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That said, though I've not ordered a new vehicle, I would have thought the negotiating would have taken place BEFORE the order was placed.
As the other poster said, these cars have a very short 'on lot stay' - so you were left with little or no leverage.
You are the one who decided to "Waste" 4 weeks over an issue that does not exist.
Want to hear something funny? The Coupons for your 3 free oil changes are in the owners manual. All Scions come with them.
Even if you had to buy them, which you didn't, what would they have been, $75?
You really walked away over that?
SO -- would anyone here buy from this dealership? My next thought was: "ok, I haven't bought anything from them yet -- what if I do and there's something wrong with the car...? Since now they try to BULL me, what would be in the future>>?".
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Anyway, I bought my scion today at another dealer. Yesterday I called the new dealer and asked if it would be possible to give me 4 oil changes for free. He said -- "No problem, not only I'll give you 4 free oil changes -- I will add a key chain for free". I didn't even asked him about the free key chain -- he just offered it to me for free!
Another thing.. the upgrades. The first dealer told me "it doesn't matter at all" if I choose the options rightaway or AFTER the car arrived. The trick is -- they would charge me extra for installation. They DID NOT tell me it would be cheaper for me to order the upgrades at the manufacturer; when I asked them if I could buy upgrades, they told me "don't worry about it, you can buy it later"... This new dealer told me IN ADVANCE that it would be cheaper for me to order upgrades at the manufacturer... So I paid about $100 less overall for this car for the same options.
In addition, the first dealer sold me both cargo net and cargo cover option; today I found out it's not possible to install them both...
I'm hoping to receive my scion in 3-4 weeks. Yes, I lost 4 weeks, but gained more. IMO, of course.
tom
I don't blame you at all for walking away because the dealer was jerky but why put yourself in that position?.
Also, you already paid for 3 of those 4 oil changes since everyone gets them and they are not "free" they are simply pre-paid and built into the price of the car.
Your experience highlights why no one should ever enter a car dealer until after the deal is fully negotiated over the internet before you get there.
Only fools and masochists sit down and go back and forth in the shark tank.
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you beat my out the door by $230............good deal.
i too am getting ready to install the strut bar. i did buy a really nice armrest with storage on ebay for $99, i have no trouble with the seat belt, however you have a little bit of work to reach the parking break- but i hear that all the armrests block it about the same. i have had my xb auto for about a month now and am getting between 29 to 34 mpg. car currently has 1,300 miles on it. i have to use two soft towels each time i wash it- one to remove water, second to polish off streaks and spots. but it looks sweet and is worth all the effort! :shades:
p.s....does anyone know where i can order one of those windshield tint strips that is "smoke" color-see thru and just applies to the top of inside windshield by rubbing it on with a credit card. they use to be in all the auto part stores, but now i can't find any
Since the xB is geared low, you never have a loss of power in terms of interstate travel.
Also, they go with the car if traded and not used before 'times up'
Does anyone know if air is supposed to come out of the dash vents even when the air flow dial is set to "floor"?
Scion xB - Hip to be square
thanks,
kyfdx
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Any opinions ? Does anyone here have a BSP ? I'm afraid it's gonna be tough to keep it clean ? What about marks from car wash, etc. :confuse:
I really liked it and it's not easy to find a basic one. :confuse:
generally it takes me two towels to dry it after bath. one to wipe off water and second to chase the spots, but then it is beautiful. i just got back from breaking in my 06' on a 3300 mile trip. car runs great, mileage varied do to some big grades and strong headwinds. but on the flat lands, watch out...this baby loves to cruise at 80 mpg!
i love it more each day and bought a deluxe club for the steering wheel since these are popular for theft. i only run castrol oil in my toyotas.....well go to go due my first iol change now :shades:
To my surpise, even on-line, the "Documentation Fee" was ~$400 in NC, while Chicago has none. Plus, delivery was less. So I walked into the local dealer knowing this, and 45 minutes later I have a contract with a new 2006 xB thundercloud manual on the way. No options whatsoever, $14,420 - exactly as on the web. They'll look for one stateside, otherwise it may be up to 8 weeks to get one from Japan. No big deal. I'm patient.
They said it costs the same to have the cruise or a sunroof installed/ordered, now or when it arrives. I read here that this isn't true - why, and for what reason? Both of these are dealer installed anyway, aren't they?
They did add a "required $55 doc fee", but I didn't feel like wasting any time over that. There's also a "county tax" of $15 that seems unfamiliar to me (not sales tax!), but I'll figure that out.
So, the lesson is: A lower-volume dealer and location may charge higher "fees" on these, including via the web site (which quoted me about $500 more for NC over IL), even though you'd think they would only do this in the "high sales" urban markets. Not true, apparently.
I don't have the car yet, so I'm not counting my chickens, but so far it's the most painless car purchase I've made.
Has anyone here paid *under* MSRP for their base car (not counting accessories, I know they may discount those)?!?
TIA
Can someone advise me a bit on this please ? Sorry for the long post.
:confuse:
catscion6
Scion gives you 3 free oil changes - the other guy said "if it doesn'tcome in we'll make it up in service" ... hmmm maybe 3 oil changes?
