Looking to buy a 2018 Tacoma... Anyone work at a CLT Dealership??

Jerzsubbie

Jerzsubbie

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So I'm looking to buy a 2018 Tacoma OR DCSB loaded whenever they come out, or soon'ish thereafter. I know some people are already getting pre-orders locked in for $500 over invoice, despite pricing being unknown yet.
Does anyone within about a 1-2hr drive of Charlotte work at a Toyota dealership? I'd much rather deal with someone with whom I can cut the BS out and talk brass tacks. If I have to play all of the usual games, I certainly can/will but it just gets old, it's like the most pointless dance. And I hate dancing.

We bought my wife's 4Runner from N CLT and I wouldn't send anyone there. They tried every game/trick in the book and probably then some, and all I could think about was "OMG, they are the slimiest dealership I've ever dealt with; I can only imagine what people with less knowledge get taken for!" For example, they all but swore on their mother's life that 7% was the best they could give us on a new 4Runner, ~30% down, 800+ FICO, until I literally applied for capital one on my phone in front of them and got 2.3%, then all of the sudden they could do 2.2% (current promo was 2.9%).

After a couple mods, something like this, nothing wild.
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Actually, while it is surely a drag, sometimes I find the "dance" amusing. One example...

I checked around and found which Ford dealers had the truck I wanted. The best price I could find was $X at a dealer in Winston. I drove over to my local dealer who also had the truck and told the salesman I wanted to pay X. He tells me that's impossible, I respond there's a guy in Winston willing to do the deal, he replies it's impossible...round and round we go. Eventually he tells me it is just a trick to get me to the Winston dealership and when I get there the truck will actually be more than his offer.

After he'd made several trips "to speak with the gm" (code for going for a smoke) and I'd had enough, I asked him what time he got off work. He comes back with the time and it is about 6 hours later. Then I asked him which way he turns on his way out of the parking lot going home. He comes back with "right".

I tell him, "That's perfect. After you turn right, drive down a couple blocks and then begin looking on your left. If you see a new white Explorer in the last driveway before the stop light, you'll know you were wrong. On the other hand, if there isn't a truck there, give me a call tomorrow morning."

With that, I stood up, he grabbed my arm and said, "ok, OK!!!!".

:D
 
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You should check out Mike Johnson Toyota in Hickory. My brother just bought a 2017 a couple months ago and they beat Scott Clark’s price by about $2k and offer the same lifetime power train warranty.
 
charliedeltajuliet said:
You should check out Mike Johnson Toyota in Hickory. My brother just bought a 2017 a couple months ago and they beat Scott Clark’s price by about $2k and offer the same lifetime power train warranty.
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I'll certainly check them out. Hickory is about as far as I would like to drive but would certainly go farther for the right deal.
 
I bought my last four Toyotas "online".
I e-mail every dealership from the TN line to Charlotte (in the same e-mail) with the make/model/options I want.
They are all "Southest Toyota". They can take cars from other dealers if they try to tell you "we'll have to get it".
Then I wait for the best price.
 
I can't stand buying cars at dealerships, only good thing was the dealer doc fee was only $200 for the car.
When I got our last used car in 1999 at Hertz in Raleigh the salesman quoted me 9%
on their financing, I told him "I can't hear you", he repeated and so did I.
He says "do you have a hearing problem James"?
I reply no that is my way of telling you the rate is too high,
I got 4% at State Employee Credit Union. Told him I'll be back next month for another
and he did not believe me until I got my 99 Taurus wagon a month later.
I got two 10 month old cars for less then what one new car was gong for at the time, still drive both of them daily.
 
Tom7 said:
I bought my last four Toyotas "online".
I e-mail every dealership from the TN line to Charlotte (in the same e-mail) with the make/model/options I want.
They are all "Southest Toyota". They can take cars from other dealers if they try to tell you "we'll have to get it".
Then I wait for the best price.
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Did very similar with wife's last car I atleast sent individual emails but it was on a chevy equnox and kept it all email till the last little bit of negotiation and the packages they offer make it extremely easy to compare many cars and pin the dealerships against one another and cherry pick. The other thing I learned is you can get most of the dealers to do a sight unseen trade appraisal over phone or email if you are trading and use that to your advantage as trade value offers will be all over the place as well.
 
Sounds bad but I like the "game" between dealership.

