I am in the GST region, and I noticed when you go to the BuildYourToyota.com site and go to "Locate" it shows a lot of cars as "Available" under the status when you look at an individual dealership. I noticed a lot of the VIN numbers are the same on these "Available" cars. Does anyone know if these are cars that are available through potential dealer trades or as part of the overall allocation out of port, or a combination of both? Also, is there a way to look up which dealer has a specific VIN number? The dealership I have a refundable deposit with right now apparently doesn't do dealer trades with whoever has the car with the spec I wanted.
I have been using that site to see what's available also, and it's very frustrating! As far as I see, there is no way to tell who has the car other than choosing every dealer and seeing if the status changes to "in stock". "Available" means it's in the GST area, although not necessarily at a dealer. I spotted one last week that was perfect for me, but when I had my salesman check where it was, he couldn't find it in his system easily and finally discovered it is with a GST executive who was taking it to dealers for training! Talk about false advertising--showing a car as available that's really not sucks!!
"Available" indeed means that it is available to ANY dealer in the GST region. You have to go to a specific dealer (I am in the Dallas area too and ended up buying at Toyota of Forth Worth because of frustrating experiences with dealers around here; had a great experience there BTW) to see their actual inventory ("In Stock" means it is on the lot; "Available" again means anywhere in GST region). I got nowhere when giving VIN numbers from the main Toyota website and ultimately, after changing dealers, just had to pick from the dealer's allotted inventory. They called me when they knew what they were getting (I was looking for a light-colored Prius II, tinted windows and mats only) and I chose a light car with light interior from several options. I also HIGHLY recommend that you deal with the internet/fleet salesperson as they are the ones with direct access to the information regarding incoming cars. Any dealing I had with front salesmen left me only with frustration and many unanswered questions. Best of luck!
