Dealership observations on 8-14-2024

[trainman605]

Got my oil and tires rotated yesterday, my new 4 Runner has 3053 miles on it and is 7 months old. I'm going the follow "The Car Care Nut" advice on YouTube, if you haven't watched his channel, you might like his videos. He does both Toyota and Lexus and goes into depth on these vehicles. Now for what I saw at the large Toyota of Ft. Worth dealership yesterday, I counted around 25 Tundra's, 10 Tacoma's, 2 4-Runners, 1 Highlander, 1 Grand Highlander, 1 Rav 4, 1 Land Cruiser, and maybe 10 other vehicles of various models. After talking with the sales mgr. he said, if you want one of these vehicles standard procedure at this time is, we can look at our list of what we have in future shipment and if there is one you want, we take a deposit, $500 and call when it comes in, if you don't want it at that time we will refund your deposit, as there is someone else that will take it. He also said, the price will be factory list price and no addons to that, but for you Mr. L, we can deal some as you are a valued customer, ha ha. All being said, they just started work on their new dealership a mile down the road, I guess business is good.

 

[trainman605]

There's a sucker born every minute, that's why dealerships do well.

I worked for a dealership for some 35 years and thought we charged a fair price for what we did, both in sales and service. Vehicles are expensive to buy and repair it's just the nature of the beast. I realize today that many are priced out of the market when it comes to a new vehicle purchase and service work, but then again, we all live our lives different, no need to expand on that.

 

[fourwd1]

... I counted around 25 Tundra's, 10 Tacoma's, 2 4-Runners, 1 Highlander, 1 Grand Highlander, 1 Rav 4, 1 Land Cruiser, and maybe 10 other vehicles of various models...

Of course they had a lot of Tundra's. Toyota has recalled over 200,000 so far this year for trans problems, engine problems, etc.

 

[trainman605]

One thing about the Tundra recall, Toyota is going to replace all engines that were produced during the time period that they have determined that these engines fall in. If it would have been any of the other Big Three they wouldn't do anything till you had a problem and then getting then to do something about it would have been like pulling teeth for the customer. Toyota did see the writing on the wall, Tundra's produced during this time period were losing value big time and dealers would not even trade for them. This should in time and with a new engine in your vehicle give the customer his value and the Toyota reliability should carry on.