I live in South Florida and I don't see the need for Protection Package ($619) or Splash Guards ($79)- any comments?
Splash Guards - probably. Toyoguard - definitely not. Buy a $10 can of fabric sealer if you're worried about your upholstery. This is a 100% money maker for the dealer.
There are alot of posts of this in this forum and also in Siennaclub.org. Search that sister site, I started one of the threads there. BTW, the invoice cost of that $619 grouping is $200. I ordered our 06 Sienna without it, its totally unnecessary, but you should put your own sealant on the exterior, and put either scotchguard or 303 fabric guard on the interior. That's what I did.
If you're in the SE region (like me) good luck on getting them NOT to add Toyoguard. My dealer said all the cars in the SE region were "required" to have it.
No, that is not true. If you intercept the car before or just after it hits port (Jacksonville, where SE Toyota preps all the cars) the dealer can pull the car without it being added. If the car goes to dealerships without such a request, it will likely be added by SE Toyota to add cost to the vehicle. I had Toyota of Concord preference our 06 Sienna XLE Limited without the protection group. Now some dealerships will not do this. Lake Norman Toyota would not preference the car without the protection group, saying I would be disappointed, the car would be noisier, blah, blah, blah. I took my business to the next closest dealership, Toyota of Concord and had an excellent ordering experience. My salesperson was Robert Ripper (has a Chezk accent) and the sales manager was Miles Honeycutt.) Toyota of Lake Norman thus missed two new car sales because of their lack of service on this issue.
cdavid: Good choice, never believe a car salesman that claims things "have to be added" especially after agreeing on the price . And as others have said buy some scotch guard and some nice wax for the car, hell you can hav it prof. detailed and sealed for a fraction of $600! I also always refuse the scotch guard on furniture and to this day they always comes delievred with it anyway. It's cheaper for them to simply to it on all furniture then to skip ona few. That tells me that it's pure profit for something that should have been included in the first place so I will not pay for it. I'm sure many Toyota dealers will try to pressure you with late breaking add-ons as you don't want to wait longer for the car. Me? I'm willing to walk away from any dealer that tries this. /Robert
I personally played the "I'm thinking of buying the car in Virginia" card (and it was the truth) and found out just how easily they can put "NO TOYOGUARD" on the order. If anyone is in the Central FL area, I do recommend Mark Schryver at Phillips Toyota in Leesburg. Very straightforward, got my Prius a *lot* earlier than I expected.
My dealer in Stuart, FL had everything removed from the invoice before it hit port. They *can* do it, they just don't WANT to.