Toyota of Plano...unethical.

That doesn't sound unethical to me. This car is in enormous demand. You declined an earlier deal, and the car has come into tremendous demand. They quote you a really high price, you negotiate them down a little. This is how buying a car works.

Unethical would be a bait and switch, or lying to you. Asking a lot for a popular car isn't unethical...it's common business sense. (And no, I have nothing to do with your dealership. I live in Austin, TX and have family in Plano, though).

 

My guess is that if you had put a deposit down on a price for a certain package, they would honor that. Without that, and possibly without anything in writing, you're just another potential customer walking in off the street. Not much you can do except hope the price of gas nosedives!

 

Check out Toyota of Grapevine. It's a bit of a haul for you, but it's not like you have to go there everyday to buy a car. Plano isn't the only Toyota dealer in the metroplex.

Back when gas prices were low and the masses looked down on cars, I picked up a used 07 Prius with 19K miles there cheap. No hassles. No upcharges. No BS.

 

Yes it is unethical, they are charging more than the MSRP, where it really becomes unethical is when they destroy customer loyalty by doing that, which is what keeps dealers in business.

 

Unethical... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


Some folks don't know what the hell a car business is at all... it's a business that goes through cycles of money and no money.

MSRP is NOT how a company/dealership stays in business...

If you want a car that is in demand... you will pay a premium for it from a dealership... that's not unethical, that's normal car business, always has been.

 

MSRP = Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.

I see nothing unethical about selling above the price suggested by the manufacturer.

 

If you wanted one that badly you should have paid the deposit and waited for it. Good luck finding one now at MSRP.

 

It's marketing 101, really. The monetary value of something is what the market will bear. If someone is willing to pay $4K over MSRP, the car is 'worth' $4K over MSRP... As others have posted, since you hadn't signed anything to lock in a price...

That said, no way was I willing to pay a 'market adjustment'... But that's my choice. Took my business elsewhere. Contact some places here in Central Texas. You may have better luck. (Interestingly, the only dealership that told me they were charging $$ above MSRP was in the DFW area.)

 

You're a stitch. Unethical? It would be unethical if he agreed to sell you a car for MSRP and then tried to charge you $4500 over sticker when you got there. You passed on the car for MSRP because of the wait! He contacted you seeing if you wanted to buy one that somebody backed out of. They did you a favor by reducing it down to $2500 over, I bet they sold it that day to someone else for $4500 over.

I wouldn't pay over sticker either probably, at least unless I had exhausted all other options, but exercise your opinion by not buying. Unethical? What a laugh.

Thats business baby, if you want everything to go your way all the time move to Sweeden.

 

as others have said, the value of something is what the buyer is willing to pay.

 

Well.. thought I'd chime in here as my first post.

On Memorial Day weekend I went to Toyota of Plano (and a few others in the area) and of course they didn't have any new Prius in stock, so I gave them my check for $500 and got on the list with an agreed upon price of ~$29k. It should be noted they never deposited my check, but gave it back to me this past weekend.

This weekend they called and said they had been allotted 19 and they were holding the Magnetic Grey Pkg #5 for me just like I had asked. The new price was $32.5k, above the agreed upon price (minus TT&L of course). They said they couldn't go down from the new price.

I *completely* understand the situation they're in. So I don't have any hard feelings towards them. Actually, I thought their service was great because they had stayed in touch with me over the last couple of weeks and even held one of the allotted cars for me just as I had asked. From what I understand, they had sold their allotted cars in just a couple of hours.

Fortunately, I had found another new Prius at a different dealership in town, for less than what Toyota of Plano was selling for and I'm picking it up today! Just hope the storms stay away this afternoon

-B

 

Technically speaking, this dealership is not unethical base on what you described.
Unethical is when the dealer gave you no choices but to comply of what they asked you to.....

But in this case, it's really simple low-supply and high-demand at work here.
So you either paid or wait....This choice is still on your side.

 

I still think that you can find one at MSRP. Check out some of the Toyota dealers in small towns. Only talk to the internet sales representative. You might even get them to provide free delivery. Worst case scenario is to get on a waiting list.

From what I have been reading on here, Toyota already announced that they will be stepping up production in a major way. I wouldn't want to be the one who paid way over MSRP when the market will be saturated with Prius' in a couple years.

Have a good day!

 

Actually, IMO I think increasing the price once you'd agreed upon one is shady. Changing a price w/ no previous agreement might be undesirable but is ethical/legal. Increasing the price while you wait for your car to come in is questionable. In theory, you could have been looking for another car instead of assuming this dealership would find what you'd requested for the price you agreed upon. Fortunately you DID find another Prius, but in this case I don't think what they did was right. They might not have been contractually obligated to honor the $29K (I have no idea what you signed), but it would have been the respectable thing to do.

 

That would only be unethical if they took your money and put you on a waiting list, then changed the price. MSRP means what it says...The price is SUGGESTED. Nobody has to sell anything at MSRP. It's a competitive price point that is set by the manufacturer to assume some profit for the vendor.

 

And if they threw a $1000 rebate on the hood, would you consider THAT unethical and insist on paying the full MSRP???
I didn't think so.

 

There is nothing new or unethical about charging over MSRP when a particular car is in big demand. I seem to recall that when the PT Cruiser first came out, dealership were getting way over MSRP for the first few months until production caught up with demand. Buying a car at a certain price is not a constitutional right. It's all based on supply and demand.

Now, if you had struck a deal and put a deposit down and then they came back and tried to milk you for more, that would be unethical. I'm not defending dealerships, I think it's a pretty unethical business in general to start with, but this example does not fall into that category.

 

Posted on here previously... one of the larger stores in MD which normally sells at invoice or $200 over invoice now is $2000 over sticker.. In SoCal $3000 to $4000 over sticker is not unusual, Ditto Texas and Florida.

There simply are none available and it's just supply and demand. When there were some available they sold at a few hundred over invoice, now that's changed. Life goes on.

 

When we ordered our Prius in Jan/Feb of '06, they were still in limited production and almost everyone bought them after a wait... We went to two or three different Toyota dealerships in town and some were selling them with a premium over MSRP and some weren't. Just so happens the dealership we chose had a Jeep lot also (where my husband had bought his '03 Wrangler) so they not only sold us a car at MSRP, they even gave us $500 off.. We thought this was a decent deal as, again, you had to order these cars to even get one...

So... SHOP AROUND. If one dealership wants to make as much as possible, you're sure to find one that wants to give its customers fair deals and keep them for life. I don't think what they did was unethical.. but then, I wouldnt' chose to do business with them either. They clearly are not trying to create a good relationship with you as a buyer; they are only trying to sell you this one car. Move on. Find a dealership that wants to make you happy, keep you as a customer and get good reviews from you for other customers.