Posted on 11/21/2021 10:05:27 AM PST by SilvieWaldorfMD
My husband and I went to our local Toyota dealership here in Southern Maryland - one of the largest Toyota dealerships on the East Coast - looking for a new 2022 Camry. We've owned several Camry's since 2000 and I've owned Toyota vehicles since 1980. My husband just comes along with me. He knows that I'm capable of detecting bullsh*t and cockamamie stories from sales staff, so he just sits back and listens. (He's trained me well, I must admit!)
We arrived a few minutes before the dealership opened, so we took a drive in the lots in the back to check out the vehicles. To our amazement, there were absolutely NO NEW TOYOTA CARS in any of the lots. Only employees' cars. We drove around and saw a few Used Cars and 2 Highlanders, and that's it. The dealership also has a lot across the street from them and that lot was also empty. This dealership has lots as large as airport lots, so the empty spaces shook us up a bit. We entered the dealership and were met by the assistant manager. I asked: "Where are your new cars?" and he, wanting to make a sale nonetheless, downplayed the situation by saying that "Some models are being built right now in Ohio and Kentucky." He said that the supply chain situation and delayed shipping has produced a scarcity of new Toyota products and parts that we might have to endure "for another year or so." I wondered if this idiot had voted for Biden.
Suddenly, a new 2022 Camry LE appeared as another employee drove it to the front for us to look at. I murmured to my husband that "I wonder how many people have sat and touched this model" because it looked like it was the town taxi - fingerprints and dirt all over the place. It didn't even have that 'new smell' to it anymore. I took one look inside of it, closed the door and said "No, thank you!"
I told my husband that I wanted to leave and the manager came out running saying that he had an unbelievable deal. Nothing - absolutely nothing - will make me change my 'poker face' and I will never show my cards to anyone, but I wanted to be entertained, so I said: "Ok!" The guy started talking to my husband when he detected that he couldn't get through to me, and hubby just said: "She's the boss; talk to her!"
He gave me an invoice that he said was a great deal. The invoice had jacked up the price of the Toyota we had just seen by $3,000, but then he noted that he'd give me a $1,000 discount. The somewhat scary part too is that someone must've researched us from the time we entered the lot (by looking up our license plate, perhaps) because the guy knew a lot about us. He even went insofar as to say that he'd give me another discount "in honor of all the children who suffer from autism." There are articles on the Internet about me and Special Education as I work for the school system and I used to work in that field. That's when I started getting pissed off. I slid his piece of paper across the desk and told my husband that I was ready to leave. I told the salesman that we were there to "look" but that there was "nothing to look at!"
After we pulled out of the Toyota Dealership, we went to the Ford, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Chevrolet dealerships in the same corridor and the stories were exactly the same there as well. No cars - only some trucks. Lots were empty. I told my husband that I'd keep our current Toyota and change the transmission fluid and the 4 tires soon because chances are we will not be getting a new car for a few months.
Maybe this is the plan as devised by the Democrats and the Biden Administration. They want to shove hybrid/electric vehicles down our throats so bad that they'll deliberately delay shipments. It all makes sense now; this is part of the plan! Soon, we'll all have our Vintage Toyota Vehicles like Cuba has their vintage Ford's from the 1950s. It's truly unbelievable and eye-opening. Along with high gas prices, again, THIS IS THE PLAN! This is what Democrats want and they're on the path to getting what they want. FJB!
If you ordered a car did they say how long it would take to get it?
This reminds me of an old Russian joke.
A man goes to buy a car so he goes to the dealer and they tell him “ok, it will be delivered in five years”.
He asks “morning or afternoon”?
“Why do you ask?”
“Because the new television is being delivered In the Morning”
Almost no trucks for sale near here in Virginia.
We went to nearby West Virginia. Trucks. Lots of them.
FWIW, it’s my understanding, and I git this from two dealers I’ve recently spoken with, is that most of the cars rolling off the lines are already spoken for.
