TX or Gulf States Dealers Increase Price with Added Accessories?

Thought I would share my recent experience shopping for a Tacoma. I live in TX, but spend quite a bit of time in CO, so I shopped both markets. I was looking for a relatively common configuration, so I found several trucks on lots that were acceptable (DCLB, TRD OR with Tech, in white, silver, cement or mag gray). I was looking for the lowest price at a conveniently located dealership.
I reached out to 8-10 dealerships (mostly the larger TX dealerships and a few in Denver). I ultimately found the lowest price at a dealership in Denver. I will pick up my new truck in a couple of weeks when I am in town.
Of the dealerships I contacted, I found 5 trucks meeting the above specs. All the dealerships offered similar discounts off of MSRP. 11.3% was the smallest and 13.4% was the highest discount off of MSRP (this includes a $1k factory incentive).
However, I noticed one consistent difference in the trucks I found in TX and CO . The trucks I found in TX were priced with additional accessories or extra items that trucks in Denver did not include. The accessories were things like predator tube steps, protectant packages, extra service package with synthetic oil, etc…. These items usually amounted to thousands of dollars. Therefore, the final MSRP (after these accessories) of the trucks in TX were higher than Denver. Ultimately, this led me to find the lowest price in Denver.
I suspect this may be due to the fact that TX is in the Gulf States region. I only checked a few dealerships, but my recent experience suggests that TX dealerships add more accessories to their trucks.
Again, my experience, is extremely limited, but I am wondering if others have discovered this as well?

 

Depends on the dealer. Some dealers even mark the truck up because of “market adjustment”

 

Probably something people in the gulf area commonly want, so the dealers add on those parts. You can have those accessories removed though if you don’t want them.

 

I agree that these accesories may be desirable by some, or even most people, but it also increases the price of the truck. In my search, I was unable to find trucks without significant amount of after-factory add-ons.

Of course I could remove the accessories, but the only two dealers I asked about this were unwilling to remove the accessories and drop the price of the truck.

I know nothing about the auto dealership industry, but it does seem to me that these accessories are driven not just by Gulf States or dealers wanting to sell more trucks, but wanting to make more margin per truck. I could be totally off-base here.

 

They will remove the accessories if you ask them too. They won’t lose a sale over an accessory. My Tacoma has those ugly predator steps and I made them take them off before I would sign the paperwork. Sometimes it takes persistence but it can be done

 

Gulf states toyota is why I always buy in Colorado. Most these expenses are distributer added. It’s worth a trip to Colorado to save a few grand.

 

GST, Gulf States Toyota, is known to be heavy handed and it can be hard to find a truck not molested on dealer delivery. not always huge things, often just bed lights and the like, but they will install the cabin switches weird, leave wires hanging sometimes, and then the added costs which are ridiculous. but you can't skip GST if you buy in Texas. after that, dealers here also tend to be aggressive with their packages for empty profit, and that's where the Predator steps and tint packages, etc, come from.

 

After having left the state for ten years and come back. I have no qualms to go to an area with Toyota USA port of entry. I see no reason to buy in the state of Texas for a New Toyota for convenience in an era of online purchasing, good relationships elsewhere and airport pickup.

Local dealers are good for service departments, warranty work, and test drives.