Southern CA Dealer Experiences

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate @ Aug 21 2006, 11:03 AM) [snapback]306803[/snapback]</div>

To play devil's advocate, isn't it worthless to get a 2 point reduction in interest if they are charging you 5 points above anybody else. Unless you got a low rate quote from eloan or some good bank/credit union and they beat it by 2 points but you did pay $3000 over.. I bought my Prius from Carson too. Paid MSRP, wouldn't recommend them though, I believe their policy is to charge 3000 plus but I got a morning manager to give me MSRP and the nite manager wouldn't honor it until he called the morning manager to verify. So I got lucky.

Alex

 

Ok, here's my experience with Kearny Mesa Toyota. I wasn't going to reveal the name of the dealership until I found this thread. Some people have had no trouble with them, so YMMV, but I will *never* set foot there again. <_<

We were on our way to Mossy Toyota to test drive a Prius and to put down a deposit on a black one due to arrive in a couple days. I had spoken to someone earlier at KM and they had no Priuses in stock but they would call if someone cancelled an order. So, during our drive we got a call and they said they had one in stock. 15 minutes later were were looking at a Magnetic grey #1.

But, they had us fill out the credit application before being allowed to test drive the vehicle! They said someone else was already in the process of buying the car, and that it was now a "horse race" to see who would buy it first. (We should have walked at this point....) Ok, so we filled out the credit application. We were just opening the door of the car when another salesman ran out and said, laughing, "I just sold that one!" He then took the keys from our rep and removed the window sticker.

We complained to the sales manager who seemed not to care and said "that's just how it is with the Prius." They actually had another car in stock with identical specs, so we managed to buy that one instead - but not before they had initiated another "horse race" and called another family with 2 kids to look at the car!

They also messed up the VIN number on the paperwork, so we had to go through that process twice. To their credit, at least they called us when they had a car available and didn't charge over MSRP, but they sure put us through the wringer.

A couple days later, when I got our Lojack installed, the techs had left greasy fingerprints on the dash and around the MFD. I was in a hurry to get to work so I didn't go back and complain about it, but I was just glad to be out of there for the last time! I'm sure they sell a lot of cars down there, hence the many plaques and awards littering their showroom, but they'll get no more money out of me. I've heard good things about Toyota Carlsbad so I'll try them when I need service at a dealer.

 

I've heard good things about Toyota Carlsbad so I'll try them when I need service at a dealer.
[/quote]

I purchased my Prius last week from Omar Curry at Toyota of Carlsbad. The entire experience (including dealing with the Finance Mgr) went very smoothly and I couldn't be happier. Omar is very laid back and mellow and made the entire car buying experience a pleasure. I will definitely buy from Omar and Toy of Carlsbad again. If I lived closer (I'm 3 hrs away), I would take my car for service too.

Hope this helps.

 

Just wanted to give another shout out to Longo Toyota for purchasing. I worked with Ken Koshiro and Heacher Youn and they were both straightforward, patient and honest, something I didn't think car sales people had capability of. The entire process from ordering (which involved me changing my mind every other week) to the purchasing process to driving off the lot was painless and I would work with either one of them again in a heartbeat. I've also recommended them at every chance I get, so hopefully they got some business from referrals, they deserve it. Unfortunately Longo is too far away for me to do my regular servicing there (25 miles one way = ~1 gallon of gas spent on the trip there/back).

I've gotten my servicing done at Toyota of Huntington Beach which is 1.5 miles from where I work and each time they've taken roughly an hour from the time I dropped off the car till the phone call from the service dept letting me know it was finished. I've been VERY happy with them thus far. They have a new location just south of Garfield on Beach Blvd and it's very nice and clean; my only gripe is they don't have an on-site car wash. They give you a coupon good for 30 days for a free carwash at the car wash across the street as well as another location further north on Beach. We have a guy come to our office every Friday to wash our cars so I don't really have any use for the coupon and don't feel like driving to another location to wait to have my car washed.

