more but saved that difference because of a better interest rate.

If it matters, I'm still deciding between a TRD OR DCSB MT and a TRD Pro MT which may impact cost vs MSRP.

 

Get out of the Bay area for the best deals. Try Fresno, Santa Rosa, ect.

 

Don't be in a rush and find a bad salesperson to keep you in mind when they are trying to hit numbers end of month/quarter/year.

I went to capital toyota, found their one white DCSB TRDOR without leather upgrade and offered $500 over invoice after showed it (I know they get kickbacks from toyota on sales now), then walked out when they started playing games. The sales lady and I text on and off for weeks. Finally one day at work she bugged me while at work, I said I would come down right then if she could make my deal and she called my bluff. I got lucky on the right day since her boss was the lot manager for a few hours and he was sick of her bugging him.

They are hyping this turd gen a lot more than the 2nd though, so you may be in even a tougher spot than I was looking for a deal.

 

Fortunately I am not in a situation where I am rushed to find a Tacoma and need it ASAP so I feel comfortable walking away from someone I don't feel comfortable with. I would hope that I can find someone who would have an offer like invoice + $500 but it just seems like there's too much demand for the 3rd Gens (at least locally). Given that I want an M/T that almost puts me in a tougher situation from availability but it won't be so bad if I find a salesperson I am not completely turned off by (feel like that might be a unicorn).

Also, Cartelligent allows me to find available vehicles outside the Bay Area I think so that may increase the range and therefore reduce the cost. Still in the early stages, but I am test driving a TRD OR M/T at Putnam Toyota in Burlingame this weekend to see how the M/T feels. So far the sales guy I've been talking to seems to be alright.

 

M/T will need to order or hunt. Good luck. I see no need for a M/T but maybe you want to do something different with yours.

 

Just one of those types that likes to throw my own gears (and my wife doesn't want to budge on that either)

 

I find myself needing to gas while breaking during crawling with my fat ass. I would hate to throw a clutch into that mix. @Overlanerd is a fan and he has a lot of junk int he trunk also

 

Manual is a preference thing. Totally see the benefits of an auto when wheeling with stock gearing. Won't be a problem with 4.56's tho...

Also, downshifting and compression braking is awesome. 76K and still on my stock brakes.

 

autos shift and crawl downhill, also still on first set of breaks.

 

Went all the way down to Cleghorn and only used my brakes a few times. Had DAC on my wife's old 4th gen runner. Not the same as manual, but it gives your feet a rest while it pumps the brakes for you. Going up, the auto wins.

 

oh I was camping on my breaks down cleghorn, more out of fear though

 

We have a incoming trd pro in a status for msrp. if you contact me quick enough we might be able to color swap it.

 

lube up, bend over, and call him fast

 

Lol

 

Test drove a TRD OR 6MT today and liked it. The gear box felt rather clunky shifting around while driving but it didn't surprise me given that this is a truck (and I figure it'll smooth out somewhat after break-in). Clutch feel and gear box would take some getting used to like any other MT that I haven't driven before but the clutch is super easy and that thing seems really hard to stall (even harder than our '15 6MT VW GSW TDI).

After test-driving we got to talking about price/incentives and basically no budging from MSRP ($250 off) which was too bad since it had basically everything I wanted except the tonneau cover. I walked away since I still have some other avenues and I don't need to have it now. Another dealer I contacted that offers fleet pricing got back to me on a breakout I had requested and said they'd offer invoice + $500 before TTL so the question now becomes seeing if they have an allocation that fits the bill (they had one almost but in red; only looking gray or white). I'm still going to reach out to Cartelligent to see if they may be able to expedite the process while still getting the fleet pricing.

 

I bought my third gen from Jim Davis at Toyota of Santa Cruz. It was used so I can't comment on their new-truck pricing but I felt I got a good price (below their asking) and he seemed to have good product knowledge and very professional. The Finance/paperwork guy didn't push me much either. My friend just bought a new Toyota (not Tacoma) from Concord using Costco pricing; he got exactly what he wanted, well below MSRP and he said it was painless ... and he's a tough professional purchasing negotiator.