Allocations are posted twice a month. Usually on the 2nd and the 16th give or take a day. Your dealer will post a preference for your car in the allocation system and its basically up to the dealerships District Manager to fill preferences or not. I happen to know the District Manager personally as a friend who does your dealerships allocations. So every time an allocation comes out and your vehicle is not on it you have to wait another two weeks at another shot. Usually an allocated vehicle is about 4-6 weeks from hitting the dealership lot.

If you wanted to accept one from another dealership on a trade thats not a bad idea. All of our "runners" or drivers who transport these traded vehicles are about 60 years old and dont have the leg muscle strength to exceed 40 MPH. Honestly I wouldnt fear a dealer trade. Erie to where your dealership is isnt even that far. At times we will do a "DX" (dealer exhange) with a dealership over 400 miles away...

 

The Manufacturer does not say we can't give a few perks to the buyer, just that if we give it to one buyer, then we have to give it to all of the buyers. Keep in mind that this process was designed around the first time car buyer that does not have the experiance of negotiating a car deal. This way an 18 year old kid can feel at ease that he just got the same deal as the more experianced negotiator.

 

Here is what confuses me. I have seen enough times where dealers add additional mark up to some vehicles. I saw it alot in the early days of the PT. People raised hell with Chrysler, but all Chrysler said was "We have no control over what the dealer charges. They are free to set whatever price they want. The MSRP is just that, a suggested price. So how does Toyota have so much control that this salesman panics when i want a minor service perk? I thought dealers were independent businesses?

 

If a dealer changes a price for a Scion deal $1 from the posted price even if its in the customers favor, the dealer will lose a percentage of vehicles in allocation. That is the punishment for the first three infractions and after that the dealers Scion franchise license is revoked completely for I think one year. District managers go to dealerships and pull out about 10 Scion deals from the past few months and will scrutinize them for compliance...

Scion doesnt mess around with the Pure Price rules. I have to be extremely careful about how every Scion deal is written up. Its serious business...

So yes, I can change the prices and charge whatever I want as long as its posted for a period of no less than one month. I cant simply change things for any customer who walks in the door...

 

Thanks for the insight Joe. I honestly didn't think it was legal for a MFG. to do that to an independent dealership, but i doubt a corp as big as Toyota would engage in illegal practices. The salesman didn't call me yesterday like he promised, so i will call him on Monday and tel him that i will pay the $60 and be done with this.
One thing i did notice odd though, was that the prices they are charging for the accessories are different than what is listed on Scions site. But not all, only some. I assume that is permitted.

 

Prices and fees here are only posted on the dealer websites, and some don't have the fees. You have to look under "About Us" or somesuch. Not something you would see unless you were looking for the dealer's phone number ;-)

They absolutely do adhere to the MSRP. But it's the fees that affect the bottom line. Fees at the three dealers here are $900, $500 and $400. The dealer with the $900 in fees tried to hide some - I asked him to write out the deal on the back of his business card, and he put down the sticker price and added "$600 Del". Later I realized that Delivery/Prep were already included in the sticker.

I did not see the full, detailed, price breakdown until I came back ready to order, and the salesman went off for a meeting with the manager and came back with a purchase order to sign. The "$600 Del" had changed into $600 Special Benefits Package". And there was a "$250 Salesman Fee". I walked out, and later I found those fees were indeed listed in their website under "About Us".

 

I would have walked out too. Thats BS. Did you ask what the "special benefits" were in that package? (or more to the point, WHO those benefits were for)

 

they charge for the installation on top of the already ridiculously high price of the accessories. the reason i'm ordering mine stock and ordering and installing accessories myself.

 

The term "Special Benefits Package" was an item on a pre-printed purchase order form used for all the cars at the dealer - Toyotas, Scions as well as used cars of all kinds.

When I saw $600 on the line by the "Special Benefits Package", I asked what was in the package because I didn't want it. I was told it was really a dealer fee and there was no other line to put it on.

Below that item, there was a line by "Accessories". I had not ordered any accessories, but hand written on that line was "Sales Person $250".

So the dealer and the sales person fees were $850, and the document fee was $100, for a total of $950 in fees.

 

DAMN! Now i feel like a schmuck for _____ing about 60 bucks. The dealer i ordered from isn't charging any fees like that. Reminds me of the 500-2000 bucks the DC dealers were adding to PT's when they first came out.

 

Yeah, that is insane. All the local Scion dealerships around here only have a $50 documentation fee (listed on their websites), and then just the regular delivery, title and license fees.

 

It would not be legal for Toyota to tell a dealership that they had to sell a vehicle at a certain price. What they did do was tell the dealerships that they had to sell everyone of their cars at the same price (whatever price the dealership wanted).

As far as Doc fees go, $50 is more than reasonable, anything more is B.S.. All that the Doc fee is used for is to pay for some one to process your paper work, including takeing it to the court house for registration. I would gladly pay $50 to not have to do that.

 

I can't remember exactly what the doc fees are on my order, but they were not unreasonable.
I called my salesman this morning and apologized for raking him over the coals. I told him that i would pay the 60 bucks for the tire changeout, and that it was settled as far as i was concerned. So now i wait...we will see if my car gets picked up in this weeks allocation.

 

Im getting pretty salty about the whole thing now. At first the dealer said be here before the end of the month. Last week it changed to no later than the first week of March. Called today to see if he had heard anything, now it 2-3 weeks away. Im sorry but I just dont understand the holdup. I mean they should be a little more informed from their own company. It seems they have no clue to when theyre getting it just making up times to appease the customer. I just want my car, Its obviously to much to ask for! Tired of waiting.....

 

Same thing is happening to me. I was told late February, and now they're saying 3 weeks. I ordered in early January. I just want my car NOOOOOWWWWWW!