Toyota Opinion of Dealers charging a Premium?

This means its not made by a union shop...I didn't know that.
Now I REALLY want one.

Alpha

 

so where is a place that toyota has set up that we can report dealers that take advantage of toyota's customer base?

-drew

 

Yeah!

If they wanted to know! Just call any dealer in the Los Angeles Area!!!!! At least 5k over invoice and screwing any preordered car!!!!!!!
Anyone have that number? I would love to start reporting all the dealers.

 

How do you figure, from the above, that it's non-union?

 

Not made by a union shop...

Alpha Wrote:

This means its not made by a union shop...I didn't know that.
Now I REALLY want one.


Tempus wrote:

How do you figure, from the above, that it's non-union?

(KM) He's figuring that there are no unions in Japan, therefore its a non-union product. I figure that if there are no unions there, it's because japanese corporate culture treats workers as valuable assets. American corporate culture has shifted over towards viewing personnel as expenses needing to be trimmed.

 

How do you figure the Prius is made by non-union labour?

The Japanese auto industry is highly unionized. In fact, I have not found a single automobile that is made in Japan that is built with non-union labour.

 

I'm sorry I ment to say "DOES this mean....?"

So if it is oh well I still can't wait to get mine. At least its a Japanese union.

Alpha

 

highly unionized? that is news to me.

funny, when Toyota bought the old GM plant in Kentucky they didnt allow the union in. i wonder if that has changed also.

 

So in the end its the purchasers who get penalized, not the dealers as the purchaser has to wait even longer, but no doubt still pay the premium. :x It would be better to fine the dealer say the cost of a complete car for each they sold at a premium give a warning with the threat of loss of franchise.

 

that is the reason why i was only on one list. my dealer charged exactly the list price and not a penny more. the only additional charge he had was a security thing for about $199 that i had the option to cancel although i got it since it did sound like a good idea and the standard $515 destination charge. although Prius' are currently unknown outside the Prius community, i feel that that is soon to change making the Prius in huge demand from the general public.

unfortunately, the inevitable fallout from such popularity is car theft. and it doesnt matter what is done to safeguard against theft, the facts are, if someone wants your car, they will figure out a way to get it.

 

Well, they can get it (flatbed truck, etc.), but unless they also steal a working fob, they're not going to be doing much with it. (Look around for a Prius up on blocks in the front yard. :lol: )

Lotta details about this here.

 

a working fob would be no help at all.

before your Prius powers down, it reprograms the fob every time. so a working fob unless it comes from the car being stolen would be of little use.

i have often wondered how this is done. maybe a timestamp combined with an algorithm based on code embeded in the car. that way, the spare fob would also work.

 

IF Toyota indeed has a policy against charging premiums, rather than penalizing dealers by reducing their allotment, why not penalize the dealers by forcing them to return the premium paid by the consumer?

By the way, I had an update yesterday on our local Toyota dealer and it seems that he is still playing fair with the waiting list. In fact, the list is posted and visible. When a car comes in, the first on the list is called. If they pass on the vehicle, the second name is called...and so on down the line until the Prius finds a new home.

 

Toyota has no policy either for or against adding markups or discounting. They have contracts with each dealership to sell the dealers cars at agreed to invoice pricing, and ON SOME MODELS offer incentives to the buyers (rebates) when the cars are purchased, and they also offer ON SOME MODELS special financing at times to certain tier credit buyers (qualified buyers) in lieu of rebates.

Each region agrees on their percentage of TDA that is paid per car. And, their adminstrative fuel costs per car. Then, that's IT. Toyota has no say in dealers adding markups as well as they have no say in who's discounting cars or in some cases, selling cars at a loss to keep up the volume. I'm certain that as a whole, they don't care as long as the cars keep rolling off the line and everyone's making a profit overall.

It's politically and contractually impossible to impose a sanction on a dealer who sells a car over MSRP as well as it should be... the same way that it's also impossible to sanction a dealer who's willing to sell for less. It's free trade... and once we as dealers have the car(s) we are also free to sell them at whatever the market will bear.

Dianne

 

I agree with Dianne, but it still sucks.
That would really tick me off if I got passed over because a dealer wanted to give one to someone because they will pay more than sticker.

Alpha

 

In a free-market economy, when you want to buy something that's in high demand and low supply, you generally have to pay through the nose. If you have something to sell under the same circumstances, you can charge through the nose.

The really surprising thing here (and it's a credit to Toyota and the majority of dealers!) is that rather than charging what the market will bear, most have adopted the waiting-list system. From what I read on PriusChat, very few dealers are taking the capitalist road. Even though our own favorite bald Cuban got shafted, this seems to be rare.

The free-market system is evil when the basic necessities of life (food, housing, medical care, etc.) are denied to those who don't have enough money. But it's harder to make a case for price controls when the product being sold is a luxury car. (Though it's exasperating, of course, when something you want is in short supply.)

 

I wonder how much motivation Toyota really has to sell more Prius cars. It's kind of a concept car and their profit margin on it has to be pretty small. Selling some to prove that the technology is viable, getting a bunch of awards, and having a waiting list that's a mile long is all pretty good PR.

The customers that don't want to wait or pay a premium will buy some other kind of car. Many of those will be Toyotas with higher profit margins. I believe that the main motivation for increasing production is the negative PR that comes out when the waiting and price gouging starts to get ugly. That seems to be raflected in their comments like "customers are waiting almost too long."