Tacoma 4th Gen Buying Experience - Trucks, Trade in, Buying Experience, etc.

Hey there everyone.

I am a new buyer joining the world of Tacomas. Let me tell you, I love this truck. I have been wanting to buy one for a bit. My dad used to have the original SR5 back in the 70s, so there is a bit of family history with Toyotas. (I can talk about Ford vs Toyota all day in my family if you want to ask more)

Originally, I owned a 2016 Mazda CX-5 that I bought in 2019 for 15.5k. I payed it off during Covid down years to not worry about the payment anymore. Come around to August 2023, I started deciding I wanted to get a new vehicle, something a bit more, beefy and bigger as I am a tall person (6’4).

I wanted a midsize Truck that would be a universal buy for the next 6-8 years. I met the love of my life and determined we might be moving around from place to place a bit. We are big water people as well, so having the truck for boats or other things would be great for the future. It needed to be 4x4 as well, as we do love a offroad every once in awhile.

That left me to the Mid size trucks. I was not a fan of the larger trucks, as they have gotten so big throughout the years. I wanted a midsize or small size.

That left me with the Maverick, Ranger, Ridgeline, Tacoma, Colorado, Frontier and Canyon. I hate the way the Gladiator looks, so that automatically was out.

Maverick was too small, same with the Ridgeline. As a result, it came down to the Ranger, Tacoma, Frontier, and Colorado. Let me tell you, each of these trucks I think are very impressive. Pretty much, I was not too picky on the features of the truck. The only things I wanted from the truck was a 4x4 package, towing option, and a crew cab. That was about it. After I did my research, I determined I would be spending about 40k~ on my purchase.

It came down to the wire on all the trucks. Key things I can say about each one besides the Tacoma –

· Ranger – Bit more leg room, Jerky ride accelerating, Lots more technology options for the price. Most features out of any midsize truck for the price (around 45k for the main truck almost fully loaded). I liked this ride, but it didn’t seem to sit well with me afterwards.

· Colorado – Probably the smoothest ride of all the trucks. But boy, the one I test drove had a very large turbo whistle. I couldn’t really figure it out why it was like that. Probably had to be broken in a bit more, but not what you want to hear test driving. Very smooth drive.

· Frontier – Love that it has the original aspirated Engine. I really liked this one for the price. The dealerships near my area continued to piss me off though. For trucks that were MSRP for 37k-40k, they were trying to sell to me for almost 10k over asking price. I didn’t get far in the conversation before I walked out.

At the end of the day, I found a Dealership that was about 50 miles outside my location that told me they could talk for everything I had within my price range. For about 4 Months we were discussing inventory.

Let me tell you something about these dealerships. They are going to try to screw you over. I hate saying it, but they don’t care about you. Have a price in mind for what you want that seems within a 5% range on Toyota’s website for the build you want and hold your ground. Get yourself in a position to pull the trigger at anytime, but be patient enough so you aren’t losing 5-7k extra to the dealership. Chances are within 2-3 months, they are going to have a shortage of sales for the month and want to make it up, or have a larger inventory, so they will try to break even on their investment.

When my salesman reached out to me, we agreed to a total cost for a SR5 2024 at 41.5k. A bit more than I wanted, but he offered me 13k for my Mazda, 1k more than we originally talked about. At this point with 4 months out, I thought there wouldn’t be a better deal. I told them I will be in the next day to get/review the truck.

I went into the dealership, drove the truck, and loved it. I had the trade in for the Mazda and also continued to put an extra 11k down, so I had about 17k left to take a loan out on it.

The funny thing? The Sales Manager that had to finalize the sale for the day refused to give us the quoted price. He wanted to sale it to us for 43000, and not the 41500 promised on the email chain. My Fiancée and I left after an hour of negotiations. Talk about a terrible experience.

Sure enough, the next day I get an email from the salesperson again stating he can get me the same truck for 41500. We requested on the email not to deal with the previous sales manager and that is exactly what we got. I drove off with my 2024 Tacoma all new.

I have since put 6k miles on the Truck, drove it from North Carolina up to Michigan, and also from Michigan down to Florida. Have no problems with it at all. If you want me to make an experience post over the last 3 months, let me know and I will post.

 

thanks for the post..great color choice

 

what was MSRP?

 

upgrade package?

 

Ive spoke to 8+ dealers here in san diego, some managers flex, others dont, you just move to the next...
tried getting $3300 off msrp on an sr5, they said no...
called other dealer very next town over with identical truck, they agreed, locked it in...
sent screen shot to first dealer. sales chick via text...
said, thank your manager for playing games & losing a sale..

 

Nice and welcome to TW!