So, about that Tacoma...

So as I had talked about earlier… the whole “buying a Tacoma” thing. Yeah. About that.

It all seemed easy enough, actually. Walked in, kicked some tires, (figuratively), reviewed some prices & options (literally), and made a deal on a New 2008 Model with a certain set of options that we had desired. We’re all set, right?

That was Thursday last week. Saturday, I get “the call” that the truck is in. Yay! It’s late though, and I worked early Sunday as well, so we set up a time for Sunday afternoon to get all the paperwork done. Cool. Well keep in mind that this time is about 4pm, and they close @ 5pm. So everyone’s trying to get through all the paperwork quick and close up shop & go home to their families. Including us. Well they walk us through the paperwork, we see the truck pull up and it’s the right color, it’s the right Off-Road Package, right doors, etc etc. So we’re good to go and we drive home.

The problems started when we got home and got to reading. I was pouring over the manual, trying to figure out all the options and how to do things like turn off the VSC it supposedly had, because I couldn’t quite find the switch. And I see where they show all the lights on the dash for all the various options, and I know for a fact (I know) that when you turn the key to “on” on about every vehicle by any manufacturer, it by default lights up all the lights. And you know what? None of the lights for those features existed on the truck I drove home.

I’m not going to make this post overly long, but suffice to say that the truck was taken back to the dealer the next morning. Some of you are saying yeah but you signed the contract so you’re screwed and you’re actually wrong. We had to haggle and make the point that we had signed up to have a particular option package delivered for a particular price, and quite bluntly, the vehicle they called to say was delivered was not that vehicle they said they would deliver.

The problem was rooted in the fact that the salesman was basing his assumptions on what the vehicle came with based on the “Package” kits. He found a 2008 with the “OC” package, but when we looked to make sure what all came with it, the problem was he showed us a 2009 and told us about the 2009 OC package, and assumed the “OC” was the same between years. However, it is not.

Since there wasn’t a question of that – the sales guy readily admitted the foley – it was just a matter of getting us either a) what we wanted, or b) invalidating the contract and we walk away, never to come back. The thing is though, they wronged us in the process. Whether intentionally or not, they misled their customers into a deal that was not as advertised, and that’s bad press no matter what. I was willing to work with them, but I wanted them to meet me halfway at least. I mean, this was their fault basically, and it had inconvenienced us 3 days and some # of hours at the least, and also possibly leaves a bad taste in the customer’s mouth, right? You don’t want that getting around.

They tried to find us a 2008 with the options we wanted and succeeded, but the problem was that this thing MSRP’d above what a similarly-but-optimally-equipped 2009 retails for. It made more sense to me that they should come down on the 2008 price, close to what we originally intended seeing as how that’s basically what they initially offered. However for whatever reasons, they were going too far into the negative trying to please us on the 2008 model.

And here’s where things get weird. Good, but weird. You see, the manager eventually came out, and basically hit the nail on the head: We wanted a 2009 Tacoma. Yes, we did, we wanted the groupings of features that come on the “OC” package 2009 models, but didn’t want to pay the 2009 Price, we wanted to pay what we thought was fair seeing as how it was a year older now. Again, for whatever reason, they couldn’t. BUT, they COULD work the 2009 model down. And in fact, after going back & forth with the manager on what it meant to take care of the customer and what we wanted-or-we-walked, he went bottom-basement to take care of us.

It still doesn’t make sense, but now we’re going to get a fully-loaded 2009 OC model for just about $850 more than what the 2008 mid-tier 2008 model was that we originally drove off the lot with. I’m not going to get into prices too much, I don’t want to offend anyone’s decencies, nor do I want people to think they can waltz in and get the deal we got, but let’s just say that after the packages are put together and the accessory options we got figured in, the MSRP of the truck we’re going to get is around $33K. The 2008 after rebates and price finagling was a good figure under $30K.

They’ve made right be me, so I’m good with that. New Truck should be here today or tomorrow. Yay!