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A salesman at Momentum Toyota of Fairfield was prompt in keeping a morning appointment for me to check out a Whiteout FR-S he told me on the phone was on the lot, being detailed and available. I tooked at and drove the car. There was a price sticker on the car at MSRP.

I asked to have my car looked at to determine trade in. A manager appeared with a "write up” of the proposed sale. The trade in was lowballed and the MSRP was marked up by $3,000. I told him I would buy the car at MSRP & not one penny more and that I would buy with no trade-in if they didn't want to pay more for my car.

Manager went away and came back and said, "I talked to general manager and he said because of the misunderstanding I will sell the car at MSRP." I reached for my checkbook and said, "Great, I'll take it." He said "and you are trading in your car?" I said I would but would keep it if they could not make a better offer.

He told me no soap; I could only buy the car if I traded in at their (lowball) offer.

I walked. On the drive home it occurred to me that this car was available for sale because they were screwing a few customers who had pre-ordered at MSRP.

Not nice. The car is nice, loved it and the Whiteout looks even better in person than in photos.

What are your experiences with this issue. Past and present.

Roller_Toaster

iTrader: (1)

I had something similar happen to a friend who was planning on trading in his 2011 xb on an frs. The thing barely had 10k miles on it, and they wanted to give him (as much as makes no difference) nothing for it. Then when he declined trading in and just wanted to buy the frs, they said his credit didn't qualify anyway. Why did they put one on reserve for him then? They had already prequalified him and everything!

What?!?

Random, but I wish scion would offer the "tuner" version. nearly $3k cheaper and comes with steelies and black bumpers.

TeeCizzle

So did you get it?..Guessing since you posted the key picture?

cloudgif

No, TC, I didn't get it. I had my checkbook and a letter from the credit union pre-approving up to sixty months at 1.99% but I could not bring myself to encourage this kind of sleazy hustle.

XPRESSCION

I kind of KNEW this crap would of happened with these few built numbers and preorder.

I'm glad I went with a xB afterall...

Jon

Production has been increased to 100k units (FR-S and BRZ combined) for the 2013 MY so it doesn't have anything to do with that. Dealers are just trying to find a way around the Pure Price program.

13edge

It's new car dealers. I'm surprised it took 8 years for Scion dealers to get like this, but it's expected. It's the same reason why my xB is the last new car I'll ever purchase. It was nice to have a great car, at a great price already... no nonsense, just walk in with a Piggly Wiggly bag with exact change, and drive out 40 minutes later. Now it's back to law of the jungle.

XPRESSCION

^^^^^This is why I'm THANKFUL that I live 20 minutes away from one of the new Toyota
Carmax locations.

I have allowed them to sell me the three new Scions I have bought within past 6 years. And from the same sales consultant. They haven't gave me the "run around." Both on consultant & manager levels. When I bought the box last February, they arrange me 4% APR loan when I just bought a house back in August and other banks were offering 12-15%.

Syldrin

iTrader: (1)

i'm glad i know a sales manager at a dealer in colorado.

ToyoKev

Ok, Here is my story. I ordered my Hot Lave in March and car arrived this past thursday. I test drove same night and I drove it home saturday. The dealer in my area never gave me and hassles at all. I payed MSRP as I knew I would with no pressure to buy any add ons and other crap and as far as I know I am the only one with this car in my area. My point is that my central Pa dealer was Exeptional in the way I was treated with this sale and I am impressed acually. They treated the car as if it was made out of glass and I could not be happier

cloudgif

That's great that some are hooked up with ethical dealers.

The hustles that are going on right now IMO do not relate to old or new dealers. Just to whether their greed overcomes whatever ethics they have. _In a month or so supply will meet demand and it won't take an inside line to a good dealer to be given the privilege of paying MSRP.

That said, Toyota's Pure Price is a little misleading. If you read the fine print it says the car sells for the price the dealer puts on it. In my situation if MOMENTUM of Fairfield had their gouging markup on the sticker or otherwise listed or posted or displayed they would be technically legit as far as Toyota is concerned. But Toyota has published the price and the dealer had the published price on the car and the games only began when I said yes, I'll take it.