They get their allocation every mid month.
They know when they get in to port.
They'll call other dealler and trade 1 to get 1
Plus frankly the dealship experience was so much better that the nightmare at the other place. Inspections are free with them for both our cars. Right now I'm going to go with them, but I really appreciate your response - Now I just have to get my other deposit back. Supposedly monday.
i do totally agree though, get your money- due a little research and make the drive, the car is worth it. they aren't the fastest but i truely enjoy driving mine 60 miles per day and get @ 30 mpg! :shades:
If it does snow, I plan to park the xB and drive the Corolla unless I get caught in it. That being said, any tires would be better and safer (in the rain, much less snow) than the Goodyears that came on the xB.
You are not going to see a manual in any color on any lot. Dealerships assumes everyone drives automatics. Actually about 90% of Americans do.
Like any manufacturer, they only have limited power against their dealers, but they do have tools to use.
for state sales tax rates.
Oregon, New Hampshire, Montana, Delaware, Alaska are listed as 0% sales tax..
Given that I am not a quiet sort of fellow, I wrote some people in Toyota. Specifically, every Regional Manager for the brand in North America. That got me an e-mail from a guy named David Christ, Brand Manger for Scion. Nice e-mails.
It is January 31 and still no car.
I forwarded my e-mails to the sales manager at the dealership. Per the advice of Mr. Christ, I am dealing only with him. His response was, "so, do you want to cancel your order or what? We have the ETA for this car listed as this week."
Let me repeat, I ordered this in October 2005.
There is a great chance that Scion's are great cars. I have no idea. A brief test drive with what has to the world's most gifted liar is my only experience with the car.
This has to be the worst dealership in the universe. :lemon:
Special Benefits Package (i.e. extra profit for dealer) 598.98
Sales Consultant Fee (i.e. extra pay for saleman) 250.00
Docment Fee 99.95
When I complained, they said I should check another dealer. I went to a second dealer about 30 minutes further away, and their fees were $547 less, so I signed their PO and gave them the deposit. For an xB with manual and no options, the total price out the door was $15,881.
I complained to Scion about the first dealer's hidden fees, and was told dealers are free to set their own prices but must post them. But the cars around here only show the MSRP sticker. Then some else told me that dealers do their "posting" on their websites, and sure enough, buried in the first dealer's website were all those high fees. I guess that satisfied the requirement for "posting".
My dealer said dealers in this region are invited to place their orders in mid-month just after an auto-ship departs Japan, for the number of cars allocated to them. They also get to "preference" certain details about the cars, and then get a confirmation. The cars take about 3 weeks to reach the California port, have some options installed, and be put onto various regional trains. Dealers nationwide can trade any cars before they get on the train, and after that, they can only trade cars on their regional train. All this is done on computers by the dealers and Scion/Toyota. My train will take about 2 weeks to drop cars along the route and reach Chicago, where my car will then go on a truck to Louisville. Total waiting time: at least 6 weeks. I will get three calls: first when the car is on the dock and I am told its VIN, second when it leaves the train and is ready to truck, and third when it arrives to schedule delivery.
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just got a thundercloud box home today. here's how it happened.
1. saw-test drove-loved
2. ordered-manual with cruise- deposited $500
3. haggle free- decided on MSRP+doc fees (170)+registration charges for MI
4. asked dealer if cruise ($395) was dash-integrated-said yes
5. dealer got the car from another dealer in 2 weeks
6. cruise did not have dash-integration- asked dealer why :mad: - dealer said he was mistaken- i asked for a $200 reduction from cruise- deal done- the car already had a full tank of gas as well
7. All in all a very good experience- i would recommend Dunning Scion in Ann Arbor (MI)- paid $15860 (out of the door)
When I got serious in February, I asked Oxmoor to write up a purchase order so I could reserve a car still in shipment with a deposit. Until you get a detailed breakdown on a PO, you don’t really know where all the costs are. The salesman drafts the PO and the sales manager has to approve it. The PO detailed a lot of fees, some of which were not called that. One line item was Special Benefits Package $600. I asked what that was, because I didn’t want it. I was told it was a dealer fee. Another item was Saleperson $250. The salesman said he was not on commission and that was his pay.
Since Scion is sold on a Pure-Price policy where there is no negotiation, I left Oxmoor. By looking at dealer websites under About Us, I later found that Oxmoor has $950 in fees, Toyota of Louisville (Swope) has $500, and Greentree has $400. I went with Swope because it's total fees were $540 less than Oxmoor's, plus I liked the salesman and the feeling of the place and the better physical plant. It is rather far out Dixie Hwy for me, but I don’t plan on going there often.
I doubt that there is a California inventory of xBs that some dealers can access and others can't. There is a limited supply, and demand is higher than supply. Each dealer is given a monthly allocation. Most of their allocated xBs are pre-sold with deposits while on the ship. Many of those that are not pre-sold are then traded among dealers while on the train or truck. Not many xBs reach the lot un-presold.
I have noticed that one dealer here seems to get more xBs and sooner. That same dealer has unusually high fees. It makes me wonder if there is a bidding process among dealers who want to aggressively get more cars than allocated, financed by the fees they charge customers.