PSA to those wanting to buy new in this market

First of all, my first post here because as of yesterday I am a now an official Tacoma owner.
I wanted to share some insight to the buying process that I went through, to maybe help someone out who is struggling to find what they want.

I ended up getting a Lunar Rock TRD OR DCLB, which wasn't very easy to find, but when I seriously started actively looking it happened within 2 weeks.

First off from my understanding Toyota is not taking orders, and if they tell you they are its a flat out lie and it's to keep you on a hook to possibly do business with them. I put myself on a couple of those $500 deposit "orders" that some dealers will do and that's fine and all, but I will consider that passively looking for a truck.

Dealers do not get to choose what vehicles show up on their lots, from what I gathered they get allocations of vehicles once towards the beginning of the month and maybe once in the middle of the month, it varies dealer to dealer. So they'll take your name or $500 and put your name on an inconceivably long list, and you'll basically wait in a que for eons. I started putting my name on lists in September and I watched as vehicles I would have considered buying roll through their lots without getting a single call about it.

Then I started calling on those allocation days, which most sales managers are happy to tell you what day or roughly a day or two's estimate, eventually I called up a dealer that I wrote off entirely and it was actually the first dealership I started looking for vehicles at back in September. I called them up the day before their allocation, told them "I want a Lunar Rock OR DCLB with just the tech package, do you have any coming" guy says call back tomorrow. I called him the day of the allocation and he told me he had been allocated one similar to what I asked for (additional accessories were on it). He said he had a guy on a LIST for it, he said he would call me right back after he called the guy. Apparently the person on the list did not answer the phone or text or whatever, and about an hour later the manager told me to head on down and start signing the paperwork as the truck was coming off the assembly line on that day.

And another insight I learned, they'll "sell" the vehicle before it's put up online. As I went and signed some documents and put my actual deposit down a day before they posted it to their site. Which I'm assuming is an insurance policy incase I completely backed out before signing the final documents.

TLDR; Don't wait on the lists the dealer will most likely sell to the person calling and inquiring about a vehicle, before trying to really contact you about a vehicle you're on a list for.

 

I was looking last week and I clicked on various dealer sites to have them call me. What I ran into is every Tacoma shown online is already sold or has a deposit on it. One lady who called me said that Toyota has stopped all Tacoma orders. One salesman told me that they are selling Tacomas at $5000 to $7000 over MSRP.

 

Yea you have to try and be the person who puts the deposit down the day the dealership finds out they're receiving the truck. Ouch, luckily I got mine for MSRP which I mean is kinda a win, still a lot of dough for a truck. But id say 70% of the dealerships will have some sort of markup, only one around me was marked up $8,000, the rest were around the $1,00 to $2,000 markup.

 

I’m in a market for a loaded out DCLB but this f*cking market is a pain in the ass ughh

 

I went to the dealer I bought my 2nd gen truck from back in '05 and was told they would give me a deal by only marking up $5k instead of $7k. They had a mag gray TRD Off-Road that was being shipped that week. I put my name on it but no deposit. On a whim, I stopped by a different dealership because they had a used mag gray truck out front and I wanted to get a better look at the color. When the salesman approached, I asked him what the mark up was on new trucks there. To my surprise, he said MSRP, no mark up. The allocation list was due in a couple of days, so I called back then. Meanwhile, dealer #1 came down $1k when I told them I could get MSRP from somebody else. The #1 dealer's truck arrived the day I called and put my name and $500 on the truck at Dealer #2. This was on 1/11/22, I was told the production date was to be 1/29 and I would get the truck at the end of Feb or early March. I called back then to check on the status and was told the production date had been pushed to 2/3/22. Then, on 2/3, I got a call that the truck had already been built and was waiting to be shipped. I picked it up on 2/12, weeks early and for $5k less than what I was going to pay.

TL;DR Almost paid $5k too much, got on a list, truck showed up 2 weeks earlier than I was told.

 

To find a voodoo blue I called dealers near me and asked them to look as far as they could, and to tell me where their search radius ended.

