anyone else have as easy time at the dealer as I did?

[echo419]

seriously. all I ever see are stories about bone head salesmen and general douchyness of dealers.

basically it went down like this. called the dealer looking for a 14' Limited. dude said he only had Series Blue's but he'd call around. called back in a couple of hours said he had exactaly what I wanted and that he'd bring it in with a deposit. I told him what I was going to pay and what I wanted for my trade. he agreed so I brought my car down to make sure they'd give me what I wanted. they did and they also let me take the wheels off(staggered 19's on my 02 GS430) and put some stock ones on that I got at a pawn shop. they agreed to all my terms, got a great interest rate and signed the papers. they went and picked up the car in the am and I came down to pick it up after work. super easy.
they also had a specialist teach me about all the ins and outs of the features and car when I went to pick it up. total cake.

[Tcoat]

I had a hard time getting their attention at first but once I did my dealer was wonderful!
I had a very specific maximum payment amount I was willing to pay and since I still owed so much on my prior car they had to get very creative to meet that. In the long run I got a pile of extras for either free or greatly reduced prices.
I think a lot of the confusion from the sales people is that they simply don't sell enough of these cars to know much about them. They are a niche car, in a niche market and require a niche salesperson to do them justice.
Hell, for that matter, look at some of the really dumb questions that some people who actually own one ask here which they would have known if they took a few minutes to read the manual.

[tennisfreak]

Mine was easy.
Found on internet sent email with offer.
They countered, then I countered.
We came to an agreement and I scheduled a pickup time.
I arrived at dealer with car prepped and ready to go.
After walk around and my approval go into finance.
I brought my own financing, they see it and decide to beat it.
I sign and drive.
Less than 1 hour at the dealership!


The key to a great dealership experience is to remove their leverage. Their leverage is you not being prepared, not having the facts, not having financing, having a trade and not knowing its value, etc...

[Chad11491]

I haven't had a single dealer know anything about the cars. One even told me Orange was a '15 only color, haha. But on the plus he said he couldn't fit in the seat (he was half a foot taller than me and I'm 6'4") so he just tossed me the keys and let me go for 30 min. Was pretty cool. The other dealership was very respectful even though I'm 24, and took me seriously and met my payment I was willing to make (funny how pure price disappears when they want a sale bad). The sales experience for me at every toyota dealership I've been to has been the best dealership experiences I've had from any brand.

[extrashaky]

My experience went pretty much like OP's did AFTER I made it clear I was interested in buying.

When I went in to drive one, they didn't have any out on display at all. They had six on the property, but they were buried back by the fence in the storage lot behind the service area. They had to move several cars to get one out. Then through the whole drive the salesman made little comments about how the car was underpowered and really fell short, and he tried to get me to drive a WRX instead.

But when we got back, he passed me off to his sales manager, and the negotiation from then on was a breeze. I had a number in mind and started lower, and the sales manager actually beat my max number. I didn't have a trade and already had financing in place, so that helped. Overall it was a positive experience, although it was clear they really would rather sell me something other than a BRZ.

Oddly enough, they now have all their BRZs right out front. They must have had enough people asking about them to change their approach.

[dreamingat30fps]

I was lucky to find mine at a none scion dealer where I have purchased a few cars before. They also happened to have 3 sitting on the lot. I told them what I wanted to pay out the door with my trade. We went back and forth through email, they didnt want to give me shit for my trade which was throwing the numbers off. Finally I took it to carmax and they offered over $1,500 more than the dealer, so I let the dealer know and they finally agreed to match it. This was over the course of maybe 3 weeks over email. I ended up paying $500 over what I initially wanted to spend, but I did end up with the monogram which is the one I wanted and still think I got a decent deal. Overall can't complain, they also threw in some paint correction to try to remove/minimize some of the scratches on it.

[ZionsWrath]

I bought a first shipment BRZ in May 2012. The original place I had a deposit were ****ing around.

I called a few and found one 200 miles away that said I just needed to put a deposit and it was mine for MSRP, no gimmicks.

I put the deposit, went and got it. They even let me drive it to fill up the tank. 5 miles on it. I liked them so much I went back and bought the limited spoiler for my premium and had them install it.

I was happy because at the time all the dealers were trying to throw mark ups and shit. The first place even tried to tell me they didn't know the price of the car when MSRP had already been announced.

There are definitely some legit places out there if you look hard.

[jblmr2]

No offense OP, but my experience has been that if you have as easy time of it as you say you did, you probably left a lot of money on the table. Dealer margins on new cars aren't that good, so they fight for every penny. Maybe you caught them in a weak moment. If so good on you.

[echo419]

Originally Posted by jblmr2

No offense OP, but my experience has been that if you have as easy time of it as you say you did, you probably left a lot of money on the table. Dealer margins on new cars aren't that good, so they fight for every penny. Maybe you caught them in a weak moment. If so good on you.

none taken.
I got my price on True car and it was very low. I told them another dealer had agreed to give me everything I wanted(sorta true) but I didn't want to buy it there as the sales guy was a douche. I told him I was going to buy a car that day. the question was where. it was the last day of the month. they needed the sale pretty bad.

even if I did leave money on the table I got a steal for my trade. the CEL lights were on, the alternator(brand new) was throwing a voltage code and I had it on 3 stock wheels with tires showing steel and the spare. I had it towed to the mall lot behind the dealer and limped it about a 1/4mi. parked it and left it.

[DarkSunrise]

Mine was pretty easy since I had already driven the car at Scion's "first drive" autocross.

I walked into the Scion dealership and told them I wanted an FR-S. They told me the price and said no haggling on the Scion "pure price". I signed the deposit form.

Car arrived 2 months later. Did a quick test drive and signed the paperwork.

It's easy when the dealer sets the price and you accept.

[tyrantcf]

I had the deal worked out ahead of time, told the salesman exactly what I wanted, and he made it all happen. I think when the car arrived and I went down to the dealer to close the deal, I was there for all of an hour to an hour and a half tops.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by echo419

seriously. all I ever see are stories about bone head salesmen and general douchyness of dealers.

Here's how my buying experience went down with @HeubergerMotors:

Sent email.
Emailed back available cars.
Picked one.
Dealer made offer that was $500 less than what I was ready to pay.
I accepted.
Paperwork exchange, then I flew out to pick up the car.

The most difficult part was trying to figure out what airport I wanted to fly out of.

-alex

[rxlynn]

We also used True car. Had contact with 4 different dealers, but ended up getting the geographically closer one to match price, so it was really about a 3 minute phone conversation - can you match x price and they said yes. I'm sure we could have gotten a slightly better deal at the time, but I wasn't willing to compromise on color or on it being a Limited. Also, we were not trading or financing so that removed a lot of potential complications.

[pinski]

Originally Posted by echo419

seriously. all I ever see are stories about bone head salesmen and general douchyness of dealers.

basically it went down like this. called the dealer looking for a 14' Limited. dude said he only had Series Blue's but he'd call around. called back in a couple of hours said he had exactaly what I wanted and that he'd bring it in with a deposit. I told him what I was going to pay and what I wanted for my trade. he agreed so I brought my car down to make sure they'd give me what I wanted. they did and they also let me take the wheels off(staggered 19's on my 02 GS430) and put some stock ones on that I got at a pawn shop. they agreed to all my terms, got a great interest rate and signed the papers. they went and picked up the car in the am and I came down to pick it up after work. super easy.
they also had a specialist teach me about all the ins and outs of the features and car when I went to pick it up. total cake.

That was pretty much my experience in a nutshell. Easiest car purchase ever.