Cliff, I'll lay you odds that the dealership's GM got a call from TMS in Torrance...

Thanks for reporting that!

 

You would win your bet. The guy knew my story (from my point of view) without me telling him. ☎

 

Happy ending for me. See new thread I just put up re my Whiteout: "All's Well That Ends Well"
IMO this thread is not dead. Ppl should continue to share their positive and negative experiences. . .good for venting and as a Public Service for all us consumers.

 

Tomas: you misunderstood my post. I know all about Scion and their silly Pure Price scheme. My point was that the reason Pure Price exists is because they claimed people wanted a simpler method of purchasing...that's why I detailed how simple other car purchasing is which highlights the absurdity of Scions statement. Even buying a Jeep Wrangler with its 1000 options is just like I described.

Now, instead of actually getting deals that even a simpleton could negotiate in mere minutes(a few hundred over invoice), we are forced to pay full retail that most likely only took $200-$300 off what would have been the MSRP had there been no such thing as Pure Price.

ex:
FR-S MSRP - $1210 over invoice with Pure Price
FR-S MSRP - $1400-1500 over w/o Pure Price

I based the $1400-$1500 part after looking at dozens of various brands on Edmunds from Mustangs to Miatas to Volvos. Most were around $900-1400 over invoice whereas all the Scions except the FR-S were in the $650-900 range mostly.

The best thing you could have said to make your point would be to mention Scion has no holdback. That does eat up quite a bit of the negotiating that other brands would recover after the sale. But it still leaves several hundred easily negotiated dollars that could be spent on accessories or options like a spoiler.

 

I wouldn't call this price gouging but when I test drove a FRS at Brown's Scion in Glen Burnie, MD they had already added about $500 worth of hideous plastic film to the hood and a cheesy bumper sticker. When I told the salesman that I didn't want either he told me that I could remove them with a heat gun. They also offered me $1000 less for my 08 XB (that I bought from them) than KBB and NADA say it's worth.

 

FISTPOINT & TÓMAS: you are both right. 1. Pure Price is a marketing move by Toyota. Their perceived marketing demographic has no taste (or prior experience?) in dealing with the auto sales culture and one goal of PP was to make the buying experience not a turn-off for first or second time car buyers. 2. A. second goal is to "protect" the dealer by giving dealers a Reason why they "can't" discount Scions. The dealer feels the "need" for protection because of smaller profit margin. 3. Toyota "needs" to cut dealer margins because the Scion tends to be better priced in terms of what the customer gets for the dollar. The Gen1 TC was a "loaded" vehicle with S/R, auto-up-down etc coming with the base and only model and was really, in it's way a mini Lexus.

All that said the free market exists and in a shortage of vehicles in high demand dealers will find a way to increase profit and get more out of the customer with high profit accessories and aftermarket add-ons (which frequently have a 50 point markup. And when stuck with vehicles in low demand the dealer will find a way to discount. He has a motive: for instance there is a direct relationship between a dealers TC sales and his FR-S allotment
Even in this shortage market I was fortunate to get some small concessions by taking out a checkbook and credit union pre-approval and saying hat I'm leaving soon with or without a new car and I'd rather leave with it, but that's up to you. (Took credit card for down payment which I get cash bonus for from credit card company and getting more reasonable with trade in ---- all of that not in violation of PP)