Australian 86 Dealers - The Good & The Bad

[ChocolateNick]

The Bad:
FERNTREE GULLY Toyota
Contract price $2000 above price on website.
Offered $17000 trade in on a car I later sold for $25000.
Took my deposit quite happily with the promise to secure me a car in the 1st shipment. I believe the salesman was acting under the instructions of the sales manager so I wont name him personally. Others have since told me of similarly bad experiences buying other cars from that dealership. If you live in Melbourne avoid FERNTREE GULLY TOYOTA.

[click_lenny]

Not sure this is gd or bad......u tell me.

Order my 86 GTS MT from Sydney city Toyota, not the one from Waterloo. took the sales person 1 months to finally set up the online tracking thing for me, after i email him, call him, txt him, mms him and went down there personally.

Been waiting for him to buzz me for test drive but waited n waited and finally i got a test drive, by my own afford to call them up to found out the car arrive that morning, short n shity test drive in the city, speed limit is 50 as u can imagine......

He promise me another test drive at west link high way 2 weeks after that but never rang me back.......rang him on the pass Tuesday to arrange a test drive for MT on Friday as the 1st super short test drive is AT, he said call me back when he arrange it, as usual, never rang me bck.

Got the news over forum that 86 was scheduled to production in September will be another month delayed, no news from my sales person again ......

Man, i don't know what to say, i fed up with his NO SERVICE AT ALL !!!!! 1st time buy brand new car and yet so shitty service from Toyota......if it is not 86, i would have been gone to other car......F**K!!!!

[sticky]

Originally Posted by click_lenny

Not sure this is gd or bad......u tell me.

Sounds pretty bad to me. I had to hassle my dealer a bit get tracking info and a test drive but it only took him a week or two to deliver.

[spr1nter]

Name of Dealer and Location: Hinterland Toyota Robina
86 Spec: GTS/Manual/Tornado Grey
Date Ordered: 30/06/12
Approx. Delivery Date: Currently Nov (may change but at least I’m informed and not getting BS)
Approx. Waiting Time: 4-5 months
Dealer Delivery Charge: -
Total Price: ~39k
Customer Service Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: I live in Brisbane and was having a frustrating time dealing with most of the dealerships in my immediate vicinity. Two of the dealers seemed to have the mentality that I should be putting down a deposit just for the right to talk to them regarding the 86 which they knew next to nothing about. I even had one try to sell me a Corolla ZR Hatch on the basis “there is no wait and it has almost as much torque and is more practical”. . . . I’m not buying an 86 to be practical and the wait is not too big of an issue. Anyway I was looking at carsales and noticed a Tornado Grey manual GTS up at Hinterland Toyota Robina. I sent an email enquiry and was called within 10 minutes. I was called by John LeMaitre and we had a quick chat. I had yet to test drive an 86 at that stage and wasn’t willing to commit prior to test driving. There was no push from John however he did tell me that it will most likely be gone by the time I call him back. Anyhow the misses and I test drove and LOVED it so we wanted to place an order. I rang John back to see if the car had gone and of course it had. John and I then talked for a further 20-30min. John was extremely knowledgeable and an obvious enthusiast. He has ordered himself (legitimately with no queue jumping) a red 86 due to arrive around the same time as mine. He also has on order a TRD rear spoiler. Still no sales pressure just a good honest chat on what turned out to be his day off! That Saturday torn between ordering locally or down at Robina we choose to deal with John. Although he is out of the way for us he was the first genuine enthusiast we dealt with and the service since has been first class! THANKS JOHN!! Will have to organise a cruise when they come through

[AUmarvin]

Can back up every good report on Andrew Smith at Peter Warren. Had a test drive yesterday. So refreshing to talk to a no pressure, straight up car salesman.

Cannot say the same of my experience at Rockdale Toyota. Gouging and pressure, walked out.

[w arghh x]

Scarborough Toyota in Osborne park.

Been dealing with Taria there and it's honestly been one of the best dealership experiences I've come across!
I have bought a new model car from Mitsubishi (got stung there), Ford (car was damaged new and repairs were shocking to say the least!) and finally Holden (who took money, delivered a damaged car and wouldn't repair it!!) and had nothing but bad experiences.

Taria has been very upfront, very quick with replies to emails and gone out of her way to provide info and help out.

Would recommend!

[BRAWL]

So far so good with Prosser Toyota at Canning Vale. My salesman Michael was very helpful and he even brought out a manual to my house (having only test driven the auto) to make sure I could use the clutch pedal with no dramas as I am 6'6" (198cm) tall.

I have contacted him a couple of times with minor questions. opefully I get a concrete(ish) delivery date soon

[Blue86]

Picked up my Sonic Blue GT yesterday!

Put a deposit on it in probably April or around then.

Bought it from Nunawading Toyota in Melbourne from a salesman named Ben Coleman. He was great! Very friendly and notified me of the progress of the car all along the way (including it's "birth" day). I paid the normal price which was fine (just happy to get the car!).

He gave me a great little run down of all the features (basic little things like turning on gear indicator on the dash etc), hooked up my phone through the bluetooth stereo etc etc before I drove off.

