M1911

I tried to buy a 2003 4Runner V8 Ltd 4x4 near Boston today. The dealer showed me his "invoice." The base price on the invoice was several hundred dollars higher than what is shown on Edmunds and Kbb. In addition, the invoice had a ~$500 charge for TDA, which was not explained. The dealer wanted $700 over his invoice (i.e., nearly $1500 over what Edmunds shows as invoice). I walked.

Anyone know what TDA is? Just the dealer trying to do me?

EDGE

TDA no clue but at this point you might as well wait till their are 2004, depending on the area the V8 LTD 4Runners sell for a pretty good dollar, not much room to play around with price

92 Toyota

When I bought my 03 Tacoma I talked to a couple of dealers about edmunds.com prices & they laughed at me & said if someone will sell it to you at that price we'll buy 10.I left at that point.

02Runner

The dealer has a posted MSRP, at Edmunds you can ask for a TMV (true market value) which should be a few thousand lower than the MSRP sticker price. TMV will represent what exactly a dealer in your area can sell for at the lowest. If you want to go lower than TMV, you're pretty much out of luck. You can also request up to like four insta-quotes online from dealers in your area. For example, my MSRP was like 36,800, the TMV was 32080, I ended up paying 31,080 for a sport 4wd, V8 with all the power options, XReas, sun/moon roof, color coded cladding, and the JBL system which I have taken out, no leather seats though, they weren't what I wanted.

Good luck, I hope this helped,

Doug
PS, my situation with the TMV was unusual because I had two trade-ins. thats one of the reasons I got lower.

BT17R

TDA=Toyota Dealer Advertising charge. It's legit and varies by region. Rates are set between the dealer association and their advertising agency, although kickbacks to dealers aren't unheard of. Other regions and the independent distributors (GST, SET) have their own rates. Some are much higher than Boston Region, currently ranging up to ~$900 per vehicle that is added to the invoice but not shown on the Monroney label on the window sticker.

The other difference might be freight. That's equalized among all the factory regions, slightly higher in the independents. The dealer sounds straight, as evidenced by his showing you the invoice. The thing is, there are incentives on certain models of '03 'Runners. Even though they may claim to be selling you at invoice, in reality they might be getting another $1,000 or so through the back door in factory to dealer incentives. That's not excessive, IMHO. After all, they pay interest every day the vehicle sits on the lot, and that eats into profits. Include overhead, selling and operating expenses and it's easy to understand that franchise dealer no longer make much if anything on new car sales.

The money is in finance, leasing, service contracts (don't), and used vehicles. If they're lucky, the back end (service and parts) is pulling their weight, but that's no guarantee. In short, it's a great time to buy near model year end. Even better near month end. Just watch yourself when you step into the F&I office!

02Runner

That was put well Bob. I agree 100%

romus

When I bought my 2003 4 runner, I talked to my dealer about Edmunds prices. My dealer logged on to Edmunds and gave me Edmunds pricing but this is my 4th toyota that I have purchased from them. They also showed me their invoice and compared it to Edmunds. The prices were pretty much the same. The dealer had a couple of markups on add on items, but was willing to negotiate. They were also offering a $2000 rebate, which I got, too. If I were you, I would wait until the end of the month or if you can wait until the end of the year, then you will get a better deal. Dealers really try to push the vehicles at the end of the year so that they can make their year end bonuses.

Also, the TDA is the dealers advertising charge. They have to pay for the newspaper ads and tv ads, so they pass that on to us consumers.:pat:

M1911

02Runner: This dealer wanted to sell me the truck for about ~ $1500 more than TMV. So I walked.

BT17R: Thanks for the explanation of TDA.

02Runner

Forget that, Request bids online from like 3 or 4 dealers in your area. What I found was that it was someone in the online sales dept who responds and when I printed my quote from our dealership and took it in, the manager was surprised that I had such a low price from his dealership. He was not happy to say the least. I'm not sure if they even consulted with him before emailing me my quote.

I also got a few more quotes through email for the same price saying that they would match my TMV.

As the guys before said, you may want to wait. But I would wait for the 04's to arrive and then purchase an 03. I would recommend late in the month, but I woudl make it late September. That should be the end of their fiscal sales year. Also, I think less vehicle are sold on Mondays. My suggestion would be to wait until Sep 29th to make a deal. That leaves them one day left in their fiscal year. You could get an Edmunds quote the weekend before that date.

Good luck, keep as much of your money as possible. Also the finance rate is where you can pick up a few extra $$, put a little more down if they'll cut your rate.

Later,

Doug

JSB

I never seen cost past on to the customer so obviously.
They could at least hide some where.

Ant

Just bought an 03 4Runner for a wee bit less than Edmunds and even got Lojac & an alarm included. Car salesmen are a notch below lawyers & buzzards and can show you invoices all day long that show what THEY want it to say.

Here's some local salemen I had to deal with before I found the right place to buy:

02Runner

You know, that kinda looks like my sales guy! Just kidding, I really like the look of the silver ones.

By the way M1911, what color are you thinking about?

rayh78

I am getting ready to buy a 2003 sport and got the price down to 31,200.00 with my options. This is within $200.00 of what edmunds TMV and invoice

shazaam

Try this one. They sell brand new cars, and while you don't get a steal, you get a pretty fair price. Good excuseto fly down to baltimore, pick up a runner, head to ocean city for some chesepeake bay crabs.

carmax truck

shazaam

ok I can't get the link to work right, but just go to carmax page, and type in balt/dc area, and they have a new toyota dealership there, the prices, pics, and options are available online

hope this helps

Sac State

Yes that is Carmax (Laurel Toyota). I live in NC and went to Laurel to buy my new '02 Sport. Best buying experience I have ever had. They even paid my taxi ride from the airport and not one haggle during the entire transaction.

FirstToy

I got my 03 for just under TMV listed on Edmunds.

I never deal with salesmen. With internet & buying services, just buy it if you like the price. No haggle and quick. It took me about 45 minutes to complete my transaction (not including research).

M1911

I've been using the internet. Most dealers aren't returning e-mails, or if they do, with a high price. Autobytel sent me to a dealer I'd already been to and they would not undercut their floor staff.

FirstToy

Well I'll tell you my experience:
My nissan I got through CarsDirect.com (are they even around anymore?). They were new at the time and paid me $500 to go through them. I got the truck for...I forget but it was a great deal, I remember that.
I went to test drive it and bought it. The crappy nissan dealer tried to tack on some b.s. so I had to argue a bit, otherwise ok. Never went back to that dealer again.

4Runner- went through Autoland.com and got it just under TMV. They took care of everything and the only time I had to go anywhere was to pick up my truck and sign some papers. They detailed and inspected too- I also inspected of course.

After that, I'm never going to deal with salesmen again. This way, I get the best price, no one tries a fast one while signing papers and it's no hassle.

I just went to dealerships to test drive and compare. My toughest decision was picking the color.:pat:

oh if you can use Autoland, I can recommend a kick ass guy to use.