Any expereince with online shopping for a new Toyota?

Go to the Toyota website to see the inventory that the dealer has in stock and on-order. Once you identify the car you want, you can use the online purchasing at dealer website to get a quote, or if you are Costco member use their car buying service. Most credit unions also have a car buying service. The car buying service is just a way to hook you up with salesperson who handles internet/fleet sales at a particular dealer.

Here's what I did back in '05 when we bought our Solara SLE convertible:

Once I realized the local dealership wasn't going to deal, I went home and searched the internet for every Toyota dealership in the state of Wisconsin. I then constructed an email advising that I was *going* to buy *this* car from *someone* in the next 30 days... that this was their one shot... none of this "what will it take for me to put you into this car today" bullshit... none of this "cat and mouse" shit. Give me a quote. If it isn't your rock solid bottom line deal, you won't hear from me again. In the message, I also delineated every specification that I wanted, including the color of the vehicle.

I sent this single email to all of the dealerships (that made sure that each of them saw that they were competing with each other vis a vis seeing all of their email addresses listed in the "To:" line of the message).

Within an hour, I had 5 responses. ALL of them were lower than the price I could get from my local dealership and one of them had a price

Within a week, we drove off the lot of that particular dealership with our new convertible.

Our family, including my parents, have purchased about 2 dozen vehicles from Bredemann, and we refer another 5 or 6 friends a year to them. They have an excellent reputation although you may be able to save a couple of hundred dollars if you're willing to go through the hassle and haggle and visit multiple dealerships.

I live within walking distance to Schaumburg Toyota and go there for parts and for service that I don't do myself.

I bought my '97 Camry via Autobytel.com. They gave me an exact quote for what I'd specified, which dealer to get it from, and who there to ask for. I then went to three other Toyota dealers and none came anywhere close in matching price.

There was no haggling and no surprises. That was 11 years ago. I don't know how much things have changed since then.

Interesting and clever method... I like your competitive challenge. Have to try it myself one day.. so far I always buy 3 years old ones. Could not justify paying almost double money for a new car ;-)

Going back to your method - let me aks you couple of questions:

What were the differences in price quotes from different dealerships? How far (in dollars or %) was the best from the 2nd best and from the local one down the street from you?

How far did *you* have to drive to pick up this best deal? Was it worth it?

Did the guys located farther away from you gave your lower prices knowing you have to drive further away to pick their car?

I am thinking out loud here... What are the chances (in your opinion) that they communicated with each other to agree not to compete with each other and instead give you just a regular price adjusted for the travel you have to do to get to particular dealership?

Also, what are the chances for them to give you a teaser price and then - after you have drove - let's say 300 miles to get to their place

- tell you the quoted car just sold and they have a differen one, $XXX more expensive, counting on you not driving back home emptyhanded? This is a standard method to tease you with an add in the newspaper and then, when you arrive at the place and point to the add you will find out that the advertised car is gone but they have 4 other cars, with different prices, of course :-)

Yeah, I've bought my last new car (this one). The wife was teasing for this one something awful, tho.

They were all at least a couple hundred less than the local dealership. The "winning" bid was almost 900 less than the local dealership, if I recall correctly.

We had to drive about 150 miles. I thought it was very much worth it. Of course, gas wasn't over $4 a gallon then, either.

I have no way of knowing.

I suppose they could have done this. Don't know, don't care. I wound up with a price that was agreeable to me, considering the vehicle.

Because when they gave me the price I found agreeable, I had them write it up contingent on my securing my own financing. This meant that they had to provide me with a VIN for the bank. We did a lot of the paperwork via fax and email. This also made the delivery process much quicker and smoother.

All in all, I was very happy with how my deal worked out by doing it this way.

The book "The Millionaire Next Door" by Stanley and Danko mentioned that some millionaires do this when buying a car - only they do it by fax instead of by email.

Cheers,

Michael

This book is from what - 1998? 1999? Internet was not as much popular back then as it is today :-)

Besides, id you have broadband, you need a fax machine or a fax-modem. Those

My edition is 1996. ;-)

Yup, so true. Only time I use my fax modem is to deal with lenders - they insist on using antiquated technology for some reason.

Michael