From what I've heard and experienced, stay away from Puente Hills Toyota, Power Toyotas and last but certainly not least, from the bottom of the mucky bucket of mire, Elmore Toyota. Stay far far away from Elmore at all costs. My BIL worked there last year as a salesperson and he's about as shady as they get, but even he couldn't stand working with the slime at Elmore for more than a few months. Thanks to him, I got to test drive a Prius that had just arrived on the lot before the customer came in to pick it up. Bad ethics...I know I would be upset to find out that my salesperson had allowed someone to come in and test drived MY car before I came in to pick it up.

 

Our experience was with Longo Toyota. I had asked about availability, but was not in a position to wait for the estimated 6 months at the time we checked. So began looking elsewhere for other options. We were not impressed by the Honda dealerships we dealt with, so wound up actually looking at an audi a3 because of the reputation of, and past experience with the dealership in town.

The day I was supposed to go pick up our Audi, I got a call from the dealership that two Priuses had freed up -- not in the color I was interested in, but they had the options I was interested in. So I did some quick checking, and went down ready for the usual hassle of negotiating price... But, no premium charge was added, and the price was right on the expected Edmund's price... On top of that, they recommended that I get my own financing because theirs "sucked" at the time. So I checked with our credit union and got a 5% rate! All was done in one day...

We currently get our car serviced at Symes Toyota in Pasadena (only once - and they overfilled the oil, but fixed it immediately when I showed them) since it is just down the street.

The dealership at Longo has continued to be helpful, and we are looking forward to a second car from them soon.

 

I tried Frontier Toyota of Valencia twice, once to purchase and once for service. Both experiences left me disgusted and I will never set foot on the lot again.

We purchased an 05 and an 06 from Toyota of Hollywood, about 6 months apart and were satisfied with both transactions. No mark up over MSRP, no unwanted extras required. The first one we got fast, set on the package we wanted, but flexible on the color. The second was a longer wait because we wanted the Magnetic Gray and it wasn't even out yet when we decided we were ready for our second.

On both we decided to add leather and the quote we got going through Toyota of Hollywood were better than quotes I was getting from aftermarket shops directly.

Also I did not want them to run my credit since I was absolutely not going to be financing through them. They pushed a little the first time for the info for the credit sheet, and I refused. They let it go. The second visit they remembered and didn't bother to argue.

For service so far I've tried Hollywood (fine, but not terribly convenient for me. I've used them twice so far). Hamer Toyota, which I used once and would be willing to go back to. Northridge Toyota which I've used twice. Had a good experience the first time, and an okay experience the second time (the guy I worked with the first time was on vacation during visit number 2).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(still learning @ Sep 6 2006, 03:33 PM) [snapback]315436[/snapback]</div>

I actually bought mine a couple weeks ago from the same salesperson and I had the same experience. The car sold itself really, but when my Prius came in I was in and out of there in about 2 hours.

 

I am in west LA and dealt with Miller, Longo, Frontier, Manhattan Beach, Hollywood, Puente Hills, Syme, Wonderies, Marina, Power, North Hollywood and Southbay. In terms of easy to deal with, Miller, Hollywood and Longo win the nod, MSRP, nothing added, easy attitude; services at Miller is also OK (not fast, but done right). Manhattan Beach and Syme are also great, MSRP, nothing added, but they hardly get enough allocation because they are orphans of the SoCal Toyota dealers (bottom in terms of units sold). So expect to wait a long time there. Acceptable but not great is Power, which is MSRP, but not a great buying experience (pirahna retail sales team). I was there waiting for my Internet sales guys, and saw how retail salesmen led customers into the slaughter house. Definitely off limit is Puente Hills. I too had the "we got the car in and it's MSRP" trick. I showed up and the car now has a $ 2K "wood" dash. I told them, if it is real wood, I pay, if I can peel it off, take off the $2K. Obviously they didn't let me get far with that.

