I'm a state employee and a dealership about 2 hours away from me offers state employees vehicles at "Dealer cost" and offers to show full disclosure but will not discuss cost over the phone or email. We are in the market for a 2011-12 Highlander and was just wondering is anyone has a idea of what dealer cost would be on a 2012 Highlander 4WD V6 Limited with an MSRP of $43586. I hate to waste my time driving if I can just go locally and get close to the same deal or use the other dealerships offer as leverage to buy closer to home. Thanks for any info.
I'm a state employee and a dealership about 2 hours away from me offers state employees vehicles at "Dealer cost" and offers to show full disclosure but will not discuss cost over the phone or email. We are in the market for a 2011-12 Highlander and was just wondering is anyone has a idea of what dealer cost would be on a 2012 Highlander 4WD V6 Limited with an MSRP of $43586. I hate to waste my time driving if I can just go locally and get close to the same deal or use the other dealerships offer as leverage to buy closer to home. Thanks for any info.
I wouldn't waste my time with that. Check out Edmunds.com for a true indication of invoice/MSRP/'fair price. In addition check out Carmax.com (they sell new Toyotas down here in Maryland) for their prices, if you buy at Carmax price (i.e. have a dealer match) you've gotten yourself a very fair deal. When I worked in a dealership and someone brought in their ad, we'd either match it or know we'd lose business to them or another dealer. It made for a quick negotiation.
If you're getting the run around in Jersey I have a good friend that I still recommend customers to in Maryland, no high pressure, no games. He has enough repeat business that he doesn't NEED to convince anyone to buy a car.
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Well nowadays it is pretty trivial to find the "Dealer Invoice" to go along with the MSRP, you can find it at Edmunds, KBB, etc. As far as what the actual "Dealer Cost" is - well that is not going to be so easy. In the "old days" you really had to work a bit to find the dealer invoice and if you could find it, it had some good meaning. Since the dealer invoices are now freely available to anyone of the internet, that document is now subject to being inflated so that the dealers can manage to keep some leverage. In other words, MSRP is now essentially meaningless, and dealer invoice is not what people work off of, either up or down, depending. If you want to get closer to the true dealer cost, you have to do more work to find out about dealer incentives and holdbacks. This information can also be gotten with a little more detective work, sometimes you pay a little bit (like $20 or so) and you can get it from various places like Consumer Reports and others. I have heard that there are yet other reductions for dealers so I doubt if you will ever find the "true" dealer cost, but you can can get pretty close to the ballpark with these services.
PS - No dealer is ever going to tell you their real cost, state employee or not
If you want to get closer to the true dealer cost, you have to do more work to find out about dealer incentives and holdbacks. This information can also be gotten with a little more detective work, sometimes you pay a little bit (like $20 or so) and you can get it from various places like Consumer Reports and others. I have heard that there are yet other reductions for dealers so I doubt if you will ever find the "true" dealer cost, but you can can get pretty close to the ballpark with these services.
PS - No dealer is ever going to tell you their real cost, state employee or not
There's a point that the dealer would rather you walk than waste their time. If you start trying to negotiate dealer reserve/dealer holdback/dealer kickbacks/TDA (Toyota Advertising)/etc which total about $1500 backend profit for the dealer to pay the salespeople, keep the lights on, etc you're asking a bit much. As I mentioned before, if you get the Carmax price you're doing well.
There's a point that the dealer would rather you walk than waste their time. If you start trying to negotiate dealer reserve/dealer holdback/dealer kickbacks/TDA (Toyota Advertising)/etc which total about $1500 backend profit for the dealer to pay the salespeople, keep the lights on, etc you're asking a bit much. As I mentioned before, if you get the Carmax price you're doing well.
I agree with what you said 100%. I do believe in a fair deal for everyone and I am not saying that you should try to get the price lowered based on those factors. What I am saying is that the buyer should be educated, and be aware that invoice does not equal cost. I am looking at pricing right now, and "true values" or "typical paid prices" are hovering right around where the invoice is for the Highlander I am looking at. But the buyer should be aware that at invoice, the dealer is still making a profit, they are not selling it to you at "their cost" which is what some might imply during negotiations.
The invoice is now the starting point. A fair price might be around invoice, or it might be $1,000 higher, or it might even be lower. It will depend on the car and a number of factors.
Also, I realize that there may be some loss of translation with the messages being passed on, but going back to the original post, I see a red flag when a dealer says they will sell it at "dealer cost" which is the exact quote that was used. Based on everything I wrote, I think there is an issue with that, because it is highly doubtful that the dealer will tell what their "cost" is. Nor should they. In this situation, I would start out with a simple question for them on the phone: "When you say you will offer it to me at "dealer cost", are you actually referring to the "dealer invoice" price? If they say, yes, we will offer it at dealer invoice, now you have something concrete to work from.
I doubt there is even such a thing as "dealers cost". That would imply that the dealer bought the car for a given amount and then resells it. I would guess that the "local dealer" is just an agent for some larger "dealer" and they each take a cut of the monthly transactions. The MSRP is just a guide towards making a bottom line profit on a whole batch of cars.
Look at the fine print. Most "dealer cost" claims are heavily adjusted and most end up being dealer invoice. No dealer is actually going to sell their vehicles at pure cost. Hell, no business is going to if they want to be open tomorrow.
BTW, we have 3 truecar dealers here in NJ.. Went to one and they offered the truecar price but the dealer has an added on accessories an additional $1000 and there no working around it..
I just bought my 2012 HL using truecar.com. Honestly I had a very positive experience. I did receive 3 quotes from different dealers and the numbers (price of the vehicle and dealer fees) were written upfront in the quote. I went to the dealer with the quoted price and that was it.
On a quick comparo for the same model/config:
- Truecar & quotes from dealers #1,#2,#3 via Truecar.com: $31.5K
- Dealer #4 (I contacted another one via email): $36.5K
- Dealer #5 (one closer to my home) as a walk in: $38.5K
I finally went to dealer #2 (dealer fees were lower than #1 and #3), and they offered a big number for my trade-in
May be because it was end-of-year (dec 20th), may be because I'm the one that if I don't like the price I just get up and leave, I don't know, but it true worked for me.
Just give it a try: register (it's free and you're not required to purchase) and request a quote. It's valid for 5 days. Dealers surely will bombard you with emails and phone calls. If it doesn't work, then you just delete the emails and that's it!!.
It is that trade in value that always muddies the water. You may have been better off with dealer #5 if they would have given you a bigger number for the trade in. The bottom line is the difference you end up paying. To get a fair price on a trade in is a bigger challenge then dealing with the "dealers cost" in my limited experience. On my 2011 HL base I was offered from $500 to $4147 for a 2000 Dodge Caravan. I ended up paying $33,308 before taxes.
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