Then I'd call the first dealer outside the previous radius and do the same thing. Rinse and repeat until I was calling dealers in Missouri from Oregon and eventually found the truck.

OP is 100% correct that dealers cannot order trucks from Toyota, nor do they really have a say in what trucks are delivered with what options (beyond the minor add-ons installed at the port.) Almost every dealership will lie to you about both facts.

In my search, there were two dealerships who shot straight with me. One guy was even nice enough to send me a photo of the national allocation list for all voodoo access cabs in the country which helped narrow the search down much quicker. Out of 7 trucks matching my criteria, two weren't spoken for yet.

It was a bit of a pain, but well worth the effort to get the exact truck I wanted without compromise.

 

Yep, I'm similar to you op. I put a deposit down for my 2020 from a local dealership and made no progress. Found another dealership a few hours away had what I wanted. Called them up and told the salesman to put the keys in his pocket until I got there.

 

It's interesting that Toyota is ok with dealers marking up against MSRP but Ford and GM are coming down on their dealership network for doing this, even to the point of threatening their future vehicle allocations. I wonder why the difference?

 

Ford says they are but it is happening all over the place. Broncos in my area are $10-15K over MSRP. So it is all talk and very little if any action.

 

It varies from dealer to dealer. After waiting for a year for a Bronco I punted and ordered a Tacoma which was plan B all along. Walked into my local Toyota dealer (I've purchased from them before) and told them what I wanted. 2022 TRD OR DC 6' Bed. Gave them my top 3 colors and they were able to find an allocation for my 2nd choice (MGM). Gave them a $3,000 deposit and they told me it would be 53 days. They own several dealerships in the SE so that may have helped with the allocation. That's way more information than I ever got out of the Ford dealer however the Ford dealer was selling at MSRP. Depending on the market I may flip the Bronco when/if it ever arrives or just refuse it.

 

that's why i ended up with a Limited. it was just impossible to parse all the possible options on any given Sport or Off Road, and even though their price with options ends up being the same there are a lot less people calling up dealerships asking for a Limited. similarly, not as many people are going to jump on a LB.

good luck.

 

Alternatively I got on a list on 10/19/21 and got my truck below MSRP. Picking it up in a week.

 

I have a friend trying to buy a tundra and is friends with a dealer he's done business with for years. this particular dealer killed his list altogether and pushes those that demand a list to other dealers. he said you could place an order for a truck, and if that truck takes 4 months, he's down 1 truck of the allocation each month for the 4 months = down 4 trucks. So this dealer is no longer using the list because it results in no inventory. 3rd person hearsay so who knows what's what but this is what I've been told. Just like OP he drops in the day of or day before delivery day to review what's coming in and is somewhat patiently waiting for the perfect tundra. I'm looking forward to riding in it haha.

 

Limited LB are unicorns in the current market and even before then lmao
they’re really nice though i will admit

 

OP's info is spot on. I ended up just calling dealers every saturday and asked what allocations they had for incoming trucks that didn't have deposits. After a few months I got lucky and nabbed a hold on a DCSB TRD OR 6MT.

 

Find a dealer that is taking deposits on ACTUAL vehicles. Make them print the DD and show you the vin.

GO IN the day after allocation, ask to see the allocation in DD. Pick one.

Put your deposit down and wait.

 

i guess that was kind of my point. they're a tiny portion of the market and tend to get overlooked. by a huge margin, most people will be watching Sports and ORs. i bought at the tale end of the '21 model year and had watched stocks decline to really thin numbers up to that point.

 

That’s primarily the reason why I’m now getting a Tacoma instead of a Bronco. I’m not paying over MSRP.

 

FYI. This is not an issue just in the current, clogged supply stream days. If someone wants a particular config that isn't on a dealer lot, that is the process for getting what you want.

Search allocation and see that this issue has been discussed and detailed wayy back.


Welcome though! And, enjoy that Taco.

 

Some good advice there and glad to see someone who understands the $500 deposit means absolutely nothing, it is not a contract and never will be a contract. All a $500 deposit does is show the sales manager is that you are a smidgen more serious than the person who doesn't give them money.