Hi all. Hoping that I can glean some of your prior experience to help a newbie out.
Shopping in southern California for a basic/base model with no convenience or upgrade packages, since I would rather put that money towards my own aftermarket goodies.
I'm finding the "Internet sales" approach is lame:
- you don't get any quotes or calls from those web forms. All those do is put you on a list of "pre-qualified leads".
- nobody will even confirm specs of what's on the lot over phone or email. They make you feel like you're wasting their time if you don't make an appointment.
- can't do price comparisons across dealers because they are always "upselling". Can't even get a quote for a blue 2WD.
- mainly you're just deciding what dealer stock you want to bid on. Nobody wants to order what I want.
Dropping by in person is just a invitation to go sit in the little frustrating sales room. I am trying to avoid all that.
Hi all. Hoping that I can glean some of your prior experience to help a newbie out.
Shopping in southern California for a basic/base model with no convenience or upgrade packages, since I would rather put that money towards my own aftermarket goodies.
I'm finding the "Internet sales" approach is lame:
- you don't get any quotes or calls from those web forms. All those do is put you on a list of "pre-qualified leads".
- nobody will even confirm specs of what's on the lot over phone or email. They make you feel like you're wasting their time if you don't make an appointment.
- can't do price comparisons across dealers because they are always "upselling". Can't even get a quote for a blue 2WD.
- mainly you're just deciding what dealer stock you want to bid on. Nobody wants to order what I want.
Dropping by in person is just a invitation to go sit in the little frustrating sales room. I am trying to avoid all that.
Go to Toyota's website and spec the FJ you want. Choose the dealers you want to send the spec to and they will contact you. Toyota will email you and ask if they contacted you!
I went through the same thing 'till I finally figured this out. Sent a request to Mark Miller Toyota in SLC - Spencer from internet sales contacted me and 10 minutes later I have an FJ setting in SLC waiting for me to pick it up!
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I'm finding the "Internet sales" approach is lame:
- you don't get any quotes or calls from those web forms. All those do is put you on a list of "pre-qualified leads".
How did you begin your "internet sales" approach?
Try what DCZ said, or what I tried which was edmunds.com. You spec out what you want, and submit it to like 5 or 6 local dealers. That way they know you're shopping around. It sounds like you might be going to each dealer's website? Yeah, don't do that. Save yourself some time and use a reputable site that sends your request to lots of dealers.
Toyota produces very few and I mean VERY few true "base models" and even fewer base 2wd versions. Find a dealer who will try to look region-wide for you (the sales managers or some internet salespeople are usually the only ones with access to regional inventory).
I concur that going through the dealer websites ususally sukks, but some dealers buy "purchase requests" from third party lead providers (like Edmunds, KBB, Cars.com, Cars direct, MSN, etc.) and generally try a little harder with those because they had to pay for them.
Toyota has tightened up on monitoring/management of the corporate lead campaign recently. I know because the Toyota folks have modeled my department and printed suggestions for the dealers to follow based on "best practices".
As DZC said, they are checking to see which dealers did and didn't follow up once the internet guest sends the purchase request.
Good luck,
I will try to remember to locate one close by for you when I return to my office on Thursday.
I concur that going through the dealer websites ususally sukks, but some dealers buy "purchase requests" from third party lead providers (like Edmunds, KBB, Cars.com, Cars direct, MSN, etc.) and generally try a little harder with those because they had to pay for them.
Do you think one site is better than another? In other words, would you rank the Toyota site, the Edmunds site, the cars.com site all the same or is one of these better than the other for putting in a request?
__________________ FJDog
When a thorn pierces the foot, the whole body bends over to pull it out. - Zulu proverb.
Shopping in southern California for a basic/base model with no convenience or upgrade packages, since I would rather put that money towards my own aftermarket goodies.
I live in socal and had the same problem as you, it is very hard to find an FJ with minimal packages. After doing the internet thing to get leads I ended up calling a lot of dealerships and getting the run around. I ended up talking to Greg Bowman at Carson Toyota and he helped me out. He had done a custom order before and was willing to do mine and gave me a great price. You will have to wait for about 3-4 months for the order to be filled, but it is worth it to get exactly what you want.
I live in socal and just called every dealership until I found an mt w/ cq only. I think thats an easier find than the total base model, but still rare. Call the dealerships, who cares if they are rude? Just ask if they have any fj's on the lot with a sticker price of what's on the toyota site.
I just realized you want a base 2WD; good luck with that. Maybe expand your search for a 4WD as well. Better resale anyway, and more things to do with it!
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