Well, the g/f and I finally decided on an xD. I have been a Scion owner since '05 when I bought my xB and have loved it since day one. I'm sure the xD will be no different. What a great car for the money!!! No American car came close to what the xD had to offer.

The problem was trying to find one with VSC. She wanted Nautical Blue with the VSC, and a fast search showed the 5 available, the closest one being 100 or so miles from the dealership we went to. She really wanted a RS1.0 with VSC, but sadly, there are none available. No left over 2008's or new 2009's had VSC as the factory option.

She finally signed the dotted line for the blue with VSC, and that's where the "Scion buying experience" ended. I have NEVER seen, or been involved in such a bungled car buying adventure.

The Good:
The car was 100 miles from the dealership, and they arranged to have it driven the next day by using a dealer trade. The car arrived with no chips or scratches.

The bad:
Do not let anyone tell you the economy is bad and the car dealerships are suffering because there was not one Scion salesman that had any time for us. When we finally found one, in between cell phone calls, and landline calls, all our questions were answered with that "dear in the headlights" blank stare. Funny thing was, our salesman was always on the phone with someone else when selling to us, but after signing to buy, he never answered, or returned our calls when we called from home.

I watched in wonder as the broken showroom door swung open and closed in the wind. The only accessory on display was a set of sport pedals, and the only other car on the floor was a tricked out '09 xB that I would have loved. I checked out the truck display in this (supposedly) Scion dealership.

The car arrived early enough, but they only had time foe us just when the place was closing for the night. They rushed us in and rushed us out. Time to go home, and not much profit in those Scions, so lets' hurry up with this.

We asked for a set of floor mats to sweeten the deal. Nope. We asked for one of those little rubber flexible advertising key rings that every doctor, flower shop, and insurance agent gives you free. Nope. We asked for one of those cheap plastic dealership advertising license plate brackets that they ALWAYS put on. Nope. There were plenty of fake, plastic smiles, and limp wrist hand shakes, though. And yes they did give us one of those paper floor mats, so not all was lost.

We looked at each other in amazement as the salesman pointed out, and told us everything about how the gas gauge operates. The longest, most intensive part of the familiarization process was how we are supposed to fill out the satisfaction survey. Must be all "good", they said.

We got in the car and went home. Funny thing was, in their rush to get us in, signed up for the Toyota loan, and out the door, how to fill out the survey, they forgot to give us the pink slip. We drove away fat, dumb, and happy in a totally illegal, essentially stolen car with no proof that we owned it, and no receipt for the money down.

Yeah, we'll fill out the Scion Customer Satisfaction Survey, alright !!!

But at least we have a rare VSC equipped xD. We'll see.

 

LOL! enjoyed the read!

yep. not much incentives! but i did get the flexible key ring thing. lol
hurrah for vsc!




nice ride, now go buy a cabin air filter!

 

Wow... sounds like you didn't have a very good dealership/salesman. I had a good experience at ours, Koons Scion/Toyota in Annapolis. Actually, my salesman is a member here! They didn't seem too busy on the Scion side, but the Toyota side looked somewhat busy. I didn't get anything to "sweeten the deal," but I didn't ask for anything, either. I actually prefer the WYSIWYG car buying experience.

I had to wait about 2 weeks for VSC, too... actually, I had to choose a different color, because it would have been months for the one I wanted at first. Now I'm glad I changed to the Barcelona Red Metallic, as it had started to grow on me while I was waiting.

I'm REALLY glad I got VSC after this freak 10" of snow we got. They didn't plow my road for a day... it was acually kinda fun driving on a curvy, snow-covered road and hearing the BEEP BEEP BEEP of the VSC warning!

Speaking of which, if you do a lot of driving in the snow, you might consider getting some steelies with snow tires for the winter. The tires that come on the xD are SUMMER tires, not even all-season! And you'll quickly find that there aren't many tires that fit the stock 16" wheels.

 

^^^^^^^
Good job on the replies!!

The first things I (really and truly) was order a cabin air filter, and I went to 2 different dealerships and TRIED to find a set of (4) 16 by 6" steel take-offs. Nobody had any. The parts guy said they usually have some in stock and they usually get around $25 per wheel for them. They had some 16 by 6.5" though.

I put my name in and I'll continue to search.

When I got my xB, I got the aluminum wheels and it was like pulling teeth to get them to give me the steel take-offs that were rightfully mine. But I finally did and got 4 snows.

 

Don't forget that these cars (like ALL new cars) have tire pressure monitoring. More than likely, if you are getting take-offs, they are not going to have a TPS sender in them any more. You can use them, but you'll get a constant warning light at the very least. I don't know if there's any beeping that goes along with it.

 

wow, i think scion in hawaii is one of the few dealerships not getting slammed with low sales numbers. so they don't really have incentives like the other places. maybe a free gift card but that's about it. and with it's pure pricing, can't really ask for "free" stuff.

 

hmmm... sounds NOTHING like my experience in june/july-september.

toyota/scion of greensburg, pa. very friendly dealership, very friendly salesman, straight up (yeah right) honesty. asked for the floor mats too, but he said "since it's pure priced, i can't do that, otherwise i'd have to do it for EVERY scion i sell". ok at least that's honesty. i did get three copies of my key (one valet), three of those rubber key ring things, and some paper floor mats. LOL but he did keep me updated as far as finding an xD nautical blue. then when i said "blue or black are fine" he found me a black one in 1 week and kept me updated as far as location, delivery, and everything.

sounds like you got a bummed out sales man. i'd fill it out as "horrible, horrendous, and you're lucky if i ever come back for even service"

make sure you let the toyota/scion higher ups know that your experience was less than stellar, and a lot of improvement can and should be done to improve customer relations for that dealer.

