So i sit here trapped in my hotel room in Kennesaw, GA (20 miles north of Atlanta) away from home (Melbourne, FL) learning a new computer system. It's 32 degrees outside and after about 3 hours of snow now the rain comes. i wonder how my rental Kia Rondo will handle the roads tomorrow?

3 years ago I traded in my 2000 solar yellow MR2 (I loved that car!) for a 2005 Tundra double cab because we (my wife and I) were planning to buy a boat and a house. A truck was a practical solution, Tow the boat and haul what was needed for the house. We decided later we are way too busy to use a boat. The brand new house "inprovements" from my darling wife are now done. I decided last week I've had enough of driving my behometh. Time to shop for a new car! This 6 day trip gave me the perfect chance to research a new car. After many hours reading, configuring, pricing, reading reviews, and going back again to reread reviews, the xD is my car of choice. I hook up with my local dealer and holy crap! they are getting the EXACT car I want Friday or at least it is available for delivery on Friday the 18th. I went to the Scion dealer here last night and one of the salesman was very happy to show me the car even after i told him I was from out of town and defintely not buying from them. He was even going to allow me to test drive it but it was about 36 degrees outside and I was freezing ( I spent last weekend surf fishing getting sun burned so this cold weather is not for me!). I declined but loved the car. The xD was grey but a blue tC was parked behind it. I loved the car and color.

As an MR2 owner I frequented www.spyderchat.com and even have an archived article on there about my exhaust install. I've been reading this forum mostly since it seems the most active. I'm 40 but I guess I can call myself the young at heart crown because I do still like the music to thump and the car to go fast. 0-60 at less than 6 seconds was quite fun!The Tundra is quite fast on dry roads but slippery like a greased pig with any rain and no fun to drive no matter the road conditiions. Please entertain me with your knowledge on the following questions

1. My xD has the premium audio upgrade. I'd like to get a small out of sight sub if possible, Any suggestions?

2. I know Scions are sold at MSRP. I don't expect to haggle price but from reading it seems mixed about dealers valuing trade-ins. How much haggle room is there? I definetely want an xD but i'm willing to wait or visit multiple dealers to get the best trade-in deal.

3. A good site for aftermarket parts. Mainly for performance parts. I saw some overlays on Bat's site that llok nice but for me it is the drive and not the exterior appearance. I aslo liked M2's darkened hood ornament. I'm not a wrench monkey so I need easy to install pats. nothing that requires cutting!

Thanks for hour help and I hope to add to the community with pics and upgrades as they happen.

 

Hey Gator! Congrats on getting the xD! I recently just ordered mine and am still waiting on it to come in. So, unfortunately, I can't answer all your questions....but as far as haggling and trade in value goes.....when they appraised my trade-in they were supposed to give me the full value....and then my salesman went back and said it wasn't good enough. So they gave me a whole $200 more. So I know that they *should* give you a pretty good value right away!

Hope this helps!

 

That is good news! I'm buying my scion from the dealer that sold me my Tundra. I hope to get a good offer. This will be my 3rd purchase from them so I hope I have gained some loyalty . My truck was in great shape until a freaking public works crew were cutting teh grass beside my route home. I heard a real loud bang and thought I had a catastrophic tire failure on nearly brand new tires. Truck drove normal so I had no idea what it was until I got home. Nice ding in the right rear passenger door! I thought back and remembered seeing the road crew off the side of the road. I'm fairly certain that is where my damage came from. Life goes on and I'm getting a new car!

 

Well, I can't help with a sub or trade-ins, but I did get some parts/upgrades from scionpartspeople.com. (TRD sway bar, air filter, etc.) I found them to be cheapest for most of the TRD parts, and shipping was quick and reasonable. trdsparks.com is another retailer that seems to be respected here, and their prices were competitive also.
You've probably noticed this, but it's far cheaper to get the parts/upgrades aftermarket if you can install them yourself, rather than paying the dealer at the time of the purchase. The sway bar, for instance, was $250 as an option, or $150 aftermarket. Installation involves a grand total of 4 bolts, and took about 20 minutes, including jacking up the car and removing the wheels. That's worth $100 in my book.
Hope this helps,
Andy

 

When I traded my 1999 Corolla in for my xD, they seriously tried to give me a crap price. I know what that car was worth and the dealer didn't really seem to care to offer more for it. Then I told them that I could get the xD at another dealer who already offered me a better price, was just there since it was closer. It was total BS about the other dealer, but they went for it and paid my Corolla off entirely. Just be sure to know what you can get for your Tundra and refuse until you get what you want from them.

 

GL

 

After a complete fiasco at the dealership over the weekend (they sold the car I had told them for 5 days I wanted and even offered to place a deposit on) I’ve got my nautical blue xD. I love it. I paid MSRP for it and probably accepted too little on trade-in of my tundra but I did get an extra $1000 over their initial offer. I'm glad the truck is gone. They wouldn’t budge one cent on $599 of “dealer fees” of which $99 is reflective pin striping that really went to crap on my tundra and looked horrible. I told the salesman even if he can’t take it off the deal I would not buy the car if it had pinstripes on it. I won out. I got free carpet and cargo mats in exchange for the pin striping fee. I’ve been driving it for 4 days now and I am very happy with it. I’m still figuring out the quirky Ipod controls on the premium stereo. I’ve been driving an automatic for 3 years now so the first day with a manual was a little jerky but now smooth shifting. Acceleration is fine and today it poured down rain and I never flet like I was going to lose traction. The tundra was not fine in the rain with a v-8 and no weight on the rear tires. Now it’s time to personalize it a bit. Has anyone swapped out their map lights? I’d like to get some blue ones but I want to make sure the map light covers aren’t that hard to get off.