Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Toyota dealerships

Buying/Selling and trading usually comes pretty natural for me. I like it and have a knack for it. These Toyota dealers around me are the exception. Never bought a Toyota but the woman wants one so here I am. I know a lot of guys swear by Toyota here and thought I’d ask what works to get the best deal on them.
Around here there are at least 5 Toyota dealers and they barely will budge off of the initial price they quote. I don’t get it...does everyone pay sticker or near that on these things?

Toyota’s are quality vehicles. I’m a Toyota guy through and through. They basically sell themselves for a reason and that’s why you may not always be able to get them to deal as much as you might with another vehicle.

Yes there are ways, but they’ll only go so far because if they don't sell it to you there’ll be someone else right behind you ready buy the same vehicle.

Having said that, pit them against each other. Go to one and get a price then go the next one and so on. That’s probably the best way.

I've found that Toyota selling prices around here aren't much below sticker. They're in demand and if they hold on a bit longer, someone will pay it. We bought a demo Highlander last summer. It was loaded and had 7k miles. They had it priced at $7k below the sticker price of identical new ones and they wouldn't budge. If we hadn't bought it, they'd still have sold it within days.

I picked up a one year old Tundra 2 years ago at a BMW dealer for a decent price ( much better than a local Toyota dealer) but I always buy a vehicle a few years old if possible. I purchased a Tacoma before that from a Toyota dealer and they turned out to overcharge on services. I have friends who like their Toyota dealers. I would search around til you found a dealer you can trust and are comfortable with.

Its tough to negotiate on new Toyotas with such a strong economy now

Can't help you as I do not buy new. Won't unless I have to.

Guessing you maybe pegged it. They don't feel like they have to move on price.

Call outside your area to toyota dealers. Get them to throw you a price and compare.

I am convinced that a big part of the marketing strategy of the “Big Three” is, and always has been, to grossly over-price their stuff so they can offer folks a “great deal.” Who ever heard of anyone paying anywhere near msrp on a Ford, GM or Chrysler product? It seems you can’t open a newspaper without seeing car dealer adds for thousands off msrp.

The local Toyota dealership is strictly geared towards selling cars and trucks to Ft. Campbell KY military personal on monthly installments. They don't know how to act when someone comes in and says they want to pay for one on the spot for the best price they can offer.

We recently bought a 2016 5th gen 4runner to add to our stable of 4runners. Bought it from a dealer. I worked hard to get a lower price to the point of leaving. They gave me a break in the price, but not much.

Generally, the days of serious haggling are gone. A lot of dealers advertise "our low no haggle price". Don't know about the low part.

They wanted me to finance to get a lower price because they get a kick back that way. I thought since I was paying cash it would be the best deal.

They don’t come off the price much here either. I could have married daughter of a Toyota dealership owner, but fugged that up. Shame on me.

Start with Cosco car buying price, then bid it to dealers over the internet. That is probably the best non-drama way of getting a low price.
I live out of "town" and that dealership was 5K higher than an equally distant rural dealer. Rural dealer was under retail, maybe 7%? I can't recall for sure. 4Runner was something like 40K for the version I bought.

Thanks guys for the input. Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t missing something. Gonna try to find used first...

most new cars have an invoice price and sticker price. Invoice price, while not really what the dealer pays for the car is usually about 10% below what the sticker price is. I would call around and ask dealers how much below invoice price they will sell for. around me a local dealer says they will beat any other dealer by $500, so most of the makes around here, ford, chevy, dodge, etc will be glad to sell for invoice price. So I can at least get $500 below invoice price. NEXT log on to the website and click shopping tools are offers, then you can look and see what if any incentives are offered on that year and model of vehicle. Toyota doesn't offer big incentives normally. However I did see 2k cash back on tacomas last fall, That is a rare deal right there. Usually something will be offered, could be $500, $1000, $2000 or really anything inbetween or more. Also offered is 0% for various lengths of time. I personally think 0% sucks and would rather have a cash discount. The reason being is you pay sales tax on the higher amount by not taking the cash discount, AND by paying the higher amount you have to keep the loan for the entire term, basically pay the car off to realize the savings of the 0%.

try to do your communication via email,
if not do it over the phone,
don't go to the dealer to negotiate the price. They have you over a barrel and do tons of stupid crap, I am sure they are studying body language, potentially even having the table bugged. I always laugh the guy walks into the glass room, they pour a cup of coffee and start laughing and say we got another sucker on the line. Its like WTF, dude you know what you need on the car, the answer should be YES or NO, its not hard. Meanwhile they are watching you shift and squirm for 10 minutes while they dinker around, I say BS to all that. via email or phone is the only way I make any deal on a new car, period.

lastly don't let the finance manager hose you. you can find the same extended warranty online, even toyota factory warranty for much less money than they will sell it to you.

I have always thought that if they could knock off 15 thousand dollars off the price, then it was priced 15000 too much anyway. I haven't bought a new domestic vehicle, ever. And never will.

You'll get a better price on a used one if you buy from a non Toyota dealer. The Jeep dealership here can't hardly get rid of a Toyota even when priced well below book value.

The only Toyota I’ve ever been able to buy was in the Winter and the end of the month. They must not have met their quota because they priced it well below the market. If you’re buying a truck just get ready to pay “their” price. Good luck , Tacoma’s are great if you don’t need rear legroom.

One of the guys in our moose camp owns a Toyota dealership. Overheard him telling a few guys around the bar that he only makes $500 on a new car.

Uh-huh.

If you can hold off till month’s end, they’ll become much more eager. Even now, don’t be in a hurry. They’ll call you in a couple days, and you can coyly explain that you’ve been receiving much more aggressive quotes than what they offered. (This assumes you can keep your housemate happy for another week or 10 days.)

As was said, YOU never mention a price: that’s for THEM to do. Sit back, and watch them find extra discounts. If they ask when you’ll buy, tell ‘em you’re going with the lowest price this Sunday night. Call ‘em all one last time Sunday am.

Check every dealer from Beavercreek to Dry Ridge. Hell, I bought a Corolla from Green’s in Lexington. I deemed the 4 hour round-trip to pick it up worth the $1,000 we saved. You never know which dealers will be just a few cars short of earning a huge sales goal bonus. Those can easily top $100k for the dealer.

If you can stand to listen to this pajama boy from NPR, This radio program is a good look behind the curtain at the sales dept of a dealership. Their desperation at month’s end is breathtaking.

If you want to call me, I’ll tell you about the folks I talked to at Kings, Performance, and Joseph.

Good luck,

FC

It is worth working the internet and knowing what you want.
Wife decided she want a Honda Si. Local Toyota dealer had one but wouldn’t budge on price. Salt Lake had one with less miles and 3 grand less. They shipped it up. Has been a good car.
I got my truck out of Ok.
I wanted big block gas, took a while but found one at big dealership down south. Has been good truck.

@OP, Try finding a used one at a non-Toyota dealer...

10 years ago, when I worked for Toyota Manufacturing, even Toyota employees could not get a decent discount from a Toyota dealer. One of the models underwent a significant body change. Cannot remember which one. Anyway, people were going ape over them. The dealers were selling them for sticker price, literally while they were still on the truck, or, immediately after being backed off the truck... craziness...

If you like to "negotiate", might try Dan Cummins in Paris, KY...

That's what I try to do. My newest truck, which I bought used, is a Nissan, booked at $14,500, priced at $12,500, got it for $10,750. It was at the Saturn dealership.