Chips are being used for vehicles already purchased.
So, unless you’re willing to drive a ways, possibly a long way, or purchase a vehicle sight unseen, you’re likely in for a long wait.
BTW, one other thing. The vehicles going to the dealerships, the ones the dealerships are buying tend to be higher trim levels. Why not? The margins on those vehicles are far better.
So for folks who want a base trim, especially in a larger vehicle class, prepare to look even harder and longer.
The invoice had jacked up the price of the Toyota we had just seen by $3,000...
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Same BS around here. Due to total lack of supply, the dealers have jacked up the few new cars they haver in the pipeline by $3k. Yesterday I drove by one of the remote yards where I know the local Toyota dealer stores extra stock. This is a lot that in the past would have 100’s of cars in it. There were about a half-dozen cars.
I’ve got a 10 year-old Toyota that I would have normally replaced this year, but now I’m hanging onto it.
This situation can’t go on forever as even with a $3k markup, the number of cars the dealership is selling must be a tiny fraction of past years.
I wonder if the dealership hacked her Iphone, which is possible if she had wifi turned on.
I never have wifi turned on except for a specific purpose and then off again.
Bluetooth can also give a hacker access to your phone. You see that every day if you have a vehicle with phone service.
Something else to consider.
The auto manufacturers are likely just fine and dandy with all of this.
They’ve hated the dealer/showroom model for generations. Would much rather to go to a European model where a deakership is basically a repair shop with an order window.
The supply of cars is much tighter that way and that can only help their bottom line.
Note to salespeople: Unless you’d like a new gig as an autotech, I’d be looking for other work. Car salesmen are going to go the way of the dodo.
I’m seeing the same thing in Missouri and Iowa. I checked out a dealership in St. Louis that I’d visited two years ago when it had 250 new Toyotas on its lot. Yesterday, its web site listed 26 new vehicles. However, when I called, every vehicle
I asked about was already sold. Another dealership in Iowa has jacked up prices 10% above the sticker price “to reflect the current market conditions on new vehicles.” People are obviously willing to pay because the dealership can’t keep the new cars in stock.
I have noticed empty lots among the clusters of dealers in a couple of towns here in northwest Indana. That’s bad enough, but I had no idea they could pull up an instant and detailed profile of a person. I don’t expect to buy any time soon, but thanks for the view from the inside. I don’t know how auto manufacturers and dealers are going to survive when they are not building cars to sell. Another bailout coming?
I was out exercising at a local state park. I'm about to turn into a side road, but a new tricked out electric Mustang pulls in front of me (not yielding the right of way to the pedestrian) and zooms up the road, then suddenly stops, and does a three-point U-turn, it's backup Jimmy Carter beeper going off all the while. Then as it comes back the opposite way, it stops by me. "Excuse me." I ignore. "Excuse me sir." I look up.
The first thing I notice after the lady in the passenger seat is the enormous computer screen on the console, between the driver's and passenger's seat. I mean, this thing is like a 27-inch flat screen, but oriented in "portrait" mode, with its long axis vertical.
The woman in the passenger seat asks "do you know where we can find an electric charging station?" I just shrug and say "no." They drive away.
Then a few seconds later I realize "Why don't they just google it? They can surely find lots of charging stations that way."
They're in this snazzy new electric Mustang, surrounded by high technology, and they don't know to use Google to find their high-tech car charging station. Not very bright.
Yeah it’s the chip shortage, and shipping problems related to the covid pandemic of 2020. All these other countries in the world slowed down because covid and it will take a while to catch up
I think he gave us a discount just to get us out of the place. He was truly frightened about the virus and wouldn't even come out to see us when we took delivery.
Anyway, I am still getting offers from that Subaru dealership to buy back my Outback for MORE than what I spent for it 18 months ago. So I know things are bad.
No thanks. I'm extremely happy with my Outback.
