Longo Toyota in El Monte, CA
 

I spent over 3 hours of back and forth haggling at this dealership, and settled on a deal at $38000 plus tax/title/etc for a new 2019 TRDO with KDSS. Sticker price was $41484. I tried to make it easy on these guys, but the sales manager seemed to be out for blood. I would bet that clown loses a lot of sales with that heavy pencil.

The sales manager first tried to hold 10% on my trade-in. Initial offer was $15300. Carmax appraised it the day before for $17000. I whipped out the Carmax offer sheet, so they quickly matched it. With the trade-in out of the way, the sales manager then hit me at full sticker price for the new one. Sticker price? Practically every other dealer in the country is advertising $2000+ off msrp right off the top. It's not like the 5th Gen 4Runner isn't as old as a 5th grader.

Long story short, they finally agreed to my initial offer of $38000 for the new one after 2 hours of me saying 'no'. I told them up-front that I knew the invoice price and holdback on this truck, and was willing to do $1200 above their cost for the new one. That combined with the fact they would easily make $3000 on my trade-in (a super clean 1-owner low miles GTI Sport) should have made for a slam dunk sale. It still took 2 hours for the sales manager to accept reality. I agreed to finance it thru Toyota. Best interest rate they could do was 5.75% for 60 months, which is an absolute joke because my fico score is 845. At this point I didn't really care about the rate, because I would immediately refinance it as a new car for 2.99% thru Penfed, so the deal was done.

So I finally get to finance, only to find out the sales tax rate in El Monte is 10% (vs. 8.25% in Las Vegas) ****AND**** the state of California does not allow a tax credit on your trade-in. They are 1 of only 6 states that don't. Same exact truck in Las Vegas would cost me over $2000 less. Had to pass on the deal because $2000 isn't tip money!

The salesman and finance guy were both very nice guys. I felt bad walking out, but they can thank the excessive taxation in California for losing them a sale. I'll never car shop in California again.

I had a different experience. I worked with Ken Tang. We emailed pretty much back and forth until the car showed up. Once the car showed up, I gave him a call to let him know when I was coming in. Did the paper work and was out in about 1.5 hours. I had financing from my own bank.

Hello!