I had my deposit at Miller, Syme and Frontier, Miller an Syme got the car in, but I was contacted (on the same day) by Power that they will get 2007 3 #2's in before Sept 30. So I quickly got my name on 1 of those. I know I am taking a leap of faith hoping Power will get me a 2007 by Sept. 30. But who can say no to a possible 2007 (one year less depreciation), full tax credit (hopefully), HOV sticker (Governator just extended HOV stickers by another 10K), and the extra VSC (on a package #2, I was going to get a 2006 pkg #3).

In case you are wondering, Power does not have a 2007 Touring incoming. That would have been really nice, but I can't justify the extra $$ for #6 package on it (on every touring to be sold in CA).

If anyone know other dealers who expect 2007 to come in by Sept. 30, please share here.

Hope my 2007 comes in before Sept. Will keep the forum posted on my progress.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(moolman @ Aug 28 2006, 05:40 PM) [snapback]310852[/snapback]</div>

You paid the price you sought yet you wouldn't recommend Carson Toyota?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ck90211 @ Sep 20 2006, 01:08 PM) [snapback]322409[/snapback]</div>

I've had them for a little over a week now.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NineToez @ Oct 5 2006, 11:15 PM) [snapback]328842[/snapback]</div>

It would appear as if he did not care for the sales tactics. Good price alone does not make necessarily make a good sales experience.

This is the complete message to which you have responded:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(moolman @ Aug 28 2006, 05:40 PM) [snapback]310852[/snapback]</div>

 

Exactly, I got the price I wanted but others people here have said they charge $3000 over and they told me themselves they charge $3000.

I must of walked in on a slow day or something. I'm just telling people that the chances of getting MSRP even though I did seems to be low. And yes their sales tactics are not what I would recommend.

 

Not sure I have my facts correct, but I believe Longo is where Corporate Toyota (Torrance, CA) sends its employees for employee discounts. So, would not be surprised to hear good things about Longo.

On the other hand, I wouldn't buy another car from Manhattan Beach Toyota, if they were the last dealer on earth. Besides bait / switch and good / bad cop, they lied about the final price - - after they had agreed to a price.

From purely phone conversations to research price and availability, these dealers - - Carson, South Bay, and Torrance Toyota - - sounded honest.

If you are a Costco member and use Costco's autobuy service - - Torrance is the referenced dealer.

I found, Torrance's price for Costco member to be the lowest, but you had to wait a bit for availability.

I'll vent just one more time - - I wouldn't buy from Manhattan Beach Toyota. Just plain ugly.

 

Well, called Power Toyota of Irvine for a quote on installation of the Sportivo suspension, and got a quote of $1110 for just labor.

They were very uninformed about the existance of such parts, and overquoted me by $500 for total price when Longo had already told me Toyota lists very specific labor rates in their computer system. This makes me very wary to bring my Prius in for even just maintenance.

Over the phone, Carson told me they don't do installations, they only sell the parts online, and referred me to either a local performance shop or South Bay Toyota for installation. So, the guy at South Bay gave me almost the exact same labor rate price quotes out of the Toyota system as Longo, just somewhat cheaper, so South Bay gets the merits for phone service and price.

What I'm picking? Maybe Hiro's Auto Repair in Costa Mesa right next to the Mitsuwa as recommended to me by UCI's imports@uci club.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(2006PriusOwner @ Oct 8 2006, 09:14 PM) [snapback]329936[/snapback]</div>

You are right. Though I don't work for Toyota, I do work in one of their corporate buildings in Torrance and Corporate Toyota does recommend Longo Toyota to their employees for their discounts.

 

Symes Toyota in Pasadena was friendly and happy to let me drive a car around. The saleswoman, Espi, was not particularly knowledgable (insisted that you could not avoid permenantly saving a destination entered into the navigation, and that you could never delete a cell phone that was paired with the car -- these were both things that I wanted to try as part of my test drive). She said that the cars were selling for MSRP, no more, no less, and that a wait list would start in January. This seems unlikely since they had the same 5 cars there 2 days ago that they had 1 week ago.

