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Comments
Thanks in advance.
I had one fleet manager who offered me a HL at about $550 over. He said that if he sold me the car for that price his boss would chew him up and spit him out. Then he said that when he told his boss that I lived 100 miles outside of his selling area, that his boss would pat him on the back and take him to lunch!
I found that the 500 to 750 over range was not rare, especially from the volume dealers.
No, I do not think that an email is as effective. There is a pretty good article here on edmunds that explains why. Basically, it takes more effort to find the fleet managers name and fax number, print out personalized letters and to fax them, than it does to send an e-mail. The dealers tend to see the fax as a more serious offer to buy. The article also gives the authors experience of the fax attack. I will give the address at the end of this message.
I basically greeted the fleet manager, listed the model and options that I wanted with invoice and MSRP, and told them that I was ready to buy that day. I also said that I would place an order and wait the 90-120 days if it meant getting the vehicle that I wanted.
I think I faxed out 40-something letters. I probably got 20 responses, and 10 of those were better offers than I really expected to get.
Fightingchance.com will sell you a report on any vehicle and with it they will walk you through the fax attack strategy step-by-step. That is how I learned the idea. Would I recommend the $24 report? Yes (because I am an info junkie). Is there enough information in the edmunds article to do the job? Yes.
Good Luck
"http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/45107/article.html" target=_blank>http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/45107/article.html
Looking for V6 2wd with Leather, privacy glass, roof rack, console. Best quote so far was 26,660 (but I still have to decipher it to find out what's missing). Also confused with the packaging. I understood leather option to include the 8 way power seat, but every dealer I talk to includes the latter as another option (and I can't tell yet if it's extra $$$). Thanks
>>Srbo, I've got a slight and randomly occurring click coming from the back also. With the help of my brother-in-law, he was able to narrow it down to the rear wing. A slight push up or down on it to simulate a strong wind or air flow generates a minor clicking sound, almost like the two or three plastic inserts in the cargo area might be rattling (our first suspicion). Don't know if this IS the same noise you're speaking about but it IS the source of our "clickity-clack". I'm adding this to the list for the dealer to fix. Good luck. BTW, our HL is a V6 2wd Limited.<<
I purchased my HL the month it came out from Ron Goode Toyota, the sales rep. was Jerry Sr. No hassle negotiations, and excellent service from my experience and others. Call them< they are in Alameda. They are only 20 miles from SF, much closer Salinas, Sacto...
Anyone out there own a 4 cylinder does it have enough pep?
thanks
jim
It was also easy to install. Contact your Toyota parts department for more info.
You may have good results with the fax. From the dealer's perspective, they are not taken as seriously in most stores.
I am very curious about the (in my opinion) excessively deep recess in the front windshield side gasket. I have never before seen such a deep recess ... almost a channel, and I wonder if it is designed to redirect the slipstream up and over, rather than along the sides of the vehicle??? Possibly to lessen the air compression when the rear windows are opened???
Do any of the other Toyota vehicles have such deep channels in teh windshield gasket??
Any comments?
Happy HL'ing to all.
sheepskin(cost Can$10), I can dry the car by it without leaving any streak and lint.
So that's the quick fix I can suggest.
I took the time to call each dealership, find out the name of the fleet manager and get the fax number to thier office/desk. This fax number was always diffrent than the one listed for the dealership, so in most cases I was not being pawned off to a regular salesperson. In about 85% of the responces, I heard directly from the fleet manager (or at least the person that the secretary said was the fleet manager).
About half of the responces I got back were for less than $1000 over invoice.The (few) times that I e-mailed dealers, for other vehicles, I had no where near the offers that I got with the fax.I know that my experiences are just anecdotal evidence, but I know how I will buy all of my vehicles in the future.
I am sure it is possible that lots of people reading this used e-mail to contact dealers. Is anyone seeing offers in the $500-over range? Has anyone else had good fortune with the fax?
It's a good thing...
I looked for a Highlander in the SF Bay area at the end of February and could not find a good price after requesting quotes over the internet from about 6 dealers.
I ended up getting the car from Toyota of the Desert in S. Cal. and having the car shipped up. It saved several thousand. However, I think I was lucky and may have just got the right timing and they had just the vehicle I was looking for.
Actually, the noise is bothersome, but I rarely drive over 70 mph, and have only heard it when there is a tremendous cross wind.
Otherwise, I really appreciate and enjoy the HL. It is my wife's car, so I do not drive it that often, and we use it less in the summer than in the wnter (we live in the "north country" of New Hampshire, where we have 6 months of winter and snow).
Happy HL'ing to all.
We have been looking into purchasing a HL, and some of the dealers in our area are saying that their price includes a $500 advertising fee. Is that something people have paid, or can you get out of it?
From what I seem to remember from elsewhere, there might be some kinds of advertising fees that one does have to pay, and some that one can get out of.
does anyone have more info. on this?
thanks.
Due to the highly technical procedure for the install of Highlander
consoles, this genuine Toyota part is only available ONLY as a Port
Installed Option at this time - PIO # CA10.
Please review your current and future allocations to ensure that you
have added CA10 to your Highlanders. You will NOT be able to
acquire this console for your customer(s) after the fact.
This does not mean that your dealer will never be able to get you a console it only means they can't order one for you right now because the dealer is not allowed to install.
There must be more to this than meets the eye of the consumer.
