cliffy1

I've been doing this a while. Can you tell? I've been with Toyota since 1994 and have done everything from selling, to managing to f&I and I was even a GSM at a small store where I did the prefrencing and dealer trades. In some ways, I miss the old TDN system.

jrussell

Cliffy1

A quick follow-up to further my understanding of this process.....

Let's say the distributor orders a batch of 100 Tc's in a variety of colors and transmissions.

Am I correct in saying that dealers in the U.S. gets allocated some of these 100 Tc's based upon a formula set by Scion (for example, Dealer 'A' gets more of the 100 because they sell more Tc's than dealer 'B')?

Also, once dealer 'A' gets their allocation from the big distributor batch am I correct in saying the dealer 'A' has full control of these allocated cars (i.e., keep them at port for up to 30 days, release them from port, or simply dealer trade 'em for a color/transmission that dealer 'A' has a customer for but no allocation to support the customer need)?

Thanks again....

cliffy1

You're right on. The formula for the Scions though is a bit different than with the Toyotas. with Toyota, its almost strictly "turn and earn" meaning the quicker you've moved your previous 3 month's worth of inventory, the faster you get new ones. With Scion, (at least in theory) they are allocated on the size of your PMA. That likely will change, but if you have a very large market area, you'll get more cars.

George

Yes, I can believe that. It's a shame that more information isn't available to the salesmen who are trying to meet the needs of their customers.

I can envision a scenario where one customer who wants a white car settles for a silver one, while in the next county a customer who wants a silver car settles for a white one, both because the salesmen involved told the customer that the car they actually wanted wasn't available. The result is two less-than-satisfied customers where there could have been two happy customers if communications were better.

As in any situation, the customer's best path is to do their own searching and not depend upon the word of a salesmen who says that a particular combination isn't available. As Cliffy1 stated, the desired car could be allocated to a dealer across town and the salesman wouldn' t know about it.

It falls back to hitting the phone or email and contacting dealers until you find one that has the car you want.

BLeeK

I've never seen a white at my dealer and it seems we couldn't get our hands on a silver auto for a little while so I went with my second choice (camo) and they had it on the lot..I've never seen Onyx Pearl (blue) on our lot as well.