Truth... Tacomas, You and the World

Exactly...It's all scripted to wear people down. IMHO the biggest bunch of liars in a dealership are in the finance office. It's like the guys/gals that can deceive the most are put in that office. I've said NO to everything. None of the extended warranties that I've turned down with buying seven new cars over the years would have ever paid off.

 

Yes, but there's a lot more to the dealership experience too that people don't like. I've never complained about the pricing because I've researched the entire truck market since 2015 and know what things are generally priced at.

However, every time I've purchased a vehicle, I'm hit with the ol' "someone else is interested in this vehicle too." It's a pressure tactic. Just like the inspection during trade in; they do things to try and entice you to say things about the vehicle. They try and make you feel as if you don't have a lot of power in the situation to try and squeeze the most money out of you. Hell, my sales associate tried pressuring me into adding my Tacoma to my insurance before I even showed up to the dealership for a test drive. But, I kept my whits about me and reminded him I wasn't even sold on it yet. Then we haggled a little more and ended up with something we both could agree on. But the process to get there was such a pain. The salesman was nice and all and just doing his job, but the experience wasn't fun.

 

Salesmen/finance people have bills/mortgages and usually, like to feed their families... Now, I.M.O. the best (Reasonable) price when buying or selling anything is one that both parties can go away, be happy and sleep at night ! What no one wants is to find out after the sell/buy is that they took a huge beating and with a little research one can avoid such. I often hear how, someone saved $500.00 on a 35k plus purchase by making a four hour trip... (Life is too short).

 

Would have to agree, only had one major hard failure within the 36k mile warranty period since the 70's with toyotas i've owned. The sales manger for the 2020 tacoma i purchased actually got pissed when i didn't take their 10 year 100k mile extended warranty giving me all types of failure scenarios that could occur. My experience with must products if their going to fail, they will show up within the initial warranty period.

 

Exactly...unless you're just buying a known problematic vehicle, problems usually happen within the originally warranty, or well past where an extended warranty would cover (10+ years).

I've had the worse treatment in the finance office from saying no and not buying into blatant dishonesty. After seven new car purchases, I find the salespeople to be the easiest to deal with.

 

The truth is the majority of people here are better suited in a ridgeline and don't use their truck in it's full capacity so they just bitch about the downsides.

 

I think it is more fair to say that folks only want the truth when it benefits them.

The inverse of that is the number of folks who will stand up and say, 'sorry. I was wrong / incorrect.'

 

Statement couldn't be truer. The original salesman i dealt with was great...very knowledgeable, and only recorded what i wanted for options whether factory or dealer. He didn't try to push any other bs to pad the bill. It was after when the truck arrive, and prepped for pickup was when i went into the sales manager's office to finish all the paper work that he sprung the extended warranty stuff on me. Believe me they don't like to hear the word no.

 

Like some women that commute to work in a full sized, quad cab, 3/4 ton, 4x4 pickup because, their husband thought that's what she needed...?

 

I do hear this often and I also agree with you.

But I also thought about the “use their truck to it’s full capacity“.

Most of the vehicles I see on the road on my daily commute are single occupant- 4 door sedans, SUV’s etc with seating capacity of four to eight with one occupant are also not being used to their full capacity and I don’t think anyone gives it a second thought.

But from my perspective, the pickup truck was an inexpensive utility vehicle before it became so popular with the white collar crowd. All the comments about the lack of creature comforts in any particular truck make me pine for the good old days...lol

 

will 75 lbs really make that much of a difference in mpg?

 

I spent my entire life in sales.

Show me a salesman that's telling the truth, and I'll show you a salesman with shitty numbers that's about to lose his job.

When someone walks into (any) dealership, they WANT to be sold.
It is what it is.

 

I have no issues with people who commute in those, its their choice...but if they start bitching about the gas mileage and how hard it is to park in a parking garage then...

 

What I meant by "full capacity" is that most mid size truck buyers are people who just want 4 doors, a bed separate from cab and 4WD/AWD. They don't need a body on frame truck with a solid rear end with leaf springs and all the quirks that come from a vehicle with ancient suspension and brakes. For me, honestly, a ridgeline would be better suited for me 90% of the time as well. I can do home depot and dump runs just the same. But when I do go off road, I go places that a ridgeline could not, and this was a key buying point for getting the TRD OR. I go places that require the locker every time I go wheeling.

 

Depends on what you are selling, of course. Selling cell phones at the mall or other commodity items, probably yes. Selling, say, complex IT systems with long term customer relationships built on problem solving, not so much.

I think there is a bit of a nuance here. Yes, you walk into a dealership you want to be sold. Fully agree. "You look great in this truck." "This truck will change your life." All of that is fair game, in my opinion. Shoving 45 pages of single type in front of you and misrepresenting very specific financial details -- not so fair. One is marketing. The other ... it gets legal in a hurry and there are consumer protections involved.

Sell away ... convince people they need to spend $60K on a truck -- I have no problem with that. But lie or misrepresent contracts -- well, that can and often is considered fraud.

 

Thank God I didn't spend my life at the mall peddling cell phone cases, and no, I'm not talking about misrepresenting the contract and capabilities of the MRI machine you're selling to Johns Hopkins.

Judging by your writing I don't think you are in 'traditional' sales, but I think you get it.
Most can't, won't, don't.

 

Okay I'm in interested in this story

 

the lies don't stop on the sales floor. The service writers are a breed of liars all their own.

 

Being a sales guy, I can appreciate it, even laugh about it in hind sight, but in 107,000 miles, the only thing I’ve had my Camry to the dealer for was for what turned out to be a faulty purge valve. (hard starts after a fill up) Service writer said “I was lucky,” they had one in stock and quoted me $400 for the part and $400 labor, for a total of $800 before tax.

I told him to give me a minute, googled the part and found new OEM’s readily available for $26 bucks shipped. Upon declining service, he made no efforts to negotiate and walked me out the door @ $800.

Purge valve turned out to be on top of the engine bay, fastened by one Phillips head screw. Total install time including popping the hood, was probably a minute and a half.

Go big or go home, I guess. LOL

 

Yeah, I was agreeing with you.

The Ridgeline has a few features that are non starters for me:

No access cab

spare tire mounted inside the bed

not a fan of transverse engine/ front wheel drive

Honda makes decent vehicles- my wife had an odyssey and two sons have Accords.

But half or more of the people hating on the Ridgeline because of “looks” would probably be happier with it.