True.
I've read on a Toyota forum that Toyota doesn't give dealers holdback money on vehicles that are ordered.
I don't know if that's true,though.

 

That might be true. A holdback is money given to the dealer for keeping a invoice of cars on their lot. It also helps with the financing cost to keep a car on the lot, I believe new cars are interest free for 2 or 3 months. So if an factory ordered car have a customer already and do not need to spend time on the lot, there should be no holdback. Thats also explain why dealer hates ordering cars and always jack up the price when someone orders one.

 

The main reason that dealers prefer to sell cars in stock, rather than special-orders, even over and above holdback money, is that, if the deal doesn't go through for any reason (credit rating, liens, fraud, loss of job, etc.....) the dealership could (?) wind up stuck with a special-ordered car on the lot that appeals to one one person (or a few persons) and, therefore, may not sell easily. This is sometimes the case with cars painted bright or unusual colors (though I myself happen to like cars painted that way).

 

Called and was told it should be in either today or tomorrow. It is coming from much closer than CT or NY where they originally stated, they now say Portland, ME which is just a little over an hour drive from the dealership.

Again, I realize that it's not as simple as just getting a car, but I appreciate honesty when I'm spending this type of money, and I don't feel that in this instance I was given that. Assuming the car is here today or tomorrow it would be a mute point to make a stink about the process by which we waited, but I still feel that there was some incompetence on their part. We did get an excellent price though, partially because we purchased a used Lexus as well and did a package deal. We did look at Herb in Boston as well as Ira down in Danvers where we purchased our other ES back in '03, but the best deal was Ira in Manchester.

Hopefully all goes well.

 

A week and a half ago there WAS bad weather....big time. The entire Northeastern U.S.......including NYC......was hit by a major blizzard.

 

The cars were on ice literally speaking

 

Our RX arrived today. Happy, right? Not really. They DROVE it, it was not transported on a truck. So it has around 100 miles. In my opinion, that's not a new car, and I wouldn't expect to pay a new car price for it. We're discussing what to do at this point because thus far the service hasn't been satisfactory.


He was referring to the weather of yesterday, not a week and a half ago.

 

You should have asked how the RX was going to be delivered.
A vehicle with 100 miles knowing the miles are highway miles probably delivered by some kid driver who didn't follow any engine break in procedure would bother me.
But that's me.

 

The dealership didn't even know where or when they were going to find the car, the last thing they knew was how they were going to get it there. We were never given a definitive answer until all of a sudden the car appeared today. This seems like it was a last minute, quick fix after we called yesterday and complained. Sub-par service.

 

Well,most dealers work that way but I always ask how and where the car is coming from and mention that I don't want to see mileage.
My ES 350 came from another dealer and had 18 miles on it.Acceptable to me.

 

We called back and decided to wait until they receive more which we were told will be 2-3 weeks, not sure if we will actually end up waiting or go somewhere else. And to be exact, the car actually had 205 miles on it, but it's only 95 miles between the two dealerships. I find that strange.

 

They probably used it for demo too

 

205 miles!!!
I'd tell them to shove where the sun don't shine.
That's ***** but then again some people wouldn't care.

 

Its a new car. My Tundra came with 120 miles on odometer and it now has over 226,000 miles with no problems. 100 miles on the odometer is pretty minor.

 

100 miles, unfortunately, is not legally enough to remove it from new-car status, especially if it has never been titled. But that doesn't mean you have to accept delivery of it as is. Check it over carefully for scratches, chips in the glass/paint/trim, dings, and any other kind of road damage...especially if they drove it on winter-treated roads getting there. Also, if that is the case, insist on a full underbody-flush with a hose, to get salt/sand off, and a good, thorough clean-up before delivery. If you pay for a new car, you deserve one without significant cosmetic damage.