Dealers use the Pure Price policy (when there is not a shortage of product) to claim that Toyota won't let them discount when in fact they are not prohibited from discounting.

I bought my Gen 1 TC from a friendly dealer at $200 over dealers cost and he gave me a copy of his invoice. And that was "no haggle." He's moved on to another biz.

ToyoKev

I hear your pain. I moved out of the NY metro area where the dealers played all kinds of games to a smaller medium size area in central PA. I guess I just got lucky that this Dealer happens to play by a higher standard than others.

Lengendary

im a tech currently at hyundai and cant seem to ever get along with the sales guy, i wish i knew a sales manager. that would definitely be a plus to the hassle free.

boostd4

Those Momentum dealers in Fairfield are complete slime operations. They are simply trying to leverage the "newness" of the FRS. I remember them trying to get $46K for the normal Evo X GSR...

r2d2michael

lol when i bought my rs6 xb2 off the show room floor my sales guy could hardly speak English.

XPRESSCION

Maybe I'm lucky and just ran into a special car sale shopping guardian angel when I was buying my old xA back in '06.

The salesperson is woman who has been selling cars for least 16-18 years. I've seen her customer address book; the thing is HUGE. Most of those customers will come back for another vehicle once their done with that loan & always asking for her. She must know a trick or something; if she's been in the same sales desk @ the same dealer for that many years.

----

Back to the topic; I wonder if I can get a good offer on the '12 RS 9 xB! LOL

Tomas

Please, call Scion at 866 707 2466 and tell them when you run into a sleazeball dealership or salesman.

Have as much information as you possibly can (dealership name, address, phone, salesman name, posted price, asked for price, required trades, etc.).

Only if Scion keeps hearing about dealerships not toeing the line can they get in there and kick some butt.

Help everyone out, report that kind of stuff.

http://www.scion.com/buy/pure_price/

fistpoint

Buying cars is not difficult folks. With websites like Edmunds and KBB, al you need to do is add up everything you want at invoice, and come to a random number between it and the retail price of all the items together.

Then tax it, and add another $125 for Title and License, then round up to the nearest $50-100 and you're done. All this can be done in the comfort of your home and by phone calling all the dealers until one accepts your offer.

"Hello, Clusterfockme Scion?", "I'll give you xxx drive out price for that tC/FR-S" "no?" "thanks for your time"...rinse and repeat.

How difficult is that? You meet your salesman AFTER you've made the deal. I bought my last 4 cars this way, 2 from another state even. ____ Scion and their "pay full MSRP or ____ off" Pure Price garbage.

Tomas

Fistpoint, you are right for most new cars out there, but not for new Scions.

What is difficult about that, Fistpoint, is that per the contract the dealers have with Toyota Motor Sales, the importer of Scions, they are required to sell new Scions at the posted price in the dealership, no more, no less, to any and all customers. That's what the "Pure Price" system is all about.

The dealer markup on Scions if one of the lowest in the industry, leaving no room for "haggling" the price down, and even if there were, it is not allowed by the contract with TMS.

What is the possible "punishment" for not following the Pure Price rules and sticking to their contract with TMS? Not getting any Scions to sell or even losing the ability to sell Scions.

You can play your pricing games over on the Toyota side of the dealership, or on any used cars, but new Scions are supposed to one price for everyone who buys one from that dealership, and that price is supposed to be clearly posted in the Scion area of the dealership.

If a dealer wants to jack the price up $3000, that's just fine. Post it. It is that price, the posted price, for everyone, and no discounts, no "special deals," no haggling.

This is why anyone running into a dealership or salesperson trying to get away from the required "Pure Price" selling of Scions needs to be reported, in detail, to Scion (TMS).


http://www.scion.com/buy/pure_price/

cloudgif

Report is in fact what I did. I was called a few days after the event (see my initial post at the top of this thread) by the customer relations manager who seemed straightforward, was not interested in questioning the facts and said what happened was wrong and that is not their policy (to jack up the price above the posted price.) He followed up with an eMail in a couple of days asking if I was still interested and if I was I could deal directly with him. I told him to call me if he learned he was going to get another car that was painted in my preferred color. It's a tossup. I haven't heard from him (Yet?)