New to Toyota "Ordering"

Some here are a little over the top with the comments of excessive dealer addons. Maybe a regional thing. My toyota sales experiences have always been straightforward. I ask what is coming down the pipeline. They show me. I say I want it, do you want some money down? They say no. I say make sure no pinstripes, because I suffer from PTSD of the 70's. They say no problems and there are none. YMMV.

 

I sat down with the sales guy connected to the Costco vehicle program and ordered exactly what I wanted. Two months later, I took delivery at the pre-negotiated price. No hassles or markups.
I'm not sure if it was "custom" built for me or not, but it sure seemed that way.

 

Dealers can check inventory with others and swap vehicles too. Unless you want some unicorn truck a motivated dealer should be able to find it somewhere else and get it for you with a shipping charge.

 

Where do you live?

Southeast Toyota is notorious for bullshit packages that are added on at port that Toyota never envisioned on their trucks.

They even invent new models and then mark them up

When I visited my friend in Mobile, he told me how he had just bought the new “predator edition 4Runner” and I’m just like “what the actual fuck is that?”

 

Midwest. So regional thing. Limited to just Southeast region? Ya know travel to a midwest dealer is not that far.. Sux I know, but a guy is gotta do what he's gotta do.

 

Southeast Toyota and Gulf states Toyota, but Southeast Toyota is the biggest offender.

I was racking my brain to see if this is only a Toyota thing, but I remember when I was growing up in Alabama the GM dealers sold these god-awful monstrosities called Southern Comfort editions, which was some type of conversion van builder that would add ridiculous body cladding, ugly leather reupholstering, and small television sets, I think they were CRTs initially, into Chevy Tahoes and GMC Yukons. And these were always in some hideous combination of gold and beige, or scab burgundy and gold.

 

Are you saying the Pro will not be available until the end of the year? I had not heard that and was planning on getting one once they came out.

 

Hybrid models won't be available until next year actually, according to Toyota. This includes the pro.

 

Worse. IForce Max models not available until next spring.

 

My dealership let me use one of their alotted trucks, before it was built. Meaning, they had one in the pipeline, and let.me come in and make it into whatever it was i wanted to buy. In essence, i ORDERED my truck exactly as i wanted it.

Let the triggering commence, i ordered my truck. I didnt want a bunch of random tech crap id never use.

 

Nope, we're in the same boat in Canada, even worse actually. We get less models available here (no LB OR for example). And rather than technology packages which give you the option to get certain options or not, we get "premium" or "not premium" and that's it. (No LED headlights available on anything other than PRO here). Take it or leave it is how it goes.

 

I haven’t bought a new Toyota since 2017. Anyone know how the northeast is with markups?

 

Besides colors, I wonder if there will even be much variance in options and packages with the TRD and above models. I get the feeling those models will be pretty stacked as is. Not like the 3rd gen where you had to scrap and scape to get feagin LED headlights.

Do bet the SR5 will have a shit ton of packages tho.

 

You can still have custom orders and maintain lean manufacturing, you just need to plan it out, which Toyota already does.

I haven't worked for a Toyota USA dealer or spent much time in sales, so I can't comment definitively, but the restriction on specifying the options/packages on a truck is not necessarily at the factory level. If a dealer, in the right region, has an allocation and does so early enough, they can specify how that truck is going to be built (within the packages/options Toyota offers of course).

Jeff

 

Bigger selling dealers getting that opportunity?

 

The dealership I put a deposit down with told me that once they get a VIN for the basic model/color I want (DCLB OR 4x4), I can commit and then add/delete whatever option packages I want. In essence, you can custom order as long as the dealer is allocated the model and color you want.

 

This is about as close to custom ordering as you can get these days.

 

It's a bad and frustrating system. Especially with Southeast Toyota. By the time you get your Toyota it has been loaded with marked up accessories and packages. These accessories and packages are more expensive than anywhere else in the country.