On June 21st I went to Desert Toyota of Las Vegas to attempt to purchase a 2005 4-Runner Limited. I had spent several days researching this vehicle and attempting to locate a 4-Runner Limited that had the options I wanted in the color I wanted. Earlier that day I had contacted a Toyota dealership in another state where I had previously purchased 3 new vehicles.
They quoted me a price (Invoice Price $XXX. 00 taxes Fees - REBATE). At this time they did not have the vehicle I wanted in stock which led me to attempt to make a deal with Desert Toyota of Las Vegas.
Upon arrival at the dealership my friend and I were met by a salesman and I told him what I wanted and led him directly to the 4-Runner I wanted. He told me there was a $1200 rebate on the SUV. The rebate is actually $1250 and I informed him that I was aware of the rebate. After test driving the vehicle we went in to negotiate. Before we even sat down I informed him of the offer I received from the other dealership and that I did not expect them to meet that deal, but if they came close enough we would have a deal. I also informed him that this would be a cash deal, no trade, no loan or lease. The salesman then walked off to speak to his sales manager.
He returned after a few minutes and stated that they would not go below Invoice $ZZZZ. He presented me with a paper that had the following:
INVOICE PRICE
ZZZZ. 00
taxes
fees
TOTAL $ $xyza. 00 CASH
There were no numbers for taxes or fees, just the words "taxes" and "fees". I requested that he go back and fill in the figures as well as what the details of what the "fees" covered.
He returned in less that 5 minutes with his sales manager and a computer generated paper which had the requested figures as well as a copy of the dealer invoice. My figures and theirs did not match. Upon closer review I realized that I had forgotten to add the dealer mark up and they had not deducted the rebate of $1250. I then wrote a counter offer on their hand written paper noting that my offer was "after rebate". I was assuming that I would assign the rebate to them as I had done with previous auto purchases (prior rebates were applied to down payment amount). The salesman and the manager both had confused looks so I then wrote next to my offer the amount without rebate and the words "before rebate". It did not really matter if the rebate were assigned to them or if I received the rebated by mail later. I just wanted the rebate that was being offered on the vehicle.
After a few minutes of discussion I again stated that their computer generated form did not include the rebate. I was informed that it did. I requested that the salesman please show me where the $1250 was listed on the page. He them went to find his manager who had walked away during the discussion. During the discussions the rebate was mentioned several times. The salesman and his manager repeatedly stated that the rebate was $1200, and I corrected them each time. (It was $1250).
The manager came back quickly with a cocky attitude and said "You want the rebate TOO?" I responded that of course, I was buying a qualifying vehicle. He walked off and returned immediately and stated that if I wanted the rebate the dealer markup would be $500 more. At that point my friend and I stood up and said it was ridiculous and we walked away.
I was NOT ripped off because I had educated myself prior to going to the dealership. Even so, Desert Toyota of Las Vegas tried to rip me off in the following ways:
1) They were planning on keeping a rebate that I would have been entitled to. If their price took the rebate into account, it should have been shown on both the handwritten and computer generated offers. It was not. One would assume that being the case that the offers was a "before rebate" price.
2) When asked about the $1250 rebate they said the price would increase by $500. This is clearly fraud. That would make it a $750 rebate... Right?
3) They never stated the correct rebate amount. Do they have more than one way to get some or all of the rebate money from the customer without the customer catching on? Another case of deceptive pricing.
4) This last one was quite tricky. When adding up the figures on the computer generated printout, I found that the total amount printed was $179 higher than it should have been. Guess they figured I would not catch it. While the amount was not extremely high, it adds up for a high volume dealer (they are part AutoNation) if they do this with ever deal.
I have reported the actions of this dealer to Toyota's Corporate offices and I am suppose to receive a call within 3 business days from the dealership to resolve my complaints. I will also be sending a complaint to the dealership's General Manager, the FTC and the Nevada Attorney General.
Thank you ROR for the opportunity to warn others of this attempt to rip off the consumer.
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