Toyota of Plano...unethical.

Now THIS is unethical. You put a deposit down on the vehicle, this is bait and switch.

 

I purchased my 2004 Prius from ToP and it was not a good experience. I found several markups that were not discussed and it took the sales prime several trips to the bull pin to straighten out the numbers. While their service department is excellent, the sales team would not get my vote and I was vocal in a survey. I would not recommend a purchase from that dealership.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. I had almost exactly the same thing happen to me when I bought our Prius back in '06 from Vandergriff Toyota (Arlington, TX), Picked out a package (#3 if memory serves), put down a deposit and was given an estimated wait time (don't recall the wait time) A few weeks later, I was contacted by the dealership and told pretty much the same story..."The car you ordered will be 'delayed', but we have a package 6 that just showed up...for a 'bit' more.

To address the OP, I believe that's this is just another form of the good 'ol bait-n-switch. For those that would say that this is just supply and demand, I disagree. Apples and oranges. It's one thing to put a price on a car and refuse to take anything less due to market demand, it's another thing entirely to take a deposit for a car at an agreed upon price and then to "dangle" the proverbial carrot of a more expensive, but immediately available, car in front of the customer...meanwhile making you believe that the car you ordered will 'eventually' get there. These dealers know EXACTLY what they are doing...

 

The problem is that the OP did not put a deposit on any car or get put on a waitlist at a certain price. You pass on a certain price and don't agree to anything, the dealership is free to offer you a higher price when demand peaks and supply dips. Supply and demand is relevant when you don't have any type of contract (verbal or written) for a price or specific car.

Now what happened to wwbjd was/is definitely bait and switch and is what you are really talking about.

 

I sent you a PM. A good friend of mine works at a Toyota dealer down here. ( 2 hours away from you) . These guys wont screw you.

 

Absolutely, the OP's situation is completely different from the situation I called a bait and switch. The OP elected not to put a deposit down and go on the wait list, and the salesman contacted him when he had an orphaned car to see if he wanted it because he knew that the OP was looking for a Prius. This is called sales! He chose not to buy it at the market price, which was his right. Not a bait and switch because he had never been promised anything, in fact he elected not to be promised anything himself!

The situation I cited was when a poster put a deposit down on a car and then was told they needed more money to sell them their promised car when it came in. THAT is a bait and switch.

The OP has simply had a lesson in business 101.

 

I thoughts exactly, sometimes people want to complain when something doesn't go the way they want. I be if the poster won a Wii in a contest, they wouldn't have a problem selling it on eBay for more that the 250 it cost.

Yeah, instead of calling dealers and telling them that you have another dealer that is going to sell you one under invoice, I guess you will have to call dealerships and tell them that another dealership is going to sell you one at MSRP.

 

to the OP, thats not unethical. Toyota dealers are not the only ones that do this, all car dealerships that sell limited supply, high demand products sell way over MSRP, especially if its cars with MSRPs of 200k+. This is also not restricted to cars. In fact, this was seen for about what, a year with the WII? Several months for nvidia 8800 gpus, etc. And this is what we are going to see with oil when demand will be ridiculously high and supply will be non-existent.

wwbjd: yup, thats bait-and-switch if you did not request the deposit back. Its actually illegal in the US:

Bait and switch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is."

 

Well.. they never deposited my check (check my post) -- so.. that's not illegal eh?

I did think it was kind of funny when I mentioned the price we had agreed upon, but the salesman said he couldn't find it. But it was written in HUGE NUMBERS on a sheet right in front of him.

Anyway, I'm all good in my new shiny Silver '08 Prius now from Toyota of Lewisville. Hurrah!

 

Yeah, that was pretty much how they did business when I was shopping for my 2004. My response was the same as yours: buy it somewhere else.

 

I agree with Magnetic Grey.... I put down a deposit for my Prius on February 14th 2006 at LaRiche Toyota in Findlay, Ohio.... Agreed to MSRP with a 2-3 month anticipated wait... Took delivery on April 14th 2006 exactly 2 months later... so I paid MSRP when demand was way over supply... and I had another dealer offering 500 below MSRP but I stuck it out with LaRiche... every car my family has bought in the last 20 years was purchased there... and I get a complimentary car wash with each oil change!

 

You let someone else touch your Prius? Eww! And you drive from Arizona to Ohio for oil changes? :_>

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

I'm sorry, but I still don't see how asking more than an arbitrary number on a stat sheet is unethical. If MSRP were listed as $2,000 high and they asked that, is that suddenly ethical? The S in MSRP stands for SUGGESTED, meaning this is what they think the car will be worth to the market...but that can go up or down based on whether oil is up $60 per barrel from January!

I wonder, are people who manage to buy a car below MSRP unethical as well for the same reasons?

 

I guess you can count me as one of those "unethical" buyers... I paid $900 below dealer invoice when I bought mine in March 2007.

 

Maybe some of our friends here on PriusChat are confusing unethical with illegal. It may not be illegal to renege on a deal, but it may be unethical in the way it is handled.
If the OP was told that it would be 13 weeks before the car she wanted would arrive, hence she decided not to wait; then they call her and tell her "we've got one coming in, in 4 weeks, but you'll have to pay more," I personally think there's a gap in their ethics, as the car surely was already en route when they told her "13 weeks". And if they took another poster's deposit for $29.5 and then said they were raising the price to $32.5, that also shows a lack of ethics, maybe to the point of being illegal.
Yes, maybe this is how the auto sales business goes. No wonder dealerships are so lowly regarded by the general population!

 

Does if change the story though?

 

You don't get it. She did not agree to wait 13 weeks and told the dealer she would buy one somewhere else! She was not told she would have a car in 13 weeks, she was told she COULD have a car for MSRP in 13 weeks if she elected to go on the wait list. She did not elect to do that, her loss.

 

Count me in as unethical - I've bought two Prii in the past couple years - the first a few hundred above invoice and 5 weeks ago at invoice, just as the craziness started.

I do understand wanting to pay the lowest price - unfortunately supply and demand dictate what the going rates are, and they've changed recently - not for the better from the consumer standpoint. They will come down when supply increases (hopefully!). Its painful to hear that some places are asking several thousand above MSRP - I would NEVER pay that much.:glare:

Give it time...

 

What was it that triggered all the craziness a few weeks ago? Memorial Day weekend?