For those who order their cars

[pinhead999]

As I goe through these forums, I noticed that many of you have waited weeks to get your 4Runners. My question is did you special order them or did the dealership not have many on the lot?

I just curious because I live in the Metro D.C. area and most Toyota dealerships are overflowing with cars. When I purchased my last year, I walked in and asked for a Silver Limited V8 4wd and they had several to chose from.

 

[Jaebster]

As I goe through these forums, I noticed that many of you have waited weeks to get your 4Runners. My question is did you special order them or did the dealership not have many on the lot?

I just curious because I live in the Metro D.C. area and most Toyota dealerships are overflowing with cars. When I purchased my last year, I walked in and asked for a Silver Limited V8 4wd and they had several to chose from.

Most of those that waited weeks (more like 2-3 months) were special orders.
But for others, the more specific you are with the ext./int. color and factory installed options, the search and wait is longer.
i.e. you had only asked for a limited silver V8 4WD (which is even very hard to find in So. Cal.) but if you said that you wanted it without the side airbags but with the rear dvd entertainment, it would be harder to locate that specific vehicle.

 

[blkexp98]

As Jaebster said in my case it was a special order. It took 4 months though im wondering if they really did order it since it didnt come as ordered but i liked it for the most part. The main killer for me was i wanted a black 4wd v8 limited with grey interior and side impact airbags. The other features i could find but they were all sr5's or sports (i wish i could have ordered the sport hood) 2wd and v6. So in my case i didnt really have an option but to get a sport but there were only a few with a v8 but no side impact airbags. So i special ordered to make a longer story short.

Major

 

[boston_kevin]

Dealers order "packages" from Toyota to make it easier and faster to receive vehicles. If you don't like what is in the packages (i.e. too much or too little) you have to either special order or try to find the vehicle from other parts of the country. Some states are more restrictive on emissions programming or may impose a penalty for purchasing out of state (MA being one of those states).

 

[Jeff17]

I had to wait 3 weeks for mine. Liek the others said the more you ask for the longer it takes to get. I wanted the Limited V6 4WD, X-Reas, Sunroof, Upgraded Stereo, Side Airbags, in Silver. There were zero of them in the state, but an auto broker found one on a ship headed to a dealer nearby. So he reserved it for me.

 

[Uneek]

I had mine special ordered. I wanted a V6 and nav, waited about three months for it. In NorCal, nav is only found on V8 Limiteds. If I was ok with the V8, my rep said he could've got me a 4Runner within a day.

The other dealers I visited had a few of them on the lot, probably like 5-8 on the main lot (don't know about their offsite storage lots). My dealer probably had them in storage at their offsite lots, I didn't go around my dealer's lot looking since I had specifics that I wanted.

A three or so month on average wait is a special order, the vehicle has the options you specify. The options are probably not ordered by the regional distributor. The so called "packages" are just popular option combinations the distributor thinks it's the most popular and what would be easy to sell and move off the the lots.

A couple weeks wait is typically what you want is what the regional distributor orders. You're getting the vehicle that's allocated and enroute to the dealer. Most of the time this situation is typically because the color you want is more rare.

 

[pinhead999]

That answers my question

Thanks for the replies. I just found it hard to believe that dealerships didn't have an abundance of cars. Every car dealership in my area have hundreds of cars sitting in their lots.

 

[Uneek]

Re: That answers my question

Thanks for the replies. I just found it hard to believe that dealerships didn't have an abundance of cars. Every car dealership in my area have hundreds of cars sitting in their lots.

I would say it's also two fold. There are a handful of members here, like me, that couldn't find exactly or what's even remotely close to what they're looking for. I was willing to compromise (taking a different color) if my rep could find a configuration remotely close to mine. At the time, the only other V6 Limited 4WD with nav in the western region was a white one with third row seats (and it was spoken for). I did NOT want or need the third row seats.

I think it depends on real estate costs. In the Bay Area, rent is friggin' expensive. $900/mo gets you a one bedroom space in someone's basement.

Not to mention, it's expensive to stock all that inventory on hand. I rather get my vehicle just delivered off the truck than one that's been sitting on the lot. I'm anal, so the fewer people that's been in and out of my future vehicle the better.