Since Symes wasn't dealing, I called Longo and asked the sales manager how much under MSRP I could expect to pay if I was willing to drive over that very day and write a check and take the car. He said $500 to $1000 under MSRP depending on the car/pkg. He had a salesman call me back for specifics that I wanted. The salesman called me immediately and I told him what I wanted, he had a good match, blue #5, and called me again 5 minutes later and said $1000 under MSRP. So we bought it and drove it home that day. (11/25/06)

Longo didn't pressure me to do anything. The only objection was the 1 hour wait to actually sign the contract in the finance department (after I had already paid the cashier for the car) because they were "understaffed".

 

OK, so I decide (finally) after getting a new job that's a lot further away from my old one that my poor 97 Tercel (which has been very good to me since I got it in 2000) should be put out to pasture. I was actually looking to get a new car earlier in the year, but being laid off from your job of 7+ years kind of puts the kibosh on that, right?

But enough whining.... I decide to do my homework, look up things on the internet, learn about the car's pricing and demand for it. (I have several friends who have Priuses (Prii?) so I know they're worth it).

I came here, and read all of your experiences with the dealers, and took notes.

I decided to give the AAA Auto Buying Program a try, since it claims to be a no-hassle process. You tell them what you want, they give you the name of a dealer, you make an appointment, go in, and they show you the AAA approved price list. If you like the price, you go from there.

So when I filled this all out online, they referred me to Toyota of Orange, but said that the Prius was not included in the auto buying program, due to its demand.

The same day, I got an email and a phone call from them, saying that they do have Priuses in stock. Over 15 of them. So I called back, and spoke with one of the people they had referred me to (you have to talk to specific people for the AAA program), and told him I was looking for either a magnetic grey or silver with package #5. He said they had a grey one in stock, and that the Prius had just been added to the AAA Auto Program. So I made an appointment to go down there the next day first thing in the morning.

Now, I hate car dealerships and all the pressure and hassle (which is why I went with the AAA program), so I was really stressed about this whole thing. I got there a little early (9:40 for a 10am appointment) and they showed me to the car right away, we went for a test drive, and then Rick (the salesman) took me back into his office and we went over the pricing. He too said that they were just added to the AAA program only days ago (I think he said on 11/21). The price was $1500 above invoice, well below MSRP.

So, needless to say, I traded in my old Tercel, gave them a down payment, and told them I already had financing. They asked if I would use their financing if they could beat the rate; I said sure. They did. By .2 of %. (It might not seem like much, but hey....)

So, 90 minutes later, I was out the door with my brand-new Prius.

I would recommend them, and the AAA Auto Buying Program. This was a much more enjoyable experience than when I bought my Tercel. =)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(scoot @ Nov 27 2006, 04:48 PM) [snapback]354620[/snapback]</div>

Is 1000 or more under MSRP the going rate nowadays? I was just quoted 1K under msrp for a prius with leather and nav etc....i was surprised...

 

I just got my 2007 Package 6 top of the line form Hamer Toyota for 27822 - the sticker was 29623... so thats 1800 off! - Just do the internet thing... faster & easier.

 

It sounds like most of you responders are down in SoCal, but I thought I would add to the fray...I bought my new '07#4 from Piercey Toyota here in San Jose on TG weekend for $300 over invoice through the Costco buyers program - definitely the best car buying experience I've ever had. I also looked at Stevens Creek Toyota before going with Piercey/Costco - I wouldn't recommend them to anyone thinking of buying in Silicon Valley - they are the typical new-car lot with used-car salespeople (at least this was my experience, YMMV). At Piercey I dealt with T. J. who was upfront and didn't play any of the leave you in the sales cubicle while the salesman "fights with his manager to get you the best deal" games, as with SC Toyota. With T.J. the price discussion was done in 10 minutes in his office face-to-face and none of the BS...and I drove out about 90 minutes later with my new Prius

Just my $.02

cc B)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(crypter crypter @ Dec 11 2006, 06:41 PM) [snapback]360702[/snapback]</div>

How much did you pay out of the door?