- The "internet" departments of each dealer are shooting me an almost identical price (roughly 7.5% - 8.0% off msrp - $1200 back of invoice).
- The prices are the same as I was being quoted 3 months ago.
I just purchased a '12 LE, nav, 3rd row, etc. and picked it up this week. I only spent about a week doing to research and shopping around but I'll share what I learned.
First, since it had been 3 years before I did a car search I had to find some good tools.
Edmunds.com was very good for a wide search because you can find new/used models with good filters for options, trim, etc. I found must dealers make a mistake on the interior color and was even told three times the wrong info after pointing out car dealer's website typos! Anyway, the good thing about Edmunds is it will show you factory options included with the option code. This way I could more easily compare one vehicle to another instead of guessing or trying to pester the dealer to tell me over the phone or in an email. This was a big timer saver.
Second, I discovered a cool search engine called
CarGurus.com which will compare the price of a specific vehicle (based on mileage, trim, etc) to local and national inventory. It will list if a specific vehicle is a Great Deal, Good Deal, Fair Deal, etc. based on the asking price on the Internet compared to the MSRP. If you use the <Print> Option you will see the scatter chart which shows the local and national inventory for that vehicle on a price over mileage chart. Not a bad way to check the price on a car with mileage, since new car listings typically only have MSRP pricing on the Internet. But take a look, and you will see it is cool. This is a basic search so you will see.
CarGurus.com 2012 T4R search
Third, I found the trim and options we wanted and then contacted a few local dealers and asked for the ePrice, or Costco price, via the web/email, etc. Then I was able to see what a fair price was MSRP vs. ePrice (before negotiations). It took a couple of hours but I profile a few cars and learned the following:
The Costco price at the local delaer was about 7% off MSRP, the ePrices were about 7-8% off MSRP and the dealers with new inventory were pretty consistent with their ePricing for different vehicles on their lot, and Demos from the dealer with 5000-9000 miles were about 11-16% off MSRP! If one of those was Limited in Black/Black with Nav, 3rd row, etc. I would have bought it and the extended warranty 5/100 for a small amount.
The deal I had was 10.4% off MSRP. $44360 MSRP down to $39774 +TTL. For a P&S signed middle of month (we took delivery this week) it was a fair deal in my opinion. Maybe at month end we could have gotten a little more off, but it was fine since there is less inventory with the exact color and options we wanted in this local area.
Since this Toyota national clearance event is in August, I thought we had a chance of the $1000 off or 0.0% financing (or close). Nope!? It seems the T4R is excluded from those programs this time, and the Sales Manager said they "never are included, and he can't remember when they last did it." Yeah, that was a line from a salesman, but I think what I read on the Toyota.com website is more likely the reason in 2012.
The 2012 sales of T4R is doing as good or better than 2011 month to month. If you go to toyota.com and the Press Room the monthly vehicle sales and YTD sales are shown as compared to 2011. In summary, July T4R vehicle sales were up about 25% over prior year and YTD vehicle sales are up about 5%. So the dealers are selling their inventory it would seem so local discounting may not be needed due to simple supply and demand. That's why I figured the available inventory would dwindle and I should make a deal sooner than later.
I hope you find this helpful and if you have any questions or want more details you can post here or send me a PM. I found some good deals using these methods but if they were too far away or not the right colors it basically did not matter.
Cheers!
