So after much deliberation, negotiation, conversation, my wife and I are now proud owners of a 2013 SR5 4x4! While happy with the deal, buying a new Toyota has probably been the worst car buying experience of my life. This really surprises me because I’m always hearing about how incredible the Lexus customer service is both in the news and word of mouth. You wouldn’t think that Toyota and Lexus would be so drastically different.
We ended up going to 4 dealerships and purchasing at the 4th. The first dealer lured us in with deceptive advertising for Toyota Clearance Month and while they ended up finally giving us a good price on a 2012 they wanted to absolutely hose us on trade ($3k under book). The second dealer had a used SR5 with a few bells and whistles, however they failed to disclose on Autotrader, their website, or in person that it had $2,000 worth of front end damage from taking out a deer. My wife luckily found the customer disclosure down in the vehicle file. The third dealer made us wait for an hour only to have the sales manager come over and state in an extremely rude demeanor and tone of voice, that he wouldn’t match the first dealerships price for a 4Runner, and that he would offer even less for trade. This experience almost ended the possibility of us buying a T4R. The 4th dealership that we visited and ended up buying at was what I would describe as the lesser of four evils. We did not have a good experience but the deal we ended up getting (partly by divine intervention) allowed the deal to happen.
When we first were contacted by the dealership we purchased from we were thrilled. We got a quote within $700 of the best price we had found for a 12’ on a 13’ they had just received. We were also given up front within $500 of where we wanted to be on trade. My wife was emotional about trading her vehicle in and to seal the deal on 9/8/12 they offered us full asking for trade and we came in to make the deal. We made the mistake of attempting to go through their finance department (my own credit union from here on out) and they quickly showed where they hoped to recoup money on the deal. The interest rate was super high; the finance director was rude and claimed to only use two banks and Toyota for financing… awful experience. Well the payments per month they were quoting where higher than where we wanted to be and so we kept pressing after three days of unreturned calls, disrespectful sales person, etc. Finally they agreed to make the change to get the payment to the highest possible we were comfortable with.
Well last Saturday we were set to go pick up the 4Runner, and we decided to stop by my credit union just to see what they could do. Long story short they got us half the rate the dealer quoted, and 90 days to our first payment which while unnecessary will be a bonus as Christmas approaches. We weren’t able to finish everything up on Saturday so we went and put a deposit down. Monday we call and let our sales person and sales manager know we arranged our own financing and needed a purchase order faxed over. Turns out that they never changed our rate to get the payment down, they actually gave us an additional $500 in trade above asking. So the credit union drew up the loan based on the purchase order and after a horrible experience, Karma got us an even sweeter deal on our new 4Runner.
It’s a Magnetic Grey SR5 4x4, with dealer convenience package (locking lugs, cross bars, chrome exhaust tip) and it had 3 miles on it when we picked it up. It arrived with 1 mile. So far I’m getting over 20 mpg city, and as high as 25 mpg on the highway on the way home. It’s a huge improvement over my Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 QD2 which was getting 12.5 city and 19 highway. I will post some pictures when I get home!
Edit: We named it "Bruce" after the Great White in Finding Nemo!
We ended up going to 4 dealerships and purchasing at the 4th. The first dealer lured us in with deceptive advertising for Toyota Clearance Month and while they ended up finally giving us a good price on a 2012 they wanted to absolutely hose us on trade ($3k under book). The second dealer had a used SR5 with a few bells and whistles, however they failed to disclose on Autotrader, their website, or in person that it had $2,000 worth of front end damage from taking out a deer. My wife luckily found the customer disclosure down in the vehicle file. The third dealer made us wait for an hour only to have the sales manager come over and state in an extremely rude demeanor and tone of voice, that he wouldn’t match the first dealerships price for a 4Runner, and that he would offer even less for trade. This experience almost ended the possibility of us buying a T4R. The 4th dealership that we visited and ended up buying at was what I would describe as the lesser of four evils. We did not have a good experience but the deal we ended up getting (partly by divine intervention) allowed the deal to happen.
When we first were contacted by the dealership we purchased from we were thrilled. We got a quote within $700 of the best price we had found for a 12’ on a 13’ they had just received. We were also given up front within $500 of where we wanted to be on trade. My wife was emotional about trading her vehicle in and to seal the deal on 9/8/12 they offered us full asking for trade and we came in to make the deal. We made the mistake of attempting to go through their finance department (my own credit union from here on out) and they quickly showed where they hoped to recoup money on the deal. The interest rate was super high; the finance director was rude and claimed to only use two banks and Toyota for financing… awful experience. Well the payments per month they were quoting where higher than where we wanted to be and so we kept pressing after three days of unreturned calls, disrespectful sales person, etc. Finally they agreed to make the change to get the payment to the highest possible we were comfortable with.
Well last Saturday we were set to go pick up the 4Runner, and we decided to stop by my credit union just to see what they could do. Long story short they got us half the rate the dealer quoted, and 90 days to our first payment which while unnecessary will be a bonus as Christmas approaches. We weren’t able to finish everything up on Saturday so we went and put a deposit down. Monday we call and let our sales person and sales manager know we arranged our own financing and needed a purchase order faxed over. Turns out that they never changed our rate to get the payment down, they actually gave us an additional $500 in trade above asking. So the credit union drew up the loan based on the purchase order and after a horrible experience, Karma got us an even sweeter deal on our new 4Runner.
It’s a Magnetic Grey SR5 4x4, with dealer convenience package (locking lugs, cross bars, chrome exhaust tip) and it had 3 miles on it when we picked it up. It arrived with 1 mile. So far I’m getting over 20 mpg city, and as high as 25 mpg on the highway on the way home. It’s a huge improvement over my Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 QD2 which was getting 12.5 city and 19 highway. I will post some pictures when I get home!
Edit: We named it "Bruce" after the Great White in Finding Nemo!
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