Good luck getting new tires - my Toyota dealer is out of most sizes
I pass a dealership on my way to work. Big mostly empty parking lot. I assume they are covering their overhead with sales of items yet to be produced and delivered? What happens when that gets caught up?
My car is turning fifteen. I’m keeping it until one of us dies, I’ve decided. I bring it to the mechanic for yearly checkups and have done what must be done to keep it going. Still looks great too and these days I put less miles on it.
Yes indeed...
The serfs should not be allowed to travel out of their immediate neighborhoods...
Solution: The electric-driven car... They grant re-charge permits once every 90-days...
Since most of the charging stations along the east coast are barely functional even now, all our masters will have to do is throw a switch on a mainframe and travel is eliminated...
The communists who now rule us have planned and executed very well...
The sheeple are well trained, heavily chained, and grazing peacefully...
I’ll find out the truth when my source gets back just after christmas.He has a direct line to Ford mgmt.Hes the real deal.
I think Japan is toast their fishing products are all a year out.
I presume the emphasis is on making sure that a sufficient fee is extracted for Hunte...uh...ahem...the Big Guy that there will be no opposition from the Americans for this effort by Chinese colonialists to exploit Africa.
They can’t get the chips for new vehicles. Wait until China takes Taiwan & then it will be IMPOSSIBLE.
I took our truck (Chevy) in for state inspection in June & was told that since I had “no appointment”, the next appointment available was in 3 weeks. HUH??? This is a large dealership & they’ve always been able to do a state inspection same day, sometimes if I wait, for sure if I leave it.
So the customer rep I was dealing with at that moment is an absolute jerk - I avoid him whenever possible, but he was the only one at the service desk when I walked in. He took great pleasure in telling me I’d have to wait 3 weeks. While I was looking at his beady little rat eyes, the rep I USUALLY deal with came by and saw me ... “hi, what can I do for you?” He said that if I left the truck, he’d “work it in” the next day or two, could I do that? Of course I could.
I took the opportunity to ask him what was going on, that they didn’t have appointments for weeks - he shook his head and said everyone who would usually buy a new car was realizing they would have to keep their old cars for no telling how long, so they were bringing them in for repairs/maintenance. I mentioned that their lot was full - didn’t they have new cars? He told me they were all “used”, the only new vehicles he had were a few trucks.
Trump was trying to get a chip factory in AZ ... I heard something about it recently so it looks like maybe he got the deal underway before he left office and FJBiden hasn’t sabotaged it yet. Chips are in everything - my niece is building a new house (started in August) & when she went to order appliances, was told it would be next year before she could get them . The chip thing is definitely worth being “scared and disconcerted” over. As I said, when China takes Taiwan (and they will with the feckless demented bag of bones currently in the WH) it’s going to get a LOT worse than the present issues.
Thanks for sharing your car shopping experience. I leased my first vehicle in 2019. I had previously owned a 2005 Nissan Altima with leather upholstery, and other added extras. I paid cash when I bought it because I had the money at the time. The car I leased is another Nissan, but it’s a Sentra, and I’ve hated the car since I got it. As much as I had wanted another Altima, I couldn’t justify paying the extra money each month for a car that would sit in my parking spot for the majority of the week. The car only has 11,000 miles on it. My 3-year lease will be up on September 11, 2022, so it will be interesting to see what will be available at the dealership next year, and what kind of deal they will offer me. I don’t want to own another car.
Let’s go, Brandon!
That's exactly right. You can build your own car on the Internet. I basically did that with my last purchase (Subaru Outback). I went to the dealer with exactly the trim I wanted and the money I expected to pay. It was purely a transactional deal. All the timid salesman did for me was process the paperwork (and hide inside because my wife and I refused to wear masks).
Salesman offered absolutely zero value added. He was just an order taker and I could have done that on the website and had the car delivered to my home. In fact, that's going to be how my next automobile purchase does down. I will not even set foot in the dealership!
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