Toyota you make some awesome vehicles but your dealerships are the worst

Remember, the whole Car buying experience is scripted around the satisfaction survey.

 

When I go to buy a vehicle, I expect the, to try and take me for all they can. When I started the process for my truck, I told the salesman, "Its you job to try and take my money, and it's mine to keep as much as I can". What pissed me off is when they don't hear what your telling them. In my situation, we set an appointment to complete the paperwork (truck was ordered, and most of the paperwork was already done) and told them my wife had exactly 1 hour to sign what was needed. After being there for a half or so, I reminded my salesman my wife had to return to work soon, and he then stated we need more time and should have know you can't buy a car in such little time. Needless to say, we walked out. If I didn't like the truck so much, I wouldn't have gone back. But they got me back in a day or so later, let me take the truck with dealership plates while they waited for my wife to swing by to sign her spots, which took about 10 minutes.

Oh and I got it a few hundred under invoice.

Service has been fine so far.

 

Same in Texas, part of the binding contract.

Same here, I don't score them until the WHOLE deal is transacted.

Sounds like a bummer; if you're talking to the general manager because the salesman won't order it.... that's your message to him. "I'm standing in front of you because your employee won't do his job".

I've certainly had mixed experiences, but going back through my brands and probably a dozen cars/trucks:

• Dodge was miserable... had to tell the guy to sit down and stop yelling at me. He was upset because I didn't 'understand' that I didn't have enough equity in my beater to make the numbers work. That was the whole issue... I totally understood and was willing to keep driving it for another few years.
• Porsche was great, but I knew going in what to expect on discounts.
• BMW was great after they sold my wife on an M.
• Audi was good.
• Toyota was okay.... we did play the "let me talk to the manager" game a lot. It came down to $500 and at my age and grey hair I walk if I have to. I figured I could get another 200k out of my FJ if I needed to. They came down the last $500. I'll also admit I mostly email and internet shopped with the sales guy. He didn't know squat about the trucks though.
• Hyundai was actually not bad, though we played the game much more than Toyota. We were buying for my daughter's graduation present and he kept coming back with "If we can hit this payment will you do it?... What payment do we need to be at?". I got to where I was simply saying "I don't care about payment.... this is the price I'm willing to pay. Please don't come back until you can tell me you a) can meet that price, or b) you cannot meet that price. I think I literally told him that 3 times after he'd come back each time with some other 'deal'. My daughter had to step outside. She said she'd never seen this side of me and was about to start laughing.
• Didn't buy one, but the Volvo guys were great.
• Didn't buy one of these either, but the Land Rover guys were okay.

Salespeople are there to push those impulse buyers over the edge. It's surprising how many cars are purchased on an impulse. You stop in to just look. Oh, why not take a short test drive. Oh, and you hand over your keys as a show of good faith because he's being so nice. Now the drive is over and maybe you're willing to at least look at the numbers and see how far off they are. Hmmm, if they could come down some more we really wouldn't be that different from right now and we'd have a new shiny. You talk for a while, you wait for awhile. Now you're 3+ hours into the deal and just want it done.

 

Yep,

When they want to they can make it happen fast. Particularly if they understand you when you say 'no'.

 

As I understand it, dealerships are protected by the government. Otherwise, I’ll bet you would see very few, if any.

 

Very true. I negotiated my Tacoma trade in for my 4runner in 30 minutes, when my runner arrived, it was another 30 minutes doing paperwork. If you walk out and don’t let them string you along, it can be very quickly done.

 

Buying a new car or truck in my experience depends a lot on your car buying knowledge, credit, income and which dealership you go to.

 

Toyota has a unique business model. There are 12 distributors across the US. Those 12 distributors deal directly with Toyota proper. Depending on dealer location, the dealer deals with the distributor only to get vehicles. The distributor combines all their dealer orders and is responsible to get the vehicles from any of Toyota's manufacturing plants to the dealer. He also orders additional inventory to cover vehicle inventory. So, in this case, the distributor is where you get your vehicle. They do not share vehicles. Somehow this arrangement works for Toyota.

 

Only deal with their fleet departments or Costco pricing, it's always a no bullshit experience.

 

I used USAA to buy my truck. I dealt with the sales manager directly for the trade in value, and he walked, not me. Told me "have a nice day, we aren't going to match that". So I went home. He called 10 minutes later. Meh.

