Personally I'd never buy a demo.
When the bigger sized and 4.0L'd '05's come out the '04's will be much cheaper.
But if you can't wait....

 

In Colorado they were having $1000 matching cash rebate and a $500 rebate. Neither had a limitation on Tacoma model. Plus I got a $100 refferral bonus for my father which they credited towards the truck.

So:

$25500 <-- as low as they could go for a base price and the lowest in Colorado that I could get.
-$500 rebate
-$1000 rebate
-$100 referral
------------
$23900 +TAX

 

Yeah, a feeble attempt at black humor. I make that recommendation to all my car buying friends and family, though. Demos are seldom broken in properly (the most critical miles for predicting long-term reliability) or maintained at all. When I last went out to a Toyota dealership to help a friend shopping for a Camry, the salesman pushed us towards a demo purchased at auction. The oil was black, two quarts low (barely touched the dipstick), appeared to have the original oil filter, the air filter was clogged and tires measured 3/32 remaining on fronts, 5/32 rear so never rotated. A database search showed no dealership service history on file. At least they cleaned out the French fries from under the seats! If you personally know the driver and they know you're waiting for it, then yeah I'd consider it. Otherwise, I'd go for a lease return with (usually) a deeper discount and well maintained by contract.

 

I have to disagree with you on that,BTi7R.
I've leased twice and all they're interested in when the vehicle is returned is mileage,tire wear and condition.
Not ever was I asked for any maintenance paperwork.
I'd never buy a demo or worse... a leased vehicle.

 

I was thinking of those lease vehicles with maintenance included on the contract, but I agree if there's no service or damage history on any vehicle.

 

your forgetting the number one rule when buying a new car. Always make your offer in the last few days of the month. You've still go t15 days to go.
Also checkout carmax.com they have new toyota dealerships as well. Good way to comparisson shop. There is one here in Md

 

Make your offer last days of the month???
Never heard that one before

 

yup if the truck is on the lot at the begining of the month the dealer has to pay a fee or a percentage on it. I'm not sure if its the interest on it or not. But when I was working there, I was told to call up all the people that got rejected during the month and try to get them back in. Then the offer we made was usually a couple of hundred dollars below what we told them a few weeks ago was "the best price they will ever find"
The other good time is the last day of the end of the model year sale. Usually its like Jan 2-5. The selection sucks but the price are great especially if you want a camry. You would be able to get XLEs for the price of an LE or we would throw in the v6 model for the price of a higher end 4 cyl. Anything just to sell another unit.
But this is usually only at high volume dealerships. Like the one I worked at, we were selling between 400-550 units a month. We would make money off of the large volume bonuses not necessarily the individual units.

 

Interesting... so would this work for used vehicles too?

Say, for example, a certain used Tacoma that's sitting at a Ford dealership?

 

Hmmm...Cool.

My buyers check expires on April 1, so that could work out nicely.
I'm going to call the sales rep today to see if they will take $300 off if I don't want the bedliner (worth a shot) and also to get the service history.

Its at 5800 miles as I've mentioned before. I've never owned a vehicle this new so I'm not real familiar with early maintanence. I assume there should be at least 1 oil change within this time period, maybe 2?

I took Sarah to drive basically the same vehicle but in silver last night, at a local dealership. She did like it. This one is definitely brand new, as I put miles 19-25 on it last night. I think the sticker was a bit over 27, they had a window price of 26,190 or something like that. I may see what they can do as well.

 

You should look for a less expensive truck that was not a "demo". I'm inclined to think that you can find a good deal just as the 2005's arrive. It seems that time is on your side.

My pal used to have a "demo" truck and we beat the crap out of it. The only option that is worth a damn is the TRD package to get the selectable locker. Even that is optional since you can add an ARB.

BTW, most people find the bed adequate. Put the gate down and use straps.

Make a deal before the first week in August when KBB re-submits trade in values, you may lose $1,000.

 

That's sad that you are thinking of getting rid of the 4Runner. But if I were to get rid of mine, the D-cab would be at the top of the list!

My wife really wants a Tacoma d-cab in the bright red color.

Good luck on the posssible purchase!

 

Well from a dealer prospective "what am I going to do with a bedliner?" It would actually cost me more money to pay someone in the shop to go in there and pull it out. And what if he damaged something while he was doing it?" Its just not worth it from a dealers standpoint to remove something from the vehicle.
We actually have the bedliner in our tundra, and its held up great .. no complaints, just hose it down every once in a while

Tacoma dude -- yes this applies more so to used cars, b/c the dealer actually had to purchase the vehicle so without getting to techinical (mostly b/c I don't understand it all myself) he has to pay for the car until someone else does. Also the longer the car sits on the lot, the more it depreciates. Dealers are middle men. They produce nothing, and they purchase nothing.

At 5800 miles, you should have had one oil change at 1000 miles, and another one at around 3500-4000. and at 6K, you get your first tire rotation. But like I said before consider a new one, on a demo your only saving $300-500. Over the next 4-5 yrs that you own the car what does that come out to? Versus having the peace of mind knowing that someone didn't abuse it right off the line. Its a different story for a used car. But if your getting a "new" car, then get a new car.

Not to rub it in ... but I only got two more payments left on mine ... I'm stoked.

 

Thanks for the info, and congrats on losing car payments! I've been without those for a while now, and it would sorta suck having one again!

 

Well in the spirit of Tacoma Dude and Monkeynuts, I dedided to e-mail 11 Toyota dealerships in Iowa, telling them what I was specifically looking for, what I'd trade, and what deal they would have to beat. And of course I borrowed the "Its not a question of when, but where..." line.

We'll see what comes back!

 

NICE!



wait...
Meant "...question of where but when..." right?

EDIT:
sdastg1 - thanks for the info!

 

Hehe....yeah I wasn't thinking straight when I typed that.

I think the actual line I used was "Its not a question of if I'll buy this truck, but which dealership will I be working with."

 

Nice! Good luck with that.

 

Just noticed this thread TDiddy, but we paid about 23,xxx for a brand new TRD D-Cab just last November with all of the options you mentioned. No trade either (we leased it).

FYI

 

Good to know. I'm working on finding a better price!