Dealer Trade - What's the Process???

Normally the salesperson must pick up the phone and start calling other dealers that are "approved". Normally this is all dealerships unless there is bad blood somewhere. The salesperson starts with the closest dealers and then expands the search until they find what you want. The salesperson should keep you updated on the search.

Sometimes there are problems with the process such as another dealer not being willing to part with a particular model or finding out the dealer has somehow sold the vehicle after it has been promised, but usually it is a pretty straightforward operation.

Salespeople generally do not like to search as it can be time consuming, There have been times when my wife (she is a Prius salesperson), has six hours of calling around to find a car for a customer to provide a price and then the customer says they don't want it or they decided to work with another dealer... Or they had three different dealers all searching for the same thing...

If you find a good salesperson you are fortunate. If you treat them fairly they will likely do the same to you, but keep your eyes open as anything can happen at any time.

 

Call on the phone, what are you kidding me. The sit in front of their PC and go right to the other dealerships inventory. Once they find what you are looking for they make a call to see if it is still available, then request the trade. If it is okayed by the dealership they can get in touch with the distribution system and switch the one they were suppose to receive for the car the other dealership was to get.

 

I recently ordered a Prius and was asked for 3 color choices. When my name was up it was my third color choice that was available. I asked how to get my first color choice and they told me I would go to the bottom of the list and start the wait over, with no guarnatees as to if my first choice color would be up when my name came up. As it turned out I decided to keep my third choice and I'm happy I did. I ended up only waiting 3 weeks the first time, who knows how long it would have been if I had waited.

 

One other thing, I imagine it's hard to swap due to the fact that each dealers allocation is already spoken for. I haven't heard of any dealers that are ordering cars to just add to their lot inventory.

 

My experience, in purchasing my Prius, was the dealership had a "dedicated" Inventory person who kept track of all incoming vehicles and initiated trades. Not something I would entrust to a salesman.

 

When I purchased mine working through the internet salesperson, he was able to check other dealers inventories on-line. Many dealers now post an inventory on-line to the public, but this is not the same thing. I was seeing cars available in the color that I wanted at some other area dealers, but according to the internal system he was accessing, they were already gone. I thought maybe he was giving me a line of BS, so I called one of the other dealers. They said the one I was interested had been sold and that their public inventory list on-line isn't always accurate.

FWIW, I was provided an offer on a Prius in Magnetic Gray (which was my first choice). I went in to sign the paperwork and make it official and suddenly it was ... oh you wanted a silver one right? Ah no, that was my third choice and the offer that I agreed to specifically stated Magnetic Gray. It took another 3 weeks, but I eventually got the right one (direct off the boat to my dealer). I had to take "paper delivery" of it on March 31 last year in order to qualify for the higher tax credit and 0% financing offer at the time. I actually got it on April 3. A little nerve wracking but it all worked out in the end. Oh and it was $300 under dealer invoice ... what a difference a year makes!

 

when i bought mine, the credit union i bank at did a search and found the specific car i wanted in novato, ca and had it delivered to san jose.

i guess i was lucky, they never asked me to pay for the transport, i could of not showed up or something

the other weird this is when i later ran a car fax on it, it sat around in novato for 4 months unwanted, before it was sold to me

 

A great many dealers do not keep their online inventory up to date, plus online inventory likely does not include vehicles that may be "on order" so at least where my wife works, they must get on the phone and actually talk to someone.

I think there would be a good value to have someone perform this function other than salespeople but where my wife works it is the salesperson's responsibility.