Anyone know a good Toyota dealer?

by philg

In order to impress the ladies I’ve decided it is time to get a flashy new car.  My friends at MIT tell me that minivans are the height of fashion these days.  So I want to get a 2004 Toyota Sienna.  I’ll either trade in my 1998 Sienna (LE, 42,000 miles, leather, sunroof, fresh from $2400 of service) or give it away to an interesting charity (like the last one).  I paid $500 over invoice for the last minivan but the Boston dealers want nearly list price for the new ones, which leads to abusive $40,000 price tags


Anyone know a good Toyota dealer or a region of the country where you don’t have to donate a kidney in order to get a Sienna?  Or must one wait for the big interest rate rise?


Alternatively, does anyone know whether or not the new 2005 Honda Odyssey will have openable windows in the middle like the Sienna?  If so, and Siennas remain hard to get, I might simply wait for the new Odyssey which will presumably be a slightly better vehicle.


[My specs:  XLE Limited, either 2WD or AWD is okay, Package #6 (HO; navigation system), glass breakage sensor on alarm, Arctic Frost Pearl exterior, stone leather interior, no financing required.]


[Update:  Honda has released a new minivan in Japan called the Elysion.  It seems to be based on the Accord and has a V6 engine.  Honda says “The sliding doors feature power windows that can open fully”.  It sure looks as though this could be the new Odyssey.  The old Odyssey just barely beat the new Sienna in the latest Car and Driver magazine.  So the redesigned one should be noticeably better and just as dog-friendly with its additional openable windows.]

26 thoughts on “Anyone know a good Toyota dealer?”

  1. I bought my toyotas (A Camry and A Corolla) from the Toyota of Nashua folks at NH. That seemed like a decent place. You just need to get the invoice price from the net (like Carpoint or from other auto places) and bargain for a price about ~$1000 more than the invoice price (which will be lot less than the list price). Anyway, thats how I dealt for the Camry. That was a while back though. 🙂
    FWIW

  2. Try autobytel and other online shopping sites. I bought a 2002 Camry within a few months of release for a small amount over invoice.

    Now given the amount of rattles I’ve had with that car [though it has been reliable to date] I would suggest you wait out the first model year before you buy.

  3. oy! you think you’re going to impress the ladies with a gigantic white minivan that looks like a mobile refrigerator? You might want to re-think this one phillymon…

  4. One other option is to call 1-800-GO TOYOTA and ask them which dealers in your region have that specific spec Sienna. Then, among those, choose one in an economically less-favorable area for more negotiation room.

  5. I saw a guy today riding on a Segway Human Transporter and that impressed the hell out of me. 🙂
    Also, the guys really like that I drive a Subaru Forester so maybe that would work in reverse? It’s definitely a dog friendly car.

  6. Kyle: what part of “My friends at MIT tell me that minivans are the height of fashion these days” sounds like Philip isn’t being ironic? 😉

    Sounds more like he is buying a car to impress the boys!

  9. My friend bought the XLE version last week for 500$ above invoice here in Northern Virginia. I’m not sure which package he chose but his total came up to about 33K. His basically just called up the dealer and told him that if they could sell the van for 500$ above invoice he’d be right over and buy one!!
    If you are interested I can get you the name of the dealer.

    Cheers,
    Sreenivas

  10. carmax.com sells Toyota’s at pretty good prices. I just picked up a 2004 Sienna, and none of the dealers would even consider matching carmax’s prices. I think you’re issue may be getting exactly the color/options you want.

  11. Sreenivas: Your email address remains hidden with this software, even from me. So I would appreciate the name of the dealer in Northern, VA (my parents and sibs live in Bethesda, MD so it is easy for me to get down there).

  12. Phil:

    Just spoke to my friend. The dealer’s name is Koons Tysons Toyota ((a href=”http://www.koons.com/newtoyota.asp”)http://www.koons.com/newtoyota.asp). For your information my friend got the XLE version (pkg #14, floor mats, cargo net, medical kit and wireless headset) for a total of $32,800 (Invoice was $30,500, destination $500, $500 over invoice and the rest was taxes, etc). The numers have been slightly rounded off.

    Cheers,
    Sreenivas

  13. I used carsdirect.com to buy a honda accord in LA… It was about the best experience I could hope for. Still had to sit down with a guy who pushed the usual after-purchase crap (extended warranty, seat protection junk, etc), but I just said no to everything and the whole process only took an hour. BTW, carsdirect.com is my favorite because they actually tell you the price while you’re browsing the site, unlike most sites which require you to get in contact with a dealer (ugh).

    Re: waiting for the Odyessey- Rolldown windows would be big. What I’d also like to know is whether they’re going to steal those fold-down middle row seats from Chrysler (i believe). Everyone’s got fold-down rear seats, but if the japanese manufacturers integrate those fold-down middle seats… Mmmm…

  14. The internet *has* ever so slightly affected the car buying business. Atleast here in Northern Calif, most dealerships have an Internet Dept that will email you a price for the trim+options that you want. And you can try to get others to meet/beat it. They cleary say “It is $x + my $500 over invoice” and they stick to that w/o negotitations.

    At the time of signing the papers you need to watch for the extended warranty, paint protection, blah blah blah. I just loved how my finance guys’ eyes went round when I declined his options. Oscar-worthy performance!

  18. Phil, how are you gonna get a wife at this rate ?
    Chicks dig cars.
    Keep the old van for the pooches and get a BMWer.

  19. Take a look at the Mazda MPV:
    it has the fold-away third seat, opening passenger windows,
    and it’s somewhat smaller (and faintly more car-like) than the
    Sienna or Odyssey.

  20. Impress the ladies with a minivan? Are you nuts!

    Mercedes M-series or BMW X series Phillip!

  22. No, he doesn’t have to buy a Bimmer. He just has to drop the words “my airplane” for the ladies to know that he’s playing in a whole different league where cars are no longer icons.

    Seriously though, minivans are useful, but nobody would drive them unless the manufacturer slap a Pilot body on an Odyssey or a Rendevous name plate on a Venture. It’s still the same van, but all of a sudden, they are cool.

  24. Thanks for all of the ideas. I took your suggestions and signed up for a particular Sienna at carsdirect.com, agreeing to their fixed price (about $1300 over invoice, which is maybe $2500 over the dealer’s actual cost as estimated by a Consumer Reports report on the car). It seems that they don’t have too much pull with dealers, though. They said that they couldn’t get any of their affiliate dealers to sell a car like that at the carsdirect price. Maybe they could find someone to order it for me and they’d have it available after 12 weeks (just in time for the new Honda Odyssey to be available and for the New England winter to set in).

    PatW: I’m not sure that airplane ownership impresses women. But it certainly is enough of a headache that it cures you of a desire to own a fussy car such as a Ferrari. It does seem to be the case that the fancier the airplane the less people talk about their cars. The guy who camped in my row at Oshkosh next to his Pilatus PC-12 ($3.2 million six passenger single-engine turboprop) didn’t say “oh by the way let me tell you about my BMW and all of the cool Walmarts that I’ve been to in it”. And the people who are really into flying, e.g., flight instructors, don’t seem to care about their cars much.

    So I guess I won’t be getting a new car this summer. The process is too painful and I think I might spend much of the summer either (a) out and about in the airplane, (b) over in Iceland, (c) down in Rio, Brasilia, and the Pantanal, or (d) all of the above.

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