 

Sounds like you need to get ahold of the area Scion rep and let them know about the dealership you went to. I have nothing but praise for my dealership and my saleslady added a bottle of **** Creek bourbon to sweeten the deal, gotta love a great salesperson, time for a drink.

 

now that's a deal!!!!

 

Yeah, she is a good friend of ours. i was suppose to get the first RS off the boat and that didn't happen, got the bottle for being patient and waiting until they processed the 5 spds.

 

Good post, but I have to disagree with some of what you said, or in reality, some of what your salesman said.

It the whole "Pure Pricing" thing. Here is what I think, and I am no salesman.

We went in there with the understanding that the CARS were pure priced and did not say a word about sticker price. But it is my understanding that the accessories are not pure priced. Once they are on the car, installed by the dealer, they are. But sitting back in the parts room, uninstalled, they have plenty of wiggle room on those.

Here's why I think that:

In all the dealerships we went into, there was always a Scion (tC, xB, xD) on the showroom floor MARKED DOWN from the displayed sticker price. How can you do that with pure pricing? Well, come to think about it, each one of those cars was completely loaded down with all kinds of installed accessories. From wheels, to billet grills, to the carbon fiber stuff. And all those cars were marked down. Why?

Well, the car sticker price themselves were not cut, it was the accessories installed on the car that were.

Point two:

If accessories were pure priced, then how can Scion let a Scion dealership, sell Scion parts on the internet for half the price that the advertise them for on the Scion.com website? Take the mats for example. Scion- $155. A fast search, you can find them sold by other Scion dealers, on the internet, shipped for +/- $75. That's not pure pricing. If it was, Scion would put a stop to it real fast. Just like they would pull the selling license of any dealership that offered a discount to the sticker price of a car on the lot.

Lawyers, politicians, and car dealers. They are all the same. But I bet a Scion dealer could throw in mats to sweeten the deal just as easily as a Saturn dealer could, and their cars are pure priced too.

I wish I knew. But the true answers are very proprietary information.

The cars, YES, the parts, I'm not so sure.

 

The pure pricing philosophy is there to protect the consumer. Meaning just because you can't haggle well doesn't mean you should not get a good deal.

In order for a dealer to break the pure pricing covenant, they would have to sell you the mats for $155 then turn around and sell me a set for $75 AT THE SAME DEALERSHIP.

Its purpose is to make sure that all identical vehicles and accessories on the lot are sold at the same price. If the dealer wants to blow out an accesory for $1 knowing they will never get anymore they can, despite the fact that down the road dealer Y is still selling it for retail. Understand?

That goes for cars too, they can discount xD's by $1000, so long as every xD is priced exactly the same, otherwise they are violating the pure pricing model.

Thats why currently all 2008 models on dealer lots are being sold @ invoice, which is a discount from their MSRP.

Hope that helps.

 

Lets simplify what Pure Price really Means.

By Definition: Scion's "Pure Price" purchase experience means no haggle, no hassle. The price you pay for all products and services offered equals the dealership's posted and advertised price. Price menus are clearly posted in the dealership showroom for all products and services. Dealers are free to set their own prices.


This includes the cars, the warranties, the interest rates AND Accessories as well.

As you can see it does not say you cannot as a dealer discount or mark down the anyone of those things. Most dealer just dont. Because then it starts a discount war and why should the dealers fight with each other when Scion has set forth a good structure.

Sorry to the thread starter for the troubles he had with how the salesperson handled the situation. I know here you get first class treatment always. VSC is a very thing on a xD esp in Blue. I would guess that is less than 3% of all the xDs built in your region are equipped like that depending on when it was built.

 

That is actually untrue to some degree. You can discount by transmission since that is the true model of a car. xD Manual 6233 and xD Auto 6232. If you disclose that you as a dealer will discount based on color you can do that too. Just has to be made public.

 

[quote=all our questions were answered with that "dear in the headlights" blank stare. [/quote]

Haha, has anyone ever found a car salesperson that actually knew anything about the cars?

When ordering mine she said there isn't a security system option. Oh, there it is I had to scroll down.

 

my sales men was the scion manager and he pretty much know the cars (xd, xb, and tc) by the book engine size, hp, weight, tank size and etc. plus he was really laid back and very cool.

 

Unrelated to the pure pricing experience:

my oldabrutha and his wife ALSO have a red gen 1 xB, and ALSO just added an xD to the family...in nautical blue, which was a pain in the ___ to get with VSC.

exact same transaction, except the toaster is hers and the rhino was for him. same colors, even!

you guys should hang out

 

mine was a toyota salesman, but i found out from one fo the techs who work at the dealership i bought it from that the salesman comes into the back area when trying to make a sale, and LEARNS the car. not just reads something then repeats. but actually learns the car. inside and out. engine, handling, tank size, accessories, etc.

after i learned that about him i respected him more.

 

TPS won't beep all the time. the light just comes on. you'll get used to it being there and whenever you pop the stockies back on, the light goes away. warranty won;t void or anything like that. just install your rims and enjoy the ride

 

I know what you mean.

When I did a search, I found only 5 blue with VSC. After she ordered, I tried to check again and get that goofy factory picture they take of each car, the one with the blue sky and cloud backdrop, e-mailed to myself. But by the time we got home, the number available had dropped to 4, and her VIN number and picture was no longer there.

It would have been nice to a have a picture of the car before it was ever ours, just as it rolled off the line, or off the boat. Or wherever they take that goofy factory picture.