I'm going to give y'all information about the process we go through to "order" a car. This will help you understand what we go through and I'll follow up with tips on how to work the system to ensure you get your car.

Every month, we get a "TVO Book." This is just a list of what cars are being delivered to our region the following month. It breaks things down by transmission, equipment and colors. For instance, in the Central Atlantic Region (CAT), we are getting 475 Scion tCs in the August order (delivery between late August to mid-September). Of those, 189 are manual. Of the 189 manual, 47 will have side air bags. Of those, 10 will be flint mica. So if you are looking for a flint mica manual with side air bags, you know that only 10 cars will be delivered to a region with over 100 dealerships. The chances of the dealerships you are at getting one of these as a random occurrence is pretty slim.

Twice a month, we get an allocation of cars. Based on the size of the dealership, we are given a certain number of cars. We don't know ahead of time exactly how many we will get each time. The allocations are generally on the 1st and 16th of the month, depending on where weekends fall. Allocations are never cut on Saturday or Sunday.

Prior to the allocation coming out, each dealership can tell Toyota their preferences. Its called a preference bank. We can tell Toyota that as long as we are getting a bunch of cars, there are certain configurations we would prefer. The higher up on the preference list we put a car, the more likely we are to get it. We are NEVER guaranteed to get a car on our preference list.

The morning after the allocation, we are sent a fax of the cars we got. We are told the color, equipment and transmission, as well as the day the car is due into the port. From that list, we assign the sold units to the customers from whom we have orders. Those sold units are locked in stone. Two days later, the new allocation hits our communication system called Dealer Daily. At that point, we can see what other dealerships received, except for the units they put in reserve for sold units.

This is when we start calling other dealerships to make trades. If I have an order for a car that I didn't get, I might be able to find a dealership who did get it and is willing to swap. This is a time consuming process and relies on personal relationships with other inventory managers. Its very hit or miss.

So what can a consumer do to increase his/her chances of getting a car sooner, rather than later? Find a dealership who is willing to discuss this openly with you. If asked by a potential customer, I will show them a list of my orders, along with my list of incoming units. I will also add a car to my preference bank while they sit in my office. Most dealers are not set up to allow this, but some are. If your dealer can't do this, just make sure to follow up with the sales manager just after the 1st or 16th to see how the allocation went. Ordering just prior to the allocations also helps because it keeps everything fresh in mind.

Another thing you can do is have more than one color request. If you must have white, you'll get it eventually. If you tell the dealership you'll take white, black or black cherry, you've nearly tripled your chances of getting the car sooner. To put this into hard numbers, here in the CAT region, there are 17 white manual transmission tCs coming without side air bags. There are 11 in black and 17 in BCP. There are also 32 flint, 36 silver and 18 indigo. Obviously, if you want flint or silver, you have a better shot than if you stick with white.

Are you getting the picture? If you order today, there is an allocation on Monday night and by Tuesday morning, the dealer will know if your car is inbound. If they didn't they have to make a bunch of calls later in the week. That process can slide into the following week. If no other dealership will give the car up, they have to wait until the 16th to try again. They can't tell you anything further until then.

I hope this helps you understand what is happening at your dealerships.

 

Good description for sure.

 

Cliffy1
I want to personally thank you for the great explination.
I am sure that this will help everyone out that wants to order a car, or has ordered a car.

We were told that my girlfriends BCP tc will be in between yesterday and Wednesday. It's coming to Kingsport Toyota in Kingsport, Tn

 

wow thanks alot! i love to know wot happens behind the scenes, was offered a job at a dodge dealer but i turned it down because of how far away it was from me... if there's anything else you've got the time to explain about anything please feel free! thanks alot! :D

 

Great info! Thanks!

 

Cliffy1

Very helpful.

Quick follow-up question. It looks like your dealership locks an order in stone after allocation is received.

Although it is a rare event (I think) I have heard that some dealers may take an alocated vehicle that was assigned to customer "A" and re-assign it later to maybe the General Manager's best friend or something like that even though GM friend placed their order later than customer "A". I went on to hear that until the car is physically delivered to a customer the order is simply a request for a vehicle, no guarantee until it is delivered.

Have you seen or heard of this happening?

 

Certainly possible. Most GMs are smarter than to do this, but I'm sure it happens. Our GM actually bought one himself and he had to wait like everybody else did. He also paid the same as everybody else.

 

Just a bump so the weekday crowd has a good read.

 

Thanks for the info, Cliffy1. I had been planning on a test drive on the 30th just because it fit into my schedule; as it turns out, it was a good day to order. I hope to hear from my dealer sometime this week.

 

My personal opinion. If something like that was to happen. The dealership does not have the integraty that it should. I have a best friend of the GSM that has ordered a car and he has ask me to get one right away. I told him that she has to wait until I fill the orders of the other people ahead of her first.

 

Great post, Cliffy. For us NON-salespeople, you took the mystery of how/when/priority the tCs are getting to the dealers.

Kevin

 

I thought a stork brought tC's

 

Good job~ Maybe this should be a "sticky"

 

I second that! :D

 

Thanks for the info; even though I already have my tC for a little over a week, I still appreciate this info greatly. Now if ALL scion dealers were like this.... But it good to know that dealers are moving in this direction in terms of philosophy and customer care.

 

Done. It should probably go into the FAQ, but it's a sticky for now...

George

 

Hey Cliffy, since the 1st of August was over the weekend, does this mean that all the delaerships are getting their allocations today? So when should I expect my dealer to know his next batch of cars?

 

Yup... allocation is tonight (8/2/04). Your dealership should be getting a fairly constant stream of tCs but the cars they get today were allocated a few weeks ago. What is allocated tonight will be here in late August to early September.

 

my dealer here in michigan said that they got a call from their toyota field rep and that field rep told them that they had a car available to fill a request for a customer.. that car turned out to be what i was looking for.. so the inventory buyer told the field rep that "yes we have a customer that wants that, send us that".. the dealer said the car had left the port in japan and didn't have the vin and they wouldn't know it until it reached the US port.. which would be about a week..

now here's my question.. is this out of the ordinary? since your post was the normal channel.. how different is my order?? does this happen? let me know..

 

Its out of the ordinary, but not rare. That's called a hand allocated unit and is normally a reward for the dealer.