Difficult Dealer

[mobi-arc]

Went to Kearny Mesa Toyota today to check out the new trucks. Wife took a test drive and really likes it, although her current vehicle is '96 Cherokee so anything feels better. Sat down with Howard, the internet sales guy, and discussed special ordering a unit the way she want it. Two-wheel drive, automatic tranny, all Titanium, including the roof, one option package, and couple other odds and ends. Spent close to thirty minutes to extract pricing breakdown information as their internal "order form" is absolutely worthless. Hand him the credit card for the deposit and he pulls the "by the way, all new vehicles have lowjack and clear coat protectant installed." My response was, "bull****, installed by whom?" He said "the dealership." We stood up, thanked him for wasting thirty minutes on my Saturday, and told him that apparently we'd be buying it through a different dealer.

I have no problem with people trying to make money, but to the pull the "oh ya, by the way"....after thirty minutes really irked me. And car salesman can't figure out my people think they're the lowest form of life.

 

[dirtycruiser]

the truck rocks,i bought it without driiving it

 

[Jetboy]

by two wheel drive did you mean not full time 4x4? I assume they offer it in a
2x4, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose? anyway thanks for giving everyone a heads up.

 

[mobi-arc]

It's her car and she's unlikely to do any rock-crawling. She thought it was smooth and quiet. Quite small and quite heavy, tremendous blind spots...much more substantial than she expected. Easy to see how they start pricing at 21k as the interior is cheap with copious use of chincey plastic. Not much storage space. Despite all that, she still wants one.

 

[macneill]

I got the same thing in 1993 when I bought my Toyota XtraCab pickup.

Dealers suck.

Good luck moving on to the next place.

I think the worst is not only losing the time but the false excitement of having gotten one.

 

[dfmorse]

Don't let these clowns do this to u. Cancel the deal and walk out!

...

 

[nuclearlemon]

by two wheel drive did you mean not full time 4x4? I assume they offer it in a
2x4, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose? anyway thanks for giving everyone a heads up.

i believe he means two wheel drive. they do offer a two wheel drive version.

 

[bulldog-yota]

Dealer did you a favor. Get the 4x4 auto, so it runs 2wd on road. This way it will hold its value a lot better in the future. I don't see 2wd FJCs being in demand in the future when the initial whizbang wears off. Besides you will get a far better deal in a year or so.

 

[mobi-arc]

Yea, I figure 6 months to a year and all the chaos will subside. With respect to resale, I buy the car for me, not the next guy, and we keep cars for long time/high miles. Case in point, I sold my '91 LC with 180,000 miles on it so the resale is essentially negligible. You take a $20,000 truck and drive it for 150,000 miles, does it really matter if you sell it for $2500 with an auto tranny, or $3000 with 4wd? Several other issues to consider: she won't use a 4wd which means that you're buying a transfer case, diff lock, etc... Fuel economy sucks as a 2wd, really sucks as a 4wd. For her purposes, the 2wd is a better choice.

Dealer did you a favor. Get the 4x4 auto, so it runs 2wd on road. This way it will hold its value a lot better in the future. I don't see 2wd FJCs being in demand in the future when the initial whizbang wears off. Besides you will get a far better deal in a year or so.

 

[bulldog-yota]

What is the price difference between the 2wd and 4wd?

I still say get the 4wd On many 4R boards I have seen many people that got 2wd regretting it vs 4wd, but none that got 4wd regretting not getting 2wd. Besides then you can use it too

 

[firetruck41]

2wd will kill resale on a vehicle like that, in addition it will be harder to find a buyer.

 

[lowenbrau]

2wd will kill resale on a vehicle like that, in addition it will be harder to find a buyer.

You guys are so lucky. We can't even get the 2wd version in Canada. SAS would be so much easier if I started with a 2WD.

 

[Jetboy]

Yea, I figure 6 months to a year and all the chaos will subside. With respect to resale, I buy the car for me, not the next guy, and we keep cars for long time/high miles. Case in point, I sold my '91 LC with 180,000 miles on it so the resale is essentially negligible. You take a $20,000 truck and drive it for 150,000 miles, does it really matter if you sell it for $2500 with an auto tranny, or $3000 with 4wd? Several other issues to consider: she won't use a 4wd which means that you're buying a transfer case, diff lock, etc... Fuel economy sucks as a 2wd, really sucks as a 4wd. For her purposes, the 2wd is a better choice.

understandable. I was thinging more along the lines of if you don't need a good 4wheeler a rav4 might be a better vehicle as you could get the 4x4 model for less $ and still get great mileage, but then again the rav is only 1 step away from a minivan.