price shopping method

Hey all, newish member, I mostly lurk. Last weekend I reached out to a few dealers via email and have basically been either ignored or told they are "not negotiating price due to limited inventory". Has anyone heard something similar from dealers lately? I later came across a post on a Tundra forum spelling out a method to shop for the best price for a new truck. I was curious if this is doable in todays market.

Im in MA fwiw, and am looking for a Tacoma SR5, dclb, v6, 4wd, grey or silver, minimal to no options. Link to the post below...

https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-want-to-buy-a-tundra.10671/

 

Widen your search area, if your local dealers still have a demand that exceeds their inventory, they’re simply not going to cut any deals.

 

Thats how it was with me. These trucks are popular af. No need to negotiate when someone else will pay full price

 

Even in 2016 it was hard to get a reasonable deal in California. I heard on the forum that a dealer in Arizona had the best pricing around so I ordered a truck from them and flew out to pick it up.

 

If you are a Costco member, check out their auto program.

https://www.costcoauto.com/enterzipcode.aspx?gotourl=/

 

When I purchased in 2017, the dealer had 3 manual trucks on the lot for a month... I got a huge chunk of MSRP. The market will dictate the price. There was a recent post about a surplus in NJ, try finding an area that has a surplus of trucks.

 

Former sales director for a Ford dealership so familiar with the dealer mindset.

First thing, you have to call not email. Calls take priority, internet leads have at best a 15% closing percentage so immediately my lazy salesperson won’t care too much.

Second, use words like “ready to buy now”, “give you a deposit now if terms are agreeable”.

When I got my Tacoma I searched nationwide on Cargurus looking only TRD OR, MT and started calling closest to me and fanned out when they hit me at MSRP or over. I ended up at $2,900 off MSRP with no bs dealer adds.

make sure you get an otd figure in writing (a printout is best, but text works fine as a backup).
Be willing to fly somewhere. It can literally save you $2,00 upwards of $7,000 if all your local guys are over sticker. Plus driving back is fun as hell! I took my dad and we enjoyed it.

 

Cargurus is how I found mine as well. Found it to be one of the best sites to locate vehicles. Searching again as we speak.

 

I got a better deal on my own work compared to the Costco price.

 

I have used Truecar on 2 different vehicles including my Tacoma and got a pretty good deal through them (I get free access from a college alumni association). When I bought my Tacoma, I mentioned that I was a Costco member and they removed the destination fee which was about 1300 bucks if I remember correctly. That was on top of the Truecar price. And this was in March 2021.

 

Definitely, California has always been 3 to 4% less than the rest of the country

 

Costco could work in a situation like this but be careful of the extra fees. When I tried to use Costco they tried this crap.

 

This guy knows that he’s talking about

 

Fully agree. One additional consideration is not to exclusively rely on 3rd party websites to find the truck you want. In my case, my truck did not appear on Cars.com, but did appear on the dealer's website. A 2 minute phone call that consisted of ascertaining the (incoming) truck was still available, whether there was any mark up over MSRP, and leaving a deposit led to my purchase. 2 weeks later I signed the adoption papers and brought "Tania Maria" home.

 

I have used both the internet and calling around. Now it was 2018 when I bought mine, but I hit 5 different Toy dealers in Denver and used Trucar, and it was amazing the difference. Two if them were, well you see the tag on the window, that is the price. Never looked back at those dealers. The three other dealers all had about the same off of MSRP and it finally boiled down to who gave me the most for the trade on my JK.

A few weeks ago I added a hybrid Hyundai Tucson SUV to our lineup and that took more effort. Being in short supply I knew I would pay MSRP and have to wait a couple months for one to arrive. I actually only found one dealer that did offer it at MSRP. Some had as much as 7500 market adjustment on Hybrids (Phil Long in the Springs). Most others had what they called their Colorado package or something else that added a couple k to the MSRP. I also tried both Sam's and Costco and could not get a reasonable MSRP deal through them. Was glad I searched around, as I feel sorry (not really) for those who just pay that 7500 market adjustment instead of driving 30 miles to another dealer.

Years ago when I helped my dad buy his Challenger I used Trucar and plugged in Zip codes for many metro areas. Received a lot of bids and ended up going down to Casa Grande, Arizona to pick up the car, as that dealer far and away undercut everyone else.

One more. My brother bought his 2021 Ram 1500 while we were visiting my Dad in Flagstaff, Az. Never expected a deal there as based on experience from when I lived there as you always went to Phoenix to buy a car. He was ready and knew what he wanted. One day we were diving around (code for on the way to a Brewery) and stopped at the local Ram dealer. He ended up getting a little more than 10k off the sticker of 52k. I think we just lucked, right time and right place. They were trying to bump up there sales at the end of the quarter or whatever. He had been looking for several months all over the SW and that by far was the best deal.

Moral of the story, Shop around and be prepared to wait for the ight vehicle!!!!!! Most folks convince themselves they need a car right now and just take what is offered

 

This video (posted 1/14/23) evaluates current auto market and explains why used Taco prices haven't really come down very much. The whole video is good but the chart displayed starting around 3:33 lays it out for you. It's still a very tight market! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3subG27wJB0

 

Tell them to twist in the snow.
Car sales people most of them are lowest species on the planet

 

I've been looking for a Tacoma near Seattle for a few months and have been talking to half a dozen dealers. The highest volume one (with the most inventory) refuses to budge on price. For the truck with the packages I want, they insist on a $4k dealer "protection package" that's really just an up charge over MSRP. Dealers that are a bit farther away have been more flexible and will sell at MSRP or sometimes slightly under ($350 off is the best I've seen), but they don't have the options/color combo that I want.

So I'll echo what others have said: shop around and expand your search radius. Email the internet sales desks and they'll keep you updated on new inventory. It seems like the market is slowly cooling down, since some of the trucks with the 4k up charge are still in the lot a couple months later.

 

Glad I never had to deal with your org.

 

First thing, I’ve been out of the business 7 years. Second, every dealership is like that. No need to be a dick.