American Toyota discontinued the IH8MUD discount but giving everyone a different discount ! (1 Viewer)

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Time for an update.

So, I had a chance to yak with Sean the parts manager yesterday and got a little caught up on things. He is returning to his store in Peoria, AZ after straightening out the parts fiasco at AmToy. Due to the real estate market, he wasn't able to sell his house in AZ so his family has been staying there while he's been working in ABQ. His last day is this week and he is being replaced by Luis Alvarez, who came up the ranks from a tech, to the drive up service manager. Luis and I camped together few years ago at Goose lake and he remembered me and my dog Riley. This must've been close to five years ago. Luis has a 3rd gen 4runner and a 16yo daughter who is eyeballing it :rofl:

In any case, Luis is learning the parts business and the dept has stabilized quite a bit. New bodies are now sitting at the counter and Don has moved to inside the office dealing with wholesale customers.

Sean is aware of AmToy's lack of competitive in the online market and they're addressing it. Sean has checked out Camelback toyota and he likes their business model and has suggested that AmToy follows suit. Camelback has a dedicated online order person who sees the whole process from beginning to end. Once AmToy has such a person, online prices will become more competitive, even more than our old Mud discount. Currently, the online parts are being handled by couple of folks "filling" in so the process isn't quite streamlined as they'd like it to be.

Changing gears a bit, who is Sandia Toyota? Well, the large corp who owns LHM Toyota sold that branch to Group 1, who owns the LR and Lexus dealerships. Toyota doesn't want one corportation to own multile Toyota dealerships in a single area, or something like that. Group 1 is also a huge conglomerate and publicly traded company. The construction at that dealership was haulted by Covid, change of ownership and finally finishing up that nightmare.

So, there you have it folks.
 
Well, what do ya know. I just went to AmToy Parts online they have redone things. Note I didn't place an order, just price shopped. The discount was in the 21.80% to 21.90%, with some items I checked only 10%. I can still do better elsewhere, but they might have just got some of my business back.
 
I went to AmToy to get a TPMS sensor last week in person and they were asking ~$120, MSRP is $95.28 and Camelback was $68.74. So I added a few more items to the cart to justify the S&H and ordered from Camelback.
 
Link: AmToy Parts

I ran a bunch of part numbers though and I was getting consistently 21.8% discount. Nothing more than usual.

AmToy Sale.jpg
 
Won't be going back to American for parts unless it's urgent and they have stock.

Too many simple mistakes demonstrating that these new kids don't understand parts and bad prices.

Called a month ago needing an idler pulley for the 100. Kid said he found it in the schematic and ordered it for me. When I went to pick up, it was a plastic timing belt cover. Chalked it up to miss communication.

This week, went in and told the kid I needed front pads and rotors for the 200. Had to order the rotors which was fine. Went to get them today and the kid said he only ordered one because he didn't realize I needed two...

They also wanted 109 per rotor vs 60 at another LHM Toyota online. Said they wouldn't price match.


He also had a hard time with the rotor part # and almost wouldn't order without a vin. I asked him what the two parts were and one was USDM and the other MXDM and he clearly didn't know what those meant.

Disappointing how American has fallen.
 
It's been mentioned above that walk ins/call ins won't get the discount that we get via online (low overhead). It's up to us to buy it online, then choose the free pickup option in order to get the discounted rate. In this way, the correct p/n selection falls on the user vs the desk jockeys. They all use the same parts database from what I've seen.

Ordered quite a few parts this way, no issues so far.
 
I've been having decent luck with AmToy lately. I do order online and the discount has improved. To a degree they have redeemed themselves. But as you have figured out, the kids at the counter are lame. Only Don can be counted on to get what you need correctly. Hell, I've walked in with part numbers in the past and had Antonio get it wrong.

As far as needing the VIN, this is not unusual. I get asked for the VIN on my 1985 4R because there were differences in the model year. I even needed to provide my VIN for my old 1995 Camry because some were USA built and some Japan.

If I have an order exceeding $75 I shop at one of the FreeShip dealers, mostly Claremont Toyota. The only problem is all the FreeShip dealers use the same host and they are frequently down ... like they are now ... so you can't count on them to be available.
 
It's been mentioned above that walk ins/call ins won't get the discount that we get via online (low overhead). It's up to us to buy it online, then choose the free pickup option in order to get the discounted rate. In this way, the correct p/n selection falls on the user vs the desk jockeys. They all use the same parts database from what I've seen.

Ordered quite a few parts this way, no issues so far.

Online dops rotors from 109 to 90. Another LHM dealer has them for $60 + every other online dealer. Bought both, for $150 shipped to my door. Not worth the hassle of dealing with them and much easier to just order online to my door.

I'll add the sales vultures are a bad look too. Constantly about 15 of them hanging out by the front door and they love to run up to anyone parking. They also always seem to block the road chatting away not caring about people trying to get through.
 
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I'll add the sales vultures are a bad look too. Constantly about 15 of them hanging out by the front door and they love to run up to anyone parking. They also always seem to block the road chatting away not caring about people trying to get through.
I just tell them I'm going to parts and they leave me alone. Never a problem. Or, go early in the morning cuz they won't be there.
 
I just tell them I'm going to parts and they leave me alone. Never a problem. Or, go early in the morning cuz they won't be there.

Yeah, it's not a single issue for me. It's the culmination of them. Bad prices, unknowledgeable parts people, sales vultures, long wait times at parts desk, etc.

Oh well. Just gotta plan my maintenance better and order online to avoid the hassles.
 
Just got this from American Toyota Alameda


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He guys I wanted to share my experience with Sandia Toyota off Eubank. I went in getting oil filter #909915-YZZD3 I asked the gentleman at the desk if they would price match American Toyota he said no. Price at American Toyota was $4.46. Their price was $5.97. He then my offered me a military/law enforcement discount which brought the price down to $3.93. Just need to show ID. Im not sure of the exact details of the discount but that definitely beat American Toyota. See receipt.

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81AA964B-D500-4958-B59D-5B61478A521F.jpeg
 
Holy crap. Look at that List price escalator they have at Sandia. :eek:

90916-03100 Toyota MSRP is $28.43

Adam (parts manager) sure have gone a bit overboard with the price escalation.
 
Holy crap. Look at that List price escalator they have at Sandia. :eek:

90916-03100 Toyota MSRP is $28.43

Adam (parts manager) sure have gone a bit overboard with the price escalation.
It's probably not him, but his boss.
 
It's probably not him, but his boss.

I don't know who Adam is but Luis is the parts manager at AmToy last I heard.
 

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