PiP - Hayward Toyota dealer demanding $595 over negotiated pre-order price

Bisco, not true. Every car has TDA on it. EVERY car other than corporate ordered fleet units for large orders/organizations.

 

You should check with your credit card statement or checking account if they deducted $500. Is so that's proof #1 that they *cannot* cancel your order.

On the other hand, they totally messed up by just giving you a 1K off MSRP and now trying to back away from it as they can sell it for a lot more on the open market. That's classic car selling tactics as "threatening to cancel your order" which they *cannot* as you have never given confirmation to them that you intend to cancel it. Sucks for them, as they are bound to the original order contract.

Per the previous posters, contact the corporate Prius team directly and best of luck. At least there will be hundreds/thousands of folks in the Bay Area who will now avoid that dealer. They completely underestimate the power of Twitter, Facebook and the like.

 

The TDA can be recorded as "cost of doing business" the next charge will for a "water management fee" AKA the cost for staff taking a piss.
These dealerships have also charged for paper towels and multiple diagnostic fees for the same problem. Just like the "documentation fee" for filling out the paper work to registering/selling you the car.

 

Diane, does TDA appear as a separate line item on the sticker price? I don't recall ever seeing it on any sticker, whether it's the manufacturer's sticker, or the dealer add-on sticker. Nor do I recall ever paying it.

 

I am personally offended by this statement below.
The TDA is an amount decided upon by many dealership voices/regions across the country - per region. It's really very nice that this is TRANSPARENT and not hidden like other manufacturer's do on their invoices.

That doesn't excuse Hayward's behavior, by the way. But, his posting what's truthful shouldn't raise your hackles. There are costs of doing business in every business. This is just one you can see clearly.

 

Good find Bilofsky. I've just did a search and indeed it's 6th on Google ranking. In fact I'm just going to do my part to increase ranking by clicking on the link

I suggest all the other posters to do the same, as they can raise the ranking.

@vine - I've also noticed they have a Facebook page: AutoWest Toyota Scion of Hayward - Local Business - Hayward, CA - Wall | Facebook

Not that many ppl will visit but upon your discretion, this thread can be posted on their wall to raise a red flag. You can also post a negative review on Yelp and file a complaint with the BBB. The BBB route works best as I have complained about a business in the past and they tried to contact me ASAP and rectify things so I will update the complaint to resolved.

Also they aren't smart to send you a threatening email. You can actually post them on this board, on the main area and also on other popular Toyota/Scion boards like ft86.com (that's a scion fr-s board with a ton of traffic). At best, it will detract people from going to that dealer to buy *any* car.

Hope all works out with the Toyota corp route as well. Don't let them strong arm you.

 

It doesn't show on your MSRP.
Nor do all of the other fees we are billed from the company such as FUEL and such.
These show on an invoice.

 

Dianne - sorry you were offended - I was just trying to point out that I am offended buy dealers that invent plausible sounding charges at purchase time or during servicing. I should have objected to "air quality management fees" AKA the cost of running the exhaust fans.

 

tplus - Yes, you were on the Texas Highway, which actually offloaded between Saturday midnight and Sunday afternoon. The email was sent a couple of days prematurely.

The contract says "This price also DOES NOT include taxes, vehicle registration and certain additional fees. Customer agrees to contact Dealer and Dealer agrees to provide details regarding these additional fees." So you might want to get a jump and ask the dealer about the fees. Or you could lay low and see how vine makes out. If he wins, that will make two Hayward Toyota customers who beat them back.

Do you care to share whether you got a discount off MSRP?

FYI my dealer (Putnam Toyota in Burlingame) says that my car from the Texas Highway should get there between Wednesday and next Monday. He won't know until the truck pulls up that morning.

Good luck.

 

I'm not in your region so your port's doings are not something I'm aware of. I don't have any of my PYXIS Leader cars yet but I do expect to soon.

I took deposits from everyone. How I handled the deposit checks was current and consistent with my dealership's deposit policy.

I can't track your car without its VIN#.

And, Erica's on vacation right now .. a well deserved one. There are people monitoring her PriusChat messages BUT frankly, that mailbox may be full by now. Your call to the 800-331-4331 number (I assume?) was the best way to get help.

Lastly, I was in Northern CA for many years... and while you may wish I was there, I don't!! (LOL) ... I am a Happy Southern CA transplant who loves Laguna .. I grew up in San Jose (Willow Glen) and worked in the Bay Area and a few other places around Concord and Marin County for over a decade..

 

Funny how only this one dealer finds it necessary to pass the TDA on to a pre-order customer. Seems that everyone else factored it into their agreed-upon price for the pre-order. It's not exactly like it's a surprise to the dealer. It seems obvious that this is a blatant attempt to back out of a "low-ball" offer and sell the car for a big markup.

My dealer took my deposit as a personal check and never cashed it. They returned it when we closed the sale. Apparently, non-refundable deposits on cars are not allowed under California law, making deposits rather pointless. (Edit: I think the only exception is if you sign an agreement to pay liquidation damages for a unique special order that the dealer may not be able to resell. But that certainly does not apply here!)

 

The message in the last e-mail from Toyota before I picked up my pre-ordered Plug-in was as follows:

"Start getting charged up because your new Prius Plug-in is on its way to Darcars Toyota Of Frederick. The only thing you'll have to haggle about when you pick it up is … well, nothing.

Your dealer should be contacting you soon. If you'd like to contact them to get more information, please call (301) 696-6300.

This is our final e-mail regarding your new Prius Plug-in. Thank you for moving advanced technology forward with us."

note: I have underlined the important section.
hope this helps.

 

My understanding was that the contract was valid and the price was pre-determined at time of ordering. If Hayward signed up online for the price you have in your contract, that's it... Shame they didn't factor their costs into their pricing. Learn the lesson and move on...

I've heard of TDA before, but as I've told the dealers I've negotiated with in the past (not the PiP) that their cost structure is their business... some dealers have higher electric bills too. All I care about is what price they will sell the car for. And if it's lower than their competitors' offers, they'll win the business. Plain and simple.

If TDA is an invoice issue for them, that's fine, but they shouldn't be able to add it on now as a fee to you. The dealer I bought with specifically wouldn't agree to a price until they got the invoice information from Toyota (which they did, prior to ordering day) so it's completely unbelievable that Hayward didn't have this then too. And it's completely unbelievable that for the first time, in all the years of doing business, that they suddenly forgot about a fee that's added to the invoices of ALL of the cars they sell.

Smells terrible, and they should be made aware of how quickly they're ruining their online reputation. They have a chance to make this right, but that window is closing fast...

Lastly, read every word of the contract... I'm pretty sure they can't cancel the order for a certain period of time. Just read every word and keep on down the path you're on with Toyota... best of luck.

 

OK people, I'm back and Natalya has been doing a great job holding down the PM mailbox. We've received the message and just got through the thread, please give us a little time to investigate and try to help out.

Thanks for your patience,
Erica Gartsbeyn
Prius Product Manager
Toyota USA

 

We picked ours up in virginia and were able to negotiate a night in a hotel, plane tickets and rides from airport to airport/hotal/dealer. worth about $500