how does the preferencing/allocation thing work for dealers?
 

anyone have a good understanding of it?

I don't have a good understanding on it but I do understand how my family's particular FR-S was preferenced and allocated...

Whenever an RDR (retail delivery report) is sent to Scion, the dealership will be granted an additional allocation of the vehicle for the next allocation. The more RDR's, the more extra allocations will be granted, but only if cars are available. In the FR-S's case, a lot of dealerships are not getting their extra granted allocations quick enough for demand, which is why we are seeing waiting lists and mark ups on the price.

For my family, the preferencing was done before the allocation. Our sales manager preferenced an incoming granted allocation which would be our FR-S: The color (whiteout), transmission (manual), and then the port installed accessories (carpet trunk and wheel locks). Note that it was not allocated yet because the actual car was not built yet.

There was no definite day our car would come, nor was their a definite day the dealership would allocate the car. This is probably why we are seeing orders getting messed up, and delivery dates changing.

When the port or Toyota notified that the specific car that we preferenced was built and on its way to the port, then it was finally allocated to our dealership.

It was different from other cars, like our Prius, which was preferenced and allocated at the same time before it was built.

A dealership is allocated a certain number of FR-S' based on volume / location etc... The dealer has no control over color/transmission/upgrade options. For the most part, all dealers have waiting lists for those wishing to purchase an FR-S - if you are picky about your color options - there's a good chance you could be waiting a while.

A dealer also has the option to trade cars at the port. For example, my FR-S I picked up this weekend was originally allocated for a dealer in Louisiana, however that dealer wanted a Tundra that was allocated for a dealer in Oklahoma. The dealers were able to swap the cars when they got to the port, so my FR-S was sent to Oklahoma rather than Louisiana. From my conversations with some dealers, it just depends on whether or not that dealer will do swaps at the ports, some dealers refuse to do this.

I could be wrong on some of the specifics, but that is my understanding of the process through speaking with multiple GST dealers.

^^ This is also my understanding of how it works. I ended up buying my car from a Toota/Scion dealership about a hundred miles away in the relatively small town of Sierra Vista. I got the car in Mid September and it was only the second FR-S they had ever been allocated. I do know they are notified in advance of what they're going to receive and approximately when they're going to receive it. I called them around the first of September and told them I was looking for a manual firestorm and they told me they were receiving one in two to three weeks. I immediately put a deposit on the car and the rest is history.

No they don't but this is where the preferencing part plays its role. For instance, I spoke to a dealership in August who only wanted to allocate cars with the BeSpoke unit, so they preferenced allocations that would come with the unit.

Of course, at this point most dealerships will not preference directly based on what a specific customer wants. And they're not going to preference popular color choices and transmissions (ie Red or White manual) because if they do, it will take a while to get the allocation.

So most dealerships just take what's offered or preferences port installed options.

When I bought my car the radio and the car were two seperate items. Even though my car was only the second one this particular dealership ever received, it came without a radio and the dealership had those (plural) in stock as I was offered my choice of radios when I went to pick up the car. My basic radio was installed in probably 5 minutes after I saw and road tested the car.

It is set up in a way that the dealers that are on top of Scion sales YTD/MTD receive the bigger shipment of FR-S. I know when the first release of FR-S to the DC/MD/VA area and region neighbours, about 65 cars were scattered between ~140 dealers. The dealership I work in received 2 at the time and our sister dealer 13 miles away received 5. Which means some dealers never even got to see the car.

And unlike Toyota, who allocates cars every two weeks. Scion allocates cars once a month. Which made my tension of wait on my order very high every time a new allocation was out.

So Scion is the first of the month for allocations? Toyotas 1st and 15th? I heard Scions were also 1st and 15th....

1st week of the month. If i'm not even mistaken, they are first Wednesday of the month unless the day before was end of the month, then it is monday. Scion are like that in my region at least. Maybe they differ for others. I will go discuss with our fleet manager and get back to you later with exact details.