Toyota Canada - Access

I got my 2005 Driftwood from Don Valley Toyota Lexus in Toronto, Ontario back in October. Ontario was on a wait list - I was lucky and only had to wait 1 month. No dickering on price either - supply and demand. What we did do, however, was negotiate the trade in: a 1993 Honda Del Sol, and that lowered the price for us. The trade in, coupled with the $1000 tax rebate from Ontario gov't lowered the price even more.

So I feel we did ok. But I think you'd get more flexibility if you 1) bought near the end of the production year; or 2) if the dealership had cars available on the lot. We tried with the former, but in the end, it was the generous trade in and the tax rebate that gave us the 'reductions'.

It's to be expected with popular cars, I think. (And that they're made in Japan and shipped over, rather than made in North America.)

 

Ya, it's basically all of the lower mainland Toyota dealers - you need to get up to Kamloops or Kelowna, etc to get away from the practise. You're not likely to get lower than MSRP for a Prius anyway, there's enough demand to move them all at that price.

BTW: Just a heads-up, if you get your extended insurance through Canadian Direct instead of ICBC, you get an extra "hybrid discount" of about $200/yr, so it might be worth checking into when you are pricing insurance.

Dave

 

Yeah that's basically the case, but there are a few ways they'll still "deal". My $0.02...

When I was looking in the fall of '04 it was MSRP. When the '05s started rolling in they were discounting the left-over '04s by $1000. I talked to most of the mainly lowland dealers, drove three '04s, and almost bought one. It had 50kms on the ODO, and the interior was already showing some dirt from test drives (I really didn't want the beige interior), plus the wait for an '05 was pretty short, so I wasn't super motivated to close the deal. I would, however, have driven it away for the right price. After about thirty minutes of horse-trading they were willing to knock more than $1000 off (can't remember the exact number, somewhere around $1200 or so), if I wrote the check that day. I came pretty close to buying it, but decided that I wanted the '05 ("one more" as Nigel Tufnel would say), so I got them to order one. While I was waiting for my car to come from Japan, they located an '05 in the province that was the same color/package, but with a few hundred kms. They offered that one below MSRP too, but not enough below to sway me.

Although, this year, there don't seem to be many (any?) '05s left.

Another way they're usually willing to deal is on trade-ins. They will generally low-ball their offer, but if your trade-in is a clean, desirable vehicle there will always be room for negotiation.

 

Once an '06 arrives, they might be flexible on that '05 if the two of them are sitting right next to each other on the lot. Is that at Downtown Toyota? I know someone who might be interested in that one.

 

My brother-in-law bought a Matrix in Courtenay, B.
C. at the no dicker, "access" price. In Vancouver, I also paid "access", the same price found on the Toyota Canada website for the 2006. I ordered it last October, elected to wait for the '06 because I wanted to stay away from the ivory interior, and liked the sounds of silver pine mica. At that time they weren't able to show me a sample of the colour and they couldn't tell me the price of the '06's The contract was written up subject to approval. Sounds kind of weird, buying a car without knowing what colour it'd be, how much it'd cost, when I'd see it. The car came just before Christmas, and I love the colour, and everything about it.

 

I thought that the "access" price scheme was declared illegal (deemed as price fixing) yet the dealers still seem to think that they can get away with it. I'd tell them that and see what their reaction is.

 

My understanding of this, which may be way off, is that it was found to be illegal because Toyota Canada was helping the dealerships within each region set a fixed price (slightly below MSRP). It was deemed illegal so Toyota Canada removed themselves from the loop and now the dealers simply use MSRP as the fixed price. It's not illegal for Toyota to specify an MSRP on a consumer item and dealers are free to discount that price if they wish (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

Of course the fact that the dealers all get together and decide they'll stick to the MSRP pricing is not Toyota's concern.

Personally I'm of two minds on this. Having bought our Prius under the initial Toyota Access plan (I got a total of $50 dollars below MSRP I think), I have to say that it was the most stress free pleasant car buying experience I've had. On the other hand it annoys me that there's no haggling since the general consensus when buying large ticket items is you haggle.

 

don't forget to apply for the PST rebate if it's not discounted on the sales invoice. You used to have to apply to the taxation branch in Victoria to get the rebate, and I'm unsure what the procecure is now.

 

nope me neither not a peep about a tax credit for hybrids from the feds. Like Tideland Prius I had to apply for both of the cars.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Hudon @ Jan 12 2006, 04:56 PM) [snapback]188695[/snapback]</div>

HI guys, i'm in Toronto
i went to don valley toyota for my 2006 prius
i was able to neogiate the price down to 30124 from 31800. but dealer won't give me anything else except interior protection.......
I want to ask, how to apply the PST tax break?
also anyone from Toronto or Ontario know where i can get the EV mod done?