Complaint Review: Toyota Of Portland - Portland Maine

   One thing is for sure, the books are called "guides" for a reason. Two years ago when gas hit $3.50 plus you could buy a nice truck for $5000 below book value. Now because there is such a shortage of low mileage clean used trucks they are now doing almost retail at the auction. The books run months behind and are just a guide.

Most dealer also floorplan (finance) their used cars. So they are depreciating monthly and they have to pay interest monthy. Most dealers are on a 90 day turn meaning if it is not sold retail within 90 days it is wholesaled or brought to auction. This is why auction values are far more important than book values. A car is worth what you can replace it for. As for paying $3000 over auction price well duh! Auction price plus auction fee $300 +/- plus transport $150 +/- plus reconditioning $500-$800 plus PROFIT = $2500-$3000 over auction. You want great service, great warranty, but you do not want to let a dealer make a profit? Pretty soon you will be buying cars at Walmart. Good luck with that. It all about value, not the lowest price. Every used car is different. That is why they are all worth different $$$.

The car dealer practice of offering "auction" value is becoming more and more prevalant in the industry. Three years ago it was very common to be offered the "blue book" value for your car, often the dealership would print the page straight from the web site to show you - what we don't know as consumers is that the acctual value of our trade in is often taken from a black book that prices closer to the NADA guidelines (often thousands of dollars more than blue book). So if a dealer offers you blue book price it's probably still not the best deal - however trading in a car this year I found that multiple dealers were offering "auction" value. Explained to me as "we could go tomorrow and buy this car at auction for X dollars''. Carmax has used this system for at least three years offering people much less than their car is worth - yet still charging retail price for their cars. Which is where the real problem comes up - yes you could buy it at auction for thousands of dollars less - so why aren't you selling it for thousands of dollars less? I've found that traditional dealerships often will offer you a better deal for your trade - mostly because they can then pad the price of the new car - or shaft you on financing. However I would much rather pay a little more for a new car than loose a lot of money on the old car. Here are examples of what I ran into while shopping for a car. I was trading in a VW bug that had 63000 miles and trade in on blue book was valued at around $7500.00 NADA value at $9000.00. I still owed $10,000 so I knew I was going to be upside down - but I was hoping it would only be 2-3k. I went to a Chevrolet dealer and was offered straight blue book value - they printed the page and handed it to me -"this is the blue book value of your car". I went to carmax .My sales person had just shown me on their lot the same model with similar miles selling for $13,000.00 and speculated that I would be offered between 7-9k for my trade. He assured me that the mark up on their cars was only around $1000.00 .I was offered only $4500.00 - this was shocking to me (and my sales person). So their mark up was $8500.00! And they have the "no haggle" policy which means you can't fight the price of the new car to try to cut your losses.When I told them that it was ludacris to offer me a trade that low they started trying to explain the auction system to me - I told them that that was fine, but that I was not an auction house -I was a consumer trying to get a good deal. So I left Carmax with no plans on returing in the future. I finally went to the dealership where I had first bought my VW and began pricing 2007 models that were on clearance. Here they offered to pay off my trade in full if I would pay MSRP on the 2007 model. This was a no brainer for me. I got $2500 more for my trade in than I was expecting! Now had I gone in with no trade I probably could have gotten the new car for 2-3k less than what I paid for it - so it all sorta worked out the same - but the fact of the matter was that I did have a trade that I needed to get out of. Shop around and find not only the best deal on the new car but also on trade in - some dealers will just work more with you than others.

These books are worthless. When you trade a vehicle you normally get the same price that the dealer can purchase an identical car for at auction. If you have an old trade that a new car dealer won't mess with then he will have so sell the car at auction and will get even less than the auction selling price to some used car dealer. If the dealer pads the trade he then adds the price to the