How Does Ordering Work?

For those of you who ordered your Tacoma, how does that process work? I assume you put some sort of deposit, and then when it arrive you figure out payment and all that?

 

When you order your Tacoma, it goes to a distributor, not the factory. The distributor supplies the dealer and the dealer determines the cost and payment. It is impossible for a Toyota dealer to order direct from Toyota. They have to go through one of twelve distributors.

 

i’m pretty cool with the gm at my local toyota (i happen to be their IT) not sure if it’s normal but he just told me that he’s gonna get my order placed this tuesday and it should be here in 6-8 weeks but didn’t ask for a deposit of any kind.

 

I went to Toyota's website, configured my Tacoma on exactly what I wanted (& nothing else), printed it out & gave directly to my salesman on 9/14/2020. I didn't put a deposit as my salesman felt bad for getting my hopes up in finding a 2020 that matched what I was looking for as a dealer trade, but when they tried to get it, someone else already grabbed it. I took delivery on 11/14, exactly 2 months from 'ordering'. The truck that was delivered was on-point with everything I wanted from the Tacoma configuration, with nothing 'extra'. I think I got lucky as I hear that dealers only get what Toyota sends them, or allocates. Some wise members can go in detail more than me on allocation.

Love my Voodoo Blue OR

 

You provide the configuration you want, $500 refundable deposit.
Dealer will try to find a matching configuration in an upcoming allocation (from the regional distributor).

Depending on how common your desired configuration is, it might be arriving within weeks as part of an existing scheduled allocation, or the distributor might have to request it specially, which can take up to a couple of months to arrive.

 

This. Took a couple months for mine to arrive since it was an army green Pro with a manual transmission, the proverbial unicorn!