OK, so I've had a few people mention their interest in my buying experience so I'll just share it with you all here, so here goes!!!
First a little background info.....I'm 26 and I've never had what I wanted from a car. However, I've always considered myself very blessed to have had the cars I did have simply for transportation sake, but in all honesty, none of them were cars that I would have picked out in a car lot full of cars. Still, they were all paid for and therefore I've never had to worry about a car payment. My last car was a 1995 Toyota Camry that I "bought" from my parents while I was still in college for $1! It's still in great condition and all, but I gave it to my wife b/c her '94 Mitsubishi was getting up there in mileage and years and wasn't as reliable as the Camry, so we traded b/c she has the longer commute to work. I took her car and we had already been talking about me getting something newer (and used) in a few months. Well........my patience wore thin quickly with her Mitsubishi and I made up my mind that I was ready to go ahead and pull the trigger and get something newer.
I initially started out by looking at the Tacoma. I, like so many others, have always liked the Tacomas and I liked them even better since the changes in the 2005 models. Ironically, I'm a huge opponent of buying any automobile in the newest year so I started out by looking at used 05/06/07 Tacomas (this was back in April). I found a couple that I liked at my local Toyota dealer and I went up there and test drove a Tacoma. I didn't buy anything b/c I had still yet to do my "invoice homework" and considering that I had never went through the actual process of buying an automobile; I wanted to read up and make sure I knew what to expect when I went into the dealer's "lair"!
Well, I did all of my homework and I drove to another local dealer who was a little further away and test drove a new 07 Tacoma. Even though I test drove the Tacoma, I knew that there was no way I was buying anything that night b/c I still was in the process of getting all info together to prepare myself for the battle with the dealer. However, I did allow them to think that I was some sucker and I went along with their cat and mouse game mainly b/c I wanted it for the experience and so I would know better what to expect by actually going through a "mock negotiation". Needless to say, I didn't buy anything that night and looking back on it, I said or did several things wrong that I would change now if I had to do it over again. Still....no harm, no foul and I did get the experience I was looking for and I got to test drive a good truck! One important thing did happen this night........I was exposed to the new Tundra and it caught my eye immediately, but at that point I didn't know what specials they had going on and I immediately shrugged it off as something I couldn't afford even if I did want to get one (I mean heck....I would like the Elanore Mustang, but I can't afford that
!!! As expected, I heard back from the salesman I had negotiated with on a Tacoma they had found blah, blah, blah......and then he mentioned something about how he remembered my interest in the Tundra and how they had a special financing deal going on with their Tundras (I'm in the southeast region, so we had the 0.0% for 24 / 1.9% for 48 or 36 / 2.9% for 63). I told my wife about the special financing they had going on and she just shook it off as a joke, but that was the point where I started playing with the numbers in my head. That was probably also the point where I started giving the Tundra serious consideration. Still, I thought it was a pipe dream for me and the Tundras b/c I knew if I got one, I wanted the CrewMax (naturally, I just have to have the most expensive model.....hehehehe).
Another week passed without much progress and I was still focusing mainly on the Tacomas. Then, one day I decide that I'm gonna go test drive a Tacoma and a Tundra just to see the difference. All I could say afterwards was WOW!!!! The Tacoma is a good truck in its own right, but the Tundra is clearly in a class of its own! At that point, my goal was to seriously work it out to get that truck for several reasons......I'm in desperate need of a truck (hence my search for trucks only and not sedans, etc.), I've never had what I wanted and I have a good job now and I had a little bit of money saved up, and most importantly, I could afford it!!! At this point April had come and gone and May was upon me and according to the special financing plan, I had until the end of May to finalize a deal and I knew that it would probably take me a month to get all things squared away, and it didn't help that I had just sold my wife's '94 Mitsubishi and the buyer was waiting on me to make a move!!!! I had to move quickly, yet efficiently.
Unfortunately for me, my schedule at work was only getting more hectic and I didn't have the time to devote to researching this out the way I wanted to. Soooo, I hired a service to get me competing quotes based around invoice on a 2007 Toyota Tundra CrewMax SR5 5.7L V8. After about 3 days, they had me competing quotes from 9 dealers throughout my local range (local meaning a 2 hour drive). They actually spoke with 11 dealers and 2 refused to play along and another I had contacted myself refused to bid as well (not suprisingly, the closer you got to Atlanta the more stupid the dealers became
. Along with getting me competing quotes, they listed out all holdbacks and rebates for my particular Tundra.....which there are none except for the typical factory-to-dealer holdbacks. I also got an invoice breakdown with all options (even one's not available to southeast customers), but looking back at it now, you can really find out most if not all of that exact info on the internet. Still, it helped me out b/c of the constraints on my time at work and all.