Overall it was a 10/10 experience and the first new car I've ever bought. A guy in my street was asking about the car yesterday and it turned out by coincidence he had bought a Kluger 4wd from the same salesman at the same dealership 2 weeks before.

I don't know how easy an experience it would be getting a car now with production limitations and all of that stuff and we have to realise that when a dealer promises we will get a car by a certain time they are only going off the best info they have at the time as to their stock allocation expectations.

The 86 is not a corolla or similar mass produced car and I think that's the issue with stock.

Either way, I'm happy and have no hesitation getting my servicing done at Nunawading after the great service I got.

I'll get some photos of my car up next week when some interesting rims get put on it


(don't worry... they won't be spinning or chrome)

[Z86]

Grats on your new car.

Originally Posted by Blue86

... we have to realise that when a dealer promises we will get a car by a certain time they are only going off the best info they have at the time as to their stock allocation expectations.

I'll respectfully disagree with you on that. Some dealers lie to your face, just wanting to have you sign on the bottom line, hoping that you'll hang around, or that they might get lucky with extra stock or a swap.
But I am glad you had a great experience with your dealer.

Originally Posted by Blue86

I'll get some photos of my car up next week when some interesting rims get put on it


(don't worry... they won't be spinning or chrome)

Damn, I wanted to see who would be first with some spinning chrome lol

[Blue86]

Originally Posted by Z86

Grats on your new car.



I'll respectfully disagree with you on that. Some dealers lie to your face, just wanting to have you sign on the bottom line, hoping that you'll hang around, or that they might get lucky with extra stock or a swap.
But I am glad you had a great experience with your dealer.



Damn, I wanted to see who would be first with some spinning chrome
lol

Fair point... obviously I meant that assuming they aren't telling lies..

spinning chrome hey.... hmm better return my light weight 17s

[drow]

Hey guys just wanted to share my story on FTG Toyota as my experience was actually good.

I went in there on the 3rd July to test drive a car walked out with a deposit down on a GT Manual. Changed my mind a couple of days later and ordered a GTS with Aero kit (no worries about changing the order happily changed it over)

After i had signed the paper work and paid the deposit my salesman continued to be very helpful - ringing me up when they had a manual in stock so i could come and test drive a manual (id only driven an auto at this point) - then ringing me once a week to let me know how the order was going.

Then on the 19th July he rang me to tell me finance had fallen through on a GTS manual without the aero kit but in black - i could have it in the next week if i wanted it. I told him id take it if i could pick it up on the saturday (2 days away from the call). He agreed and im now the happy owner of a Black gts manual (ok its not red but i still love it and i think id be waiting for 6+ months for a red one)

Now the dealer only charged me $1895 Dealer Delivery not over $2k like ive seen in another post. I am not saying that is not what the other member was charged -- simply stating that is not my experience.

Just thought id post my experience,, the price i paid was high 39k not as cheap as some of the posts ive seen on this forum but i kind of seem to forget that every time i start the car ;P
I dealt with a Sales man named Igor -- and all i can say is i found him very helpful (even after id signed the paperwork which i found surprising :P)

[Sutty]

Name of Dealer Ingham Toyota - Tony Lahtinen
86 Spec GTS AT Sonic Blue
Date ordered 21/7/12
Approx Delivery Date 28 August 2012
Wait time Nil - already In Production when I bought it.
Dealer delivery charge $1644
Total Price $41.8k
Customer Service Rating 9/10
Comments I found Tony to be very helpful. I rang him on Friday looking for a car, none in stock but he did go to the effort of looking in their incoming stock list and found the GTS AT available. Told him that I was definitely interested but couldn't do anything until I had confirmed that I could get my deposit back on my other GTS that I had on order, which would take at least a day as the deealership was closed for public holiday. He was more than understanding and told me to to ring him on Saturday and let him know if the deal could go ahead. Managed to get my original deposit back and rang him on the Sat morning, thinking that the car would definitely have been sold by then and surprisingly he had 'reserved it' on the off chance that I would get my other deposit back. Tony was also willing to go into work on the Saturday ( his day off) to draw up the contracts etc and take my deposit. He was very honest too about all the paint protection/tinting etc and when I told him what I had sourced locally he said there was no way they could get close to that price and didn't try to push it on me. Excellent service, well worth ringing.

[Bauer]

Gowans Toyota Devonport
Mike Maria

9/10 - lost 2 points for not agreeing on the trade price which I pulled from the table but gained 1 back for the red carpet that I had to walk to get in the car this morning when I picked it up

Really easy to deal with, constant contact before I even met him. Really happy and if anyone is looking for a blue GT manual and feels like a boat ride, give Mike a call as the GT is due for delivery in August and was unsold when we last spoke about it.

Called him last Monday, saw him Thursday, collected today.

And he found me a plate that had the numbers 86 in it. He went above and beyond on that one. I had already chosen a plate out of the box and while I was off at the bank getting a cheque, he called Service Tasmania to see what they had in stock. Here in Tas we have 1 letter, 2 numbers, 2 letters so stoked to have 86 as my numbers.

[Raffi]

Hi everyone... I'm a Melbourne based dealer and we have just secure 2 86's for October delivery. They are both GT grade in the red. One is an Auto and the other is a Manual.

If your interested you can reach me on 0424 269 206