Service department is awful right now, but in general it is pretty good at my dealer (Toyota of Nashua). Parts department is awesome because they usually give me the lowest internet price I find for parts.

I can'tr stand the whole "let me go talk to the manager bull shit". I heard that once at McMulkin Chevrolet while looking at a Colorado. Looked at the salesman and said "Look man, its 2018. Let's not play this bullshit game. My time is more valuable to me than hanging out with you".

 

Another New Hampsha folk. I have always used Manchester dealers, they seem to give the best prices, but use Keene for service. Cannot really complain about either. Now, Manchester Subaru - I will never buy another subie, even though they are great cars, because of those assholes

 

I called Toyota corporate and explained my situation. Now I opened a case against them and all of a sudden they're calling me and it's ordered. Funny how that happens huh? I didn't think corporate would help me but apparently the "we owe" contract got their attention. I hate that I have to do all this just to get a damn bed mat I was promised. Maybe they'll think twice before they bullshit the next customer who signs the "we owe" sheet. I also still haven't received my registration and it's been 2 weeks and 2 days. I dunno what's going on there.

 

Every dealership is different. Hell every salesman is different you could have talked to a different one at the same dealership and had an excellent experience. Its not a "Toyota" issue every brand has dealerships that don't do things the way they should be done. I am a sales consultant at a Toyota dealer and I have sold other brands and I can assure you that Toyota is by far one of the best I have seen as far as manufacturer involvement goes. At the end of the day they can't be doing to bad they have the most loyal customers in the world and sell something like 3.2 million cars/trucks a year to repeat customers, the highest in the industry.

 

Write a bad yelp review that hurts them cause the public get to see it and everyone else from the dealership

 

You should have met me years ago when I was selling Toyota and Used cars. If you think car sales people are shady and dishonest you should hear stories about customers. One woman came in, drove a car, said she wanted it and went down to finance. Filled out he paperwork and the finance manager called her listed employer. She did not work there. Called her up to tell her. She says that she changed jobs recently and accidentally put down her old employer. Called the new employer. She did not work their either. Went out to see another customer and when I asked how he was doing his response was "Just f***ing fine until you came out. Often when the back and forth between a manager and the sales people is happening it is the sales manager being the ass, not the sales person. I had a customer once I worked with for an hour, got him to finally come in and sit down and put an offer in on a vehicle, a major success. Told the sales manager that this guy was going to bolt if we did not get him a halfway decent price. The manager took $50 off the price of a car that had a $900 added dealer markup. Guy was rightfully pissed and bolted. I got him to stop at a bench outside the showroom long enough to go back in and try again. The sales manager went down another $50 and the guy was gone, with my blessing. The sales manager did not like me and was trying to get rid of me. It worked.

I negotiated the price on my Tacoma via email and phone. Never set foot into the dealership until I was showing up to pick it up. My "salesperson" ran through the paperwork and that was all he did.

 

That's more to do with people willing to put up with the dealer and salesman BS to get a surperior vehicle. You can have the best buying experience of your life at a Mitsubishi store but at the end of the day you're still driving home in a Mirage.

 

No, but you know whats stupid? Him Being all passive aggressive and ranting online instead of going down there, and demanding a goddamn bed mat that they owe you. They will sort it out. Ranting online doesnt do anything. If a dealership owes me a bed mat I'm getting my bed mat... I sure as shit am not going to go "ALL STEALERSHIPS SUCK PAY HERE LOT DECREASE MARKET SHARE WAAHHHH!"

 

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Start off with TrueCar, Costco or USAA pricing and go down from there.

I give them 70 minutes to COMPLETE the deal and I am gone.

Rainy, Tuesday night (an hour before closing) at end on the month and end of the quarter is best too.

 

Wouldn't have done any good if I'd went down there when they didn't order it. Wasted gas and wasted time to hear "oh our bad we didn't order it". I called them and then wrote the rant, that's why I ended up calling corporate when they didn't call me back. You would have spent all your time running up and down the road going to the dealership to get jerked around, meanwhile I sat on my couch and made a few phone calls. Dealerships DO suck, especially Toyota ones. They all use those old ass high pressure, markup the MSRP with added bs, shuck and jive tactics that died in the 80s. Maybe next time try to know what the hell youre talking about. You would have made a fool of yourself and gone home with no mat since they don't keep them in stock. Not very smart are you?

 

I have usaa insurance and have never used their car buying service because I can always beat them with my negotiation skills. Always. Their financing is awful too.