When I bought the Camry, the dealer had the MSRP and then 1k of stupid add on's. Tint and nitrogen filled tires were the big ticket items. I knew who did the tint and they use crappy material. So I called a good friend of mine in front of the sales man and asked about x company. Then I said you want me to pay $400 dollars for nitrogen filled tires when the air we breath is 78% nitrogen.
 
Jp8819 said:
Did very similar with wife's last car I atleast sent individual emails but it was on a chevy equnox and kept it all email till the last little bit of negotiation and the packages they offer make it extremely easy to compare many cars and pin the dealerships against one another and cherry pick. The other thing I learned is you can get most of the dealers to do a sight unseen trade appraisal over phone or email if you are trading and use that to your advantage as trade value offers will be all over the place as well.
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That's good to know on the trade because I will be trading my current car and that was one of the games Toyota of N CLT tried playing when we bought my wife's 4Runner. Thankfully we had the cash to just tell them to shove it vs their 30%-low offer. That was before buying a house and getting married 1.5yr ago though.
 
Jerzsubbie said:
That's good to know on the trade because I will be trading my current car and that was one of the games Toyota of N CLT tried playing when we bought my wife's 4Runner. Thankfully we had the cash to just tell them to shove it vs their 30%-low offer. That was before buying a house and getting married 1.5yr ago though.
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They do put stipulations on it that value may change when you bring it in if condition is not as described but still works for negotiation purposes and getting close. Also nice not getting sucked into going to mulitple dealers till your ready to sign paper work. I would have thought not seeing the vehicle they would have offered less but it was no correlation in my case, there was probably 4k diffrence in what one dealer to another was offering for trade value.
 
I just bought the exact same TRD Pro in the original post. :)

Bought from toyota in wilkesboro. Little bit of game on their end with numbers and financing, nothing terrible...usual stuff. Interest rate is crap, but Ill just refi it end of nov once I have another loan paid off. ;)
 
So I finally started shopping since these trucks are starting to show up in the region, giving me a little more leverage.

I put out the feelers via Truecar, Toyota's site, and NADA Thursday evening to about 12 dealers and got 5 quotes back already with 3 more due tomorrow. I'm getting darn close to invoice price and haven't stepped foot in a dealership yet.

@charliedeltajuliet I almost had to knock Mike Johnson's out of the running since they were sticking to msrp, but after a couple emails with the sales manager he gave me the highest "competitive" offer so far. They did however say that would try to beat any written offer I have, so I'll take them up on that. Still waiting on my Scott Clark quote, so that comparison will be interesting as Scott Clark is the highest volume dealer in the area.

To no big surprise of mine, Toyota N CLT flat out refused to give me any kind of quote without being there in person despite the fact that they don't have the vehicle on their lot (no one does). I tried to give them a second chance, tried reasoning with the woman on the phone, but she was being irrational and bordering rude so I simply ended it with "I guess we won't be able to do business then. Please don't call me again. Have a great weekend, good bye."
 
rdinatal said:
Oh, but they will call you. I got tired of it and chewed out the girl who called (her second call a month apart) while my wife was in the truck. o_O
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Lol, they just called again, but a different person who wanted to talk pricing. I declined, explained why, and told them I've decided not to deal with N CLT.
 
Depending on the exact car, value, sales tax implications and your time constraints just sell your current car on Craigslist. I sold our last 3 cars that way and have always done well. Our 11 year old van took a little longer, but I still got about double the real money the dealer offered. The two trucks I sold went in 1 day for exactly what I was asking.
 
@CZfool68 thata my plan. If my sister doesn't want my BMW, I'll try selling it on fb and CL, using Carmax as my last resort. I highly doubt I'll trade it when the delta between trade-in and private party is nearly $5k per kbb.

When we bought my wife's 4Runner from N CLT, they insisted they couldn't offer more than $3600 for her Corolla trade when I told them they needed 5600. Once I took the trade off the table they offered 500 more to which I said "too late, too low, no." We sold it 3 days later for 7800 on CL.
 
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@charliedeltajuliet Well I ended up buying from Mike Johnson's and got a SMOKING deal, best I've heard of on the forums and well below TrueCar. It had to be special ordered so it'll be a couple months until I get the truck, but I'm quite excited.

Cox, Cloninger, Vann York, Scott Clark, and Hendrick either didn't get back to me to provide a quote in a timely manner (2 business days) or declined to compete with my low quote. Only Cloninger didn't respond at all, aside from some automated emails. Rock Hill was great to work with, but couldn't match the deal quickly enough.


Now that that's done... anyone in the market for a 3 series??? ;)
 
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