From here, I narrowed it down to the top 3 and went from there (the top bid was alone in their bid while the 2nd and 3rd place bidders quoted the same price). I made contact with my top bidder first and dealt exclusively with them at first, but the dude that I had been talking with wasn't very reliable when it came to getting you info on truck availability dates, prices, etc. and the sales manager that was my listed contact from the service I hired was out of town most of that week. Realizing that I wasn't getting very far with bidder #1, I went to bidder #2 (who happened to be local and the dealership that I had my "mock negotiations" with on the Tacoma.....hence the #2 ranking). For whatever reason, I had 2 trucks found to my liking and honored quotes were handed to me in a matter of 30 minutes!!! Since I now had a backup plan I didn't feel so crunched to get a deal done with bidder #1 even though I still wanted to hear back from them b/c they still had the best bid. After what seemed like pulling teeth to get any info from bidder #1, I was finally able to get some info.........but b/c I wasn't dealing with my listed contact from my service I hired, he jacked the price up just b/c he thought he could I guess. So I told him he was off in his price (b/c I did have the invoice price right in front of me) and he said he would speak with my designated contact about it for clarification. That was my last conversation with that helpless salesman. Finally, I was able to speak with my designated contact and he was a million times more helpful b/c he was an actual sales manager and he was the one that gave the actual bid to my hired service. When I told him what his salesman had told me, he said to ignore him and for me to speak directly with him instead. And that was this past Friday night.
Earlier in the day on Friday, I had a few minutes at work and I checked out this one dealer that I had been talking with online about Tacomas who was not contacted by my hired service. I wanted to see if they had any deals on their Tundras. Much to my surprise, not only did they have a nice in-stock selection of CrewMax Tundras, but they also had their selling price listed which always was well below MSRP (but not quite invoice), but it was OK b/c I had a $500 coupon to use with the dealership that I had acquired earlier during my inquiries about the Tacomas. So, I call the guy and he talks to me for just a minute and I ask him to confirm the listed internet price on their Tundras and he does and I tell him that if he can come down off that even more by just a bit and remain competitive with my other bids, that we might be able to do business. He tells me that he can beat their bids!!!! I say OK, we'll see! I give him some info and he tells me to get back with him on Memorial Day. He reaffirms to me that he will beat those bids and have me a truck to my liking.....I just laugh it off and say we'll see.
By this time, I had worked it out with the buyer of my wife's Mitsubishi to get him the car this past weekend, which I did, but it put me in a terrible bind b/c I thought for sure I was gonna have it worked out by this time to have my new CrewMax, but that just didn't happen. So me and the wife drive up to a relatives for the holiday weekend and on our way, we stop off by bidder #1 and I speak with my contact for about 2 hours looking for me a truck (they had 1 CrewMax on their lot and it had all kinds of crap that I didn't want to pay for). We do find a few at other local dealerships, but for one reason or another it just isn't working out well to get it in a timely manner. I leave there a little disappointed b/c it is clear to me that it will be a month before I'm gonna have "my" truck. Well, I end up dropping off my wife's car to the new owner and I realize that I'm going to need a car - any car - and soon! So we work it out to drive back to my hometown (Birmingham, AL) and borrow a car from my parents. We head back to B'ham and get the car for me and on our way back to Georgia I get in touch with the dealer who claims that he will beat any of my other bids. This is on Memorial Day and he says they are having a sale going on and for me to drop by if we can. So I work it out with the wife for us to make an extra trip to this dealer.
We arrive at this dealership and my wife immediately points out a black CrewMax. As we approach it, we realize that it is a LIMITED and not an SR5 and just like before, me and her both immediately write that off as too much for us b/c my thinking was that surely no dealership would give me the price I would need for me to buy this Limited CrewMax. Well, as we are oohing and ahhhing, my guy drives up in a golf cart and we exchange pleasantries and I am quick to realize that this guy is a salesman, but he's the most laid back one I've met thus far. He gets the keys to the Limited CrewMax and we take it out for a spin and I let the wife drive it b/c she has yet to ride in one let alone drive one. We get back to the dealership and we pull around front and he says, "Leave it here. You're gonna be taking it home in a while!" I just laugh and say there's no way unless..........he come down way off that sticker......waaaay off that sticker! He says, "Let's talk about it and see if we can't come waaaay down off the sticker!" Needless to say, he comes way down off his sticker price and I end up paying 'Dealer Cost' + 4%, which according to everything I've read is actually better than what is normally considered a fair price to the dealer. I should mention, I consider 'Dealer Cost' as the invoice price minus any holdbacks and dealer incentives. They did tack on $310 of hokey dealer fees, but I still made out like a bandit (IMO anyway) when all things were considered. So instead of an SR5 CrewMax, I end up with a Limited CrewMax and I'll be making roughly the same payments I would have been making had I purchased one of the SR5's that I was looking at through other dealers (mainly b/c of added options and such). Now the Limited I have doesn't have all the special little things like Navigation system or a moonroof, etc, but it has EVERYTHING that I wanted and then just a little above (leather seats, JBL system, fog lights, etc) and I'll still end up paying the same for it that I would have an SR5.
Sorry for the very lengthy post, but several of you wanted to know, so now you know. I'm willing to share the names of the dealers I worked with, but only in private discussion. I will NOT reveal what their bid was, but I will say that all of the dealers I considered were no worse than $750 above invoice (dealer fees usually bumped that number up a few hundred, but that's up to you to negotiate down). Also, if you wish to contact any of these dealers, I will give you some contact info and if you do end up purchasing through one of them I request that you mention me as your referral source as I would get a referral check (that I would simply apply towards the price of the truck) and as a sign of good faith, I will split the referral check with you 50/50.
Feel free to e-mail me.........
Dealers in, FL, GA or AL ?
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