1) When you talk to the receptionist and ask for the fleet manager's name sometimes they will pass you off to a sales person instead. They do this because they have been told to do this. Other times they'll give you the name of someone that is one or two management levels below the fleet manager.
2) Some sales people will lie to you and say that they are the fleet manager. They do this to "feel you out" to see what your intent is and whether you really have business that must go to the fleet manager. (They know that they don't get a commission if the fleet manager is the only person you work a deal with. If you have to work through a sales person, the fleet manager has to pay out a commission, thus hurting his profit margin.) - I have an example of this, though I will withhold the dealers name... I called a dealer. The receptionist told me she would transfer me to someone who could assist me. When the person answered the phone I asked for the fleet manager's name. He said "that would be me!" After talking with him for a while I got suspicious and asked him what his full title was. That's when I found out he was just a sales person and that he had only been working at that dealer for five days! I then got the real fleet manager's name. This guy outright lied to me. I left a v-mail with the real fleet manager explaining why I would not be considering his store in my search for a vehicle. Trust is an important thing to me.
3) Just because you are given the fleet manager's name doesn't mean that the fleet manager will be the one who calls you back. Often someone below the fleet manager will call you. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as good deals can still be made with these people.
All in all, I highly recommend the fax methodolgy for searching for good deals on vehicles.
=-Personna1->
Repost from #2270:
Thanks to Sandman -- we factory ordered a new HL over the weekend. After many contacts with seven dealers total in SoFL, the best deal I could find was as follows, FYI & for comparison:
Base V6 2wd $22,332
SE Toyota grey leather $989
Mats, Roof rack, center console, tow prep, day time running lamps $585
Destination $505
SE Toyota "Admin" $550
Dealer Markup $377
Total pre-tax/tags $25,338
This particular dealer was as few hundred below everyone else. One even asked straight MSRP on an order! We ordered mainly because every other "Indigo Ink" vehicle in the area had Toyo Guard and several other options that we didn't need or can buy for efficiently aftermarket. I am told it will be 90-105 days until it comes in - anyone else factory order that can confirm that timeframe?
For anyone in SoFL, the dealer was Hollywood Toyota and the "Internet and Fleet Manager" is Israel Washington at 800.842.4699. Highly recommended. You may be able to do better yet, as the model year is getting late.
Thanks.
RE: Post #2702. Integra, mine was plus regional advertising fees. In Florida the dealer is charged a Southeast Toyota administration fee. ehl3 in post #2699 quotes that fee at $550. I do not have my paperwork handy so I cannot verify that amount. It is on all invoices within the Southeast Toyota states. The dealer has to pay Southeast Toyota this fee, so we cannot expect them to eat a $550 fee when we only want to pay $500 over Edmunds invoice amount. Gulf State Toyota is simular, they charge the dealers in their region a fee that is listed on their invoice. Unfortunatly for us, if the dealer has to pay it, then we pretty much have to figure it into our deal.
Toyota makes genuine fleet sales a poor deal for the dealers. Here is an example of how it works. Lets say a large department store chain wants to lease 15 cars for its top executives. They contact Toyota corporate and negotiate the prices and terms. Toyota looks over its list of fleet dealers and sends the cars to that dealer. The dealer is expected to process the paperwork, but never actually holds the title to the car. They clean it and handle the tag and title work. They must deal with the end user and often must hold the car on their lot for several weeks. It is a huge hassle and we are compensated something like $100 for the "courtesy delivery." Most stores in this area will not do them because it isn't profitable and the end users are often pure jerks. These units also are not counted toward our monthly objectives.
Many stores have a person called a fleet manager who is actually a retail salesperson. who specializes in Internet and buying service leads. At one store, we called this "fleetail" because it really was retail sales, but without the normal negotiating hassles. It is still a good deal and worth looking at, but it isn't genuine fleet sales. If you call a dealership and ask for the fleet manager, this is the person you will normally get.
The whole fleet manager issue originated with the fax vs. email debate. It has been said on that you are more likely to get a favorable deal with e-mail and a dedicated internet salesperson. That statement was countered with the idea that you can get a better deal by faxing the fleet manager.
That being said, it is probably important to elaborate on why we should or should not think that the fleet manager would want to deal with us personally. If you walk into a dealership, ask questions, take a test drive, kick the tires, ect. you should not expect to talk to a fleet manager. That is what salespeople are for, and that is how they make their living (answering our questions, holding our hands and walking us through the deal). If you are gathering information, asking dealers for quotes, and trying to shop around in other areas, then contact the internet salesperson. Don’t expect to cut them out of the deal, there is still “salespersons” work to be done, and they should get paid for it. Now, if you have done all your homework, if you know that you want X model, with Y and Z options and you know what you will pay for it, if you have taken care of all the financing work, and if you are ready to throw down the check today for the car you want at the price you want, then why not expect to talk to the fleet manager? Why not think that you can cut out the middleman?
Now that you know what you want, how much you want to pay and are ready to throw down the check, how do you let the fleet manager know that you are ready to buy? One way is to call the dealership and ask the receptionist for the name and fax number for the f.m. You may get a little resistance, but by the time that you call several dealers you get pretty good at getting the info you want. When you have that info, write a detailed letter, stating in no uncertain terms what you want and that you are ready to buy, and fax it to the f.m.
In most cases I heard from the f.m., in some cases the fleet manager gave the lead to a salesperson. When the lead was given to a salesperson, they were aware that they were competing with several other dealerships in the state and they knew that if they weren’t competitive that they were wasting their time.