Howdy,

So there's a bunch of TRD accessories that are designed for the tC, and I'm planning to get the following ones:

TRD lowering springs
TRD shocks
TRD Rear anti-sway bar
and the
TRD Quickshifter

I was planning to do these at the dealer to throw it into financing and 'cause I thought there was some warranty benefit to "ordering" my car that way via the dealer.

So... in placing my order, the dealer gives me the impression that they can't actually place the order that way, and that the TRD parts will have to be installed there at the dealer (which is kinda what I thought originally anyway).

And apparently the prices listed for the TRD parts do not include installation.

My question then is, since it looks like the parts can be had much cheaper through, say mcgeorgeparts or trdsparks, why wouldn't I just order it from them and have them all installed by someone outside of the dealership?

Is there still a warranty benefit or would it just be the benefit of the financing at this point? (TRD stuff carries a 1 yr warranty, right? And if it'd done as part of the new car purchase, it's 1 yr or whatever the car warranty is, whichever is longer right? though...with the extended warranties available, would the TRD parts warranties actually go all the way to the end of *those* warranties? wow.)

(and is it really true that, if I get it all done-by-Scion/Toyota, all those TRD things can't be done "at port" or whatever and needs to be done at the dealer (where they report a $198/hour labor cost))?

 

Hm, so I did a little homework, and here's TRD's warranty info page:
http://www.trdusa.com/Warranty.asp
Since all the parts I'm looking at are "Level 1 sport parts", it looks like I can get them installed whenever, and that I can buy the parts anywhere I want.

All that I need for the new-car warranty thing is to have them installed by a toyota dealer and those parts will be warranted for 1 year or for the remainder of any applicable new car warranty, whichever is longer.

Now if that includes any extended warranties I buy, that'd be icing on the cake!

 

What you should do is negotiate an installed price with your dealer when you're ordering the car. If you buy the parts elsewhere you will save money on the parts but the dealer will charge you through the nose for installation. Many people saved ~$100 on the TRD springs by ordering them online only to find that their dealers wanted to charge them $600-700 for installation. The same dealers probably would have done the whole job with parts for $400 if they had negotiated ahead of time.

 

hmmm... my salesperson keeps pointing me to the service department when I try to get him to get prices for me... whether it's installed prices or labor prices or whatever.

er... and they didn't think they could order the TRD parts with the car, so they left that stuff off, figuring to deal with them later.

Did I miss something I should have jumped on?

 

All prices on Scion.com for accessories that require an install have the installation figured in already.

 

right-o, at least all the accessories in the configurator, the TRD accessories listed in the brochure seem to be a different story, at least that's what the dealer seems to be telling me:

TRD Lowering springs, Quickshifter, etc. etc. I think there might be a little footnote somewhere on the site that does say that installation is not included with those types of accessories.

but please correct me (ideally with proof that I can pass on) if I'm wrong.

 

You can't finance the trd suspension parts with your car. I think you can only finance what can be accessorized on the scion.com website.