Hello:

The Wall Street Journal had an article in yesterday's paper called Hot Off the Lot.
It was a listing of cars that had the shortest duration on a dealer's lot.

Rankings:

Prius #1, 6 days on lot
xB #2, 7
tC #3, 8
xA #4, 9
Civic #5, 12

Actually of the 11 cars listed, 7 were Toyota related products.

Thought this was very interesting, and wanted to share...

HB

 

Didn't the WSJ do this 6 months ago, with the same results.

What it shows is another question:

Personally I think it shows under or perfect supply volume, rather than popularity.

 

I understand the Prius being #1, that is one high tech car for an excellent price - and it gets insane gas milage. If it wasn't so ugly I probably would have gotten that myself.

I love my xB though Beauty and gas milage - that's where it's at.

 

The WSJ does this feature monthly. Last month TC was #1 on the list.

 

What makes it even more fascinating is that those cars at the top of the list are NOT discounted - they sell for list price or more...

There are other manufacturers paying people thousands of dollars to buy their vehicles (we've all seen the TV ads offering up to $10,000 off list price of some vehicles by Ford and GM)...

Years ago when we were going through another spate of over-priced gas-guzzlers vs good value for money gas sippers (about '73) I recall a huge banner across the front of the dealership I shopped at (selling cars at list or above): "We don't have to bribe you to buy our cars!"

Some vehicles are just 'neat' enough to sell well even if a poor value - at least for a while. Eventually, though, I believe that those vehicles with a better long term value for their price will stay at or near the top.

 

This kind of management is why Toyota is so profitable. . . a major COST in the auto industry is the huge amount of time a car can sit on a dealer lot. Discounts are costly, and are often needed to get huge inventories off lots. JIT, baby, JIT. Toyota pioneered it, and it pays off.

 

Over here in Louisiana, after hurricane katrina, I purchased my 06 xb, but there werent any scions on the grounds at the dealership. they told me that the cars were selling before they hit the lot, and in my case, I didnt get to see mine till 2 weeks after I ordered it. So technically it didnt sit on the lot even a day.
These are just too good of cars.

 

whats JIT?

 

"Just In Time"

The system where inventory doesn't languish on the lot, in a warehouse, or in the stockroom, but is scheduled to arrive "just in time" to meet a projected need.

 

pretty much same here in ny, well atleast the biggest toyota dealer in my area.

i jsut saw the regular not for sale show room car, and said i wanted it, 10 days later got my tC.

 

When I brought my TC had to wait weeks for it, the day the dealership got their shipment, my TC was the last one to be picked up, I was at the dealer within 4 hours of the cars arriving.

When i asked the ales guy how long before the next batch he said he could sell 30 today (he had that many on the waiting list), they didn't get another TC for 6 weeks.

JIT is good, but sometimes you can btoooo JIT about things. :D

 

The man is right. Warehousing is a MAJOR expense in all major sales-based industries.

 

The irony with scions, is just crazy. I had bought a new 04 BSP xB, the month after they were released on the east coast, and no salesman wanted to sell it to us, they pushed this new kid, who was very nice, to sell them. Most of the "big wig" salesman didnt think that scions were gonna last, but buy the end of the model year, they were clammering to sell scions because they were the hot button. so what im saying is how scions people really had no faith in th brand until they started to fly off the lot and truck.

 

Just goes to show only the uninformed buy a discount. I know when I'm car shopping I'm buying a vehicle, not a rebate. GM and Ford couldn't pay me enough to buy one of their rolling junk piles.

 

really?

I see more new Civics than I do xAs or xBs.

Probably just in my area.

 

I was lucky enough to call the dealership a day after someone had backed out on buying their TC. I got down there within hours and picked it up! The other dealership I had dealt with had told me 3-4 weeks to get a manual BSP TC.

 

It's interesting with supply in different regions, in Houston the lots are full of them.
I bought my box the end of April, it had a February inspection on it.
It was also discounted about $50 because it had invoiced prior to a price increase in mid-February(?).
There were several to chose from and mine had 2 miles on the clock.
I've heard of people waiting weeks/months to get one...

WW

 

The statistic doesn't say anything about quantities.

It is only about how long the car is on the dealers lot.

The last time this was brought up in the summer I gave the hypothetical example:

Comparing Scions on a lot for 3 days with Mustangs on a lot for 6 weeks, means nothing apart from supply, especially if in that period you sold 50,000 mustangs and only 2,000 scions.

Just becuase Toyota has a tight grip on supply, does not mean the cars are popular, common, highly in demand, good.

 

You bring up a good point, and what you say is 100% correct. The fact that cars don't stay on the lot means only one thing: they run their business VERY well.

 

Actually, that behavior has nothing to do with the Scion marque. That has to do with the fact that you are 17 (too young to buy by yourself in any state), and Scions are pure-priced new cars.

Regardless of if its ethical or not, salespeople profile customers. They sent the new guy to you because someone has to wait on you, but the big people only go for "guaranteed" sales.

And regardless of if you buy or not, salespeople don't get much money from Scions unless they are LOADED with accessories. A typical Scion on the lot grosses $600 to $800 and from that, sales people deduct their comission. A "big" sales person goes for used cars on the lot and high ticket new cars with higher grosses.

I have my position at my dealership because no one wants to deal with Scions unless its already "sold" and they just have to do paperwork since the payoff of doing a Scion deal is so much less than other cars around here.