Just put down a deposit

I was on a hunt for a Nautical Blue Off Road Premium, but ended up "settling" for a Black TRD Pro. I found it for MSRP, so I couldn't pass it up. In Transit, should arrive in about a month.

 

Nice, congrats!

 

Don’t forget to post some pics when it comes in!

 

Congrats! Hopefully this dealer doesn’t pull that nonsense on you like the other guys.

 

Great choice!

 

Hopefully you have ink to paper so they don't pull any funny stuff. Friend got screwed with a 15K "market adjustment" after waiting for three months. He had nothing on paper.

 

Yes. I got a signed pricing sheet detailing price, taxes/fees. The only thing that's still pending is the amount of taxes, since I'm trading a vehicle - Maryland only charges sales tax on the difference between Sales Price and Trade value.

 

Be prepared to take home both vehicles if they low-ball you on the trade. I ordered a Tundra Pro at MSRP with no agreement on my trade-in price. They low-balled me and I told them I would just buy the new Pro and keep my old truck too. They thought I was bluffing and it wasn't until I was actually writing a check for the full purchase price of the new Tundra that the used car sales manager walked back into the room and ended up giving me another $1500 on my trade.

 

I already have a great offer from Car Max. and there's a Car Max 5 miles from the dealer. If they lowball me, I drive there, sell it to Car Max and come back and sign the check over to Toyota.

 

CarMax offered me $14,000 for my trade-in. The dealership offered $12,000. I showed the dealership the CarMax offer and they matched it no questions asked or debate at all!

 

Cool. Great plan.

 

Make sure you also account for the sales tax benefit from trading in vs selling outright.

$50,000 4runner @ 7.25% sales tax (in TN, use your state instead) = $53,625 || or $3625 in taxes.
$50,000 4runner @ 7.25% sales tax WITH a $25,000 trade in means $25,000 is owed, or $1812.5 in sales tax.

In this case:
Carmax means you'll pay $3625 in taxes.
Dealer Trade means you'll save $1812.5 of the $3625 in taxes.
That's a $1812.5 difference (the value of your trade changes this math)

If you sell it privately, you need to get $1812.5 OVER what the dealer offers you to break even. That's JUST to break even. The paperwork, flaky-ass buyers, and their garbage credit and dealing with the banks, title, and pay offs are worth something too.

 

when trade time comes, I plan to hit up Car max and a few other local dealerships, take all those offers with me to the yota dealership. See what they offer, then inform them of other offers. Your used vehicle is important to them right now, its going to make them more money than normal right now.

 

Exactly. Already figuring this in.

If the dealer comes within $2.5K of my Car Max offer, I break even - plus it's easier to get more leverage with the dealer this way. They plan to make a profit on my trade, so they could potentially reduce their margin on things like maintenance plans or extended warranties or even installing any accessories I may want to add on at the dealer.

 

When I traded for my SR5P back in July the dealer came in substantially higher than CarMax's hard offer. That sealed the deal right there. It was going home with me one way or another but it didn't come down to that.

 

Then you've done your homework. Going in prepared is such an empowering feeling, because you know how the process is going.

Best of luck, I hope you get it all worked out. It's gonna be a long month