Dealership Experience - Price Mistake

Went to a dealership today with a friend, to help her buy a Rav4. They had 7 4Runners on the lot. Most I've seen on this lot in years.

Interestingly, the Rav4 Limited Hybrid had ...

Added markup: 2,500
Clear Shield package: 395
Etch: 297

Total sticker: 48,156

When we sat down with sales guy, did not tell him we were paying cash. Told him to give us his best offer with 3yr financing. He gave us $52,500 OTD.

We showed him print out of an Out the Door (OTD) offer from dealership in Socal which was $49,100 for exact same vehicle and actually a few more very minor accessories. Asked if he could match that.

He went to his managers and came back about 15m later and offered $50,100. We accepted. Then we told him we were paying cash. He said no problem.

Then we got handed off to another guy who handles the financing. He tries to upsell on warranty + protective film, and gave four different options for warranty which upped the price anywhere from 52.5k to 58k. We said "no thanks" and he tried the sales pitch again. We said "no thanks" again, and moved forward with the deal.

After going through all the docs and signing everything, he presents final document to sign. It shows the final price at the bottom and it's $2k higher than what the sales guy agreed to give us. Glad we looked close! Told him that's the wrong price. He went back to managers, came back with the right price and we went through all the docs again. She wrote the check and it was a done deal.

Got home and realized the dealership forgot to take off the protective wrap from the roof and tailgate. Ooof.

I was salivating over a new 2024 4Runner before we left. It was the soccer-mom edition though, but it looked so clean. Sticker said $56,596. So OTD probably in the $59k range.

Tundra inside the dealership had an $80k sticker. It was the Capstone Edition with the wacky interior color layout. $80k for a truck, gtfo. Crazy times we're living in.

They only had two Tundras and 5 new Tacomas.

 

$50k for a RAV is very nuts. Crazy times indeed.

 

Stop paying over sticker

 

Anyone who pays OVER sticker in this market is a damn fool. Almost all (note I said almost) dealers in the DFW area are offering discounts on 4Runners & Rav4's; as well as other vehicles.

 

You shouldn't even engage with dealers that have "market adjustment" or some other BS markup.

What I've found is only a portion of dealers in a given area will have that, what does that tell you?

Edit: not trying to make OP feel bad, if they're happy with the deal they got. But enabling them to play these games encourages the behavior where they just try to take more and more advantage of you.

 

Geez, are they living in the 80s? I don't physically enter the dealership until I have the deal in hand. Any serious attempt on the dealer's part to up-sell or switch is my cue to leave.

 

Asking for "best price" isn't going to get you best price anyway. I did that once not knowing better and got a printout with a price much higher than the internet price. (Chevrolet)

You might have luck starting with a price you like, adding in tax, documentation fee, etc. and asking for a certain OTD price but last fall in DFW I ran into outright markup, mandatory add-on packages (tint, some aftermarket security, etc.), mandatory accessories (trunk box, etc.), that Bronze Package that pushed SR5 prices above 50k. Had a salesman at one take my OTD price offer and switch it into the price pre-tax. He was good at his job, I was very impressed. I only went to three dealers though so you may have better luck driving to more.

Maybe it's softened since but I bought used.

 

That's what I did for my last 3 vehicles.

1) I had the price confirmed for the vehicle I wanted.
2) I got a firm price on my trade in.
3) I had financing in place and ready to go.

When I bought my 4Runner back in late Sept, I spent about...1hr at the dealership. 99% of that time was spent signing paperwork in the finance office. I don't do well with the back-and-forth crap that sales people try to pull in person.

 

It helps to find a place that actually wants to move cars, vs spend a lot of effort on each individual. And it may mean looking outside of Toyota dealers (if buying used).

 

That's really important. It's not hard to tell the difference. Dealers that don't move cars don't get allocation, which can push them into the death spiral of trying to increase margin on each of their shrinking sales. Dealers that move cars have wide networks and repeat customers and they're more able to get the vehicles customers want on shorter intervals.

 

This. If a dealer says you have to negotiate in person find another dealer.

 

Eh, it depends. Some salespeople are more willing to deal if you're there in person (maybe they are from the 80s too). You just have to be prepared to waste an hour or so and walk away if you don't like the price. (That last part is what gets most people, I think).

 

If they are from the 80s I would definitely not want to work with them. They still think they need to pull all the BS games the dealers play. All salesman are snakes , crooks, liars and con artist. They can never be trusted and this is why you never ever allow yourself to enter their area of expertise.

 

Agree with all points. The one down south was the lowest OTD we could find on the exact model she wanted with exact options. Toyota doesn't seem to ship many Rav4 Limited Hybrids to our area, because all but two I found were in Socal. And apparently they are selling well because several were sold before I could even reply to the dealerships emails from my initial inquiry. Lowest OTD we got from any dealer was $49.xx and highest was around $53 which is just insanity. This one had the most expensive option package, and usual extras like mud flaps, door sill protectors, blah blah.

After seeing the $80k Tundra and high 50s 4Runners, already not looking forward to buying a new 4Runner. That is going to be a serious chunk of change.

Also, the sales guy tried to get her to finance instead of paying cash. His pitch was 'did you know CDs are 5% right now? You could put extra money into a CD and earn more on the difference between our interest and ... '

I thought, now dealerships are giving investment advice? WTF?!

And for what its worth, my friend is a multi-millionaire and has trust fund money after her father passed. Her last car she kept since 2005 and this one she said she'll keep for at least 10 years. She didn't seem to be sweating a few extra dollars.

 

Sounds like marriage material.

 

Rav4 Hybrid Limited

Most expensive of the seven Rav4 hybrid models.

 

I figured the prime would be the most expensive, depending on trim. The base prime is probably less, but I would expect the higher trim primes to be the priciest.

 

Yes, but I said 'of the seven hybrid models'.

Models
Rav4 - 6
Rav4 Prime - 2
Rav4 Hybrid - 7

For total of 15 different versions.

 

California sales tax + district tax, and all the stupid extra CA taxes like CHP (highway patrol) who got ~$35, road tax, etc. It adds up fast on more expensive vehicles.

https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a31553567/california-vehicle-tax/

 

Fair enough, Rav4 plug in hybrid. Sometimes I’m a little slow on the intake.

 

Lol I get slower every day.

 

I call it the Closing Room. That's actually where the final deal is made, whether you are paying cash or financing. That's where they try to sell you all the add-ons.

 

Paid 27k and change back in 2019 for the wife's (non-hybrid) RAV4 Premium, before all the craziness.

 

More like the Panic Room, am I right.

Some off the most off the wall conversations I had while being a Technician was when Finance came back into the shop to impart their intimate wisdom upon us plebes while hotboxing a cig. Learned a lot about people that knew everything during that time frame..

 

I hear ya, but buyers are indeed still going gaga over the Rav4 Primes for some odd reason. Maybe people really hate gas stations that much.

 

I don't bother with 2 and 3. 1 is all I want to know before driving somewhere.

I have yet to find one dealer who can beat CarMax offer with their trade in.

 

Paid $42K for my 21' ORP/MR - also just before the crazy pricing started. Glad I bought when I did.

 

LOL !!! Yea, you're probably right. Sort of like the traditional bait and switch. The salesman throws the bait out, and the finance guy tries the switch.

 

When the finance guy gave me the papers to sign, the bottom line was $182.00 more than I agreed to with the sales manager. He blamed it on some BS tax. I told him "That's your problem, not mine." He fixed it. They'll work you until the very end, hoping to wear you down.

 

Wow. The games the finance guys play are atrocious and despicable. When the finance guy tried to pull a $2k+ higher price on us on the final paper I would have walked and probably told him to eff off. But it wasn't my purchase.