Texas dealers

Re: Texas dealers - dallas area

my first post here. tho' not a newbie to computers or the web.

whew! my experience is somewhat different from what most folks have experienced - some good and some not so good.

i am a member of texas credit union [from my 22yrs at texas instruments]. they have a service which i've used three times now. they provide very accurate new car prices[list and invoice] and give you the names of the "credit union" reps at various dealers. you call the rep, tell them what you're looking for and when you want to come in and check it out. or, just show up and ask for the CU rep. when i bought my '97 chrysler concorde LX and my 2001 vw new beetle diesel, after i test drove them, i was out of there w/ a car in less than 2 hrs. most of that time was either in the business/finance office or waiting for it to be made ready.

last april, my wife purchased her 2007 barcelona red touring prius from toyota of dallas [n.w. dallas]. she walked in there around 2pm and talked w/ danny [forgot his last name]. she said she wanted one and that red was not negotiable [turned out the '97 concorde LX was on its last legs, but she didnt tell them that]. danny located one in the dallas area [from cowboy toyota in mesquite]. by 6pm when i got home, there was a barcelona red touring prius in the driveway. she didnt get as good as deal [options and price] as she might have, but she wanted one that afternoon.

so, in mid may 2007, i started researching online [toyota.com, local dealers' websites, edmunds, consumer reports, credit union, etc.] and got the invoice and list prices [matched what i got from my CU]. in early august 2007, i went to toyota of richardson (ToR, north of dallas) and asked for either of the CU reps. tho' neither were available, a sales rep sent me to dwayne dorsey - he's ToR's fleet manager and is responsible for getting cars for the sales reps when ToR doesnt have on the lot what a customer wants. he had access to the entire gulf state region inventory.

he printed out the price list [which matched exactly the prices i got from the web and my CU], asked me what i wanted on it [package 2, options b], and what color i wanted [1st choice silver pine mica, 2nd choice blue]. he found a blue car in the region and quoted me the invoice price plus maybe $300 [forgot]. since that sounded pretty good to me, i gave him my credit card for $1000 down [they never ran it thru my cc account]. he said it would be about a month before it would be in dallas [mid-sept]. w/in an hr of leaving the dealership, he called my mobile number and said i could have a silver pine mica prius in about 2 weeks, but that this model had leather seats. a friend had recommended that to me, so i said "sure". 12 days later, dwayne called and said the car would be on the lot the next day. two days later, there was a new 2007 silver pine mica prius next to my wife's barcelona red one. [we tell our friends we're going to mate them and breed baby prii. ]

finalizing the price, ttl & fees (about $25K) with dwayne took about 1 hr. then i went to the finance guy - that took about 2 hrs . good news was he matched the rate i would have gotten from my bank (5.9% from USAA; my CU had a higher rate, so i didnt even plan on financing thru them) and discounted some of the items i purchased - an ext warranty [tho just emailed Troy in Greenfield MA about a warranty from him], pre-paid maintenance [~$600/3 yrs], lo-jack, GAP, and anti-theft deal. after the vw beetle trade of $7K & a $1K credit card down payment (might as well get some airmiles out of it), i financed $22K, about $2K more than i financed for my vw beetle in 2001.

so, if you are a member of a credit union, see if they have a similar deal. or just say you are a credit union member and ask to speak to a CU rep or the fleet dealer. and spend less time dickering around on price and spend more time in your new car. :car:


btw, i did go to toyota of dallas before heading to ToR. they only had one on the lot and it wasnt what i wanted. the sales rep told me that "everyone" in town was selling them for $3K over invoice. i told him i could get a great deal at ToR and he just laughed. they wound up trying to sell me a 2006 prius w/ a pkg 2 levels above what i wanted, tho it was silver pine mica. after about 15-20 mins of trying to get a deal, i left. they just wouldnt budge and it wasnt really what i wanted. at sport city toyota (in garland, n.e. dallas county), NO sales rep even came up to me as i walked around the lot and the showrooms. that immediately lost them my business [it's closer to me than ToR).

best of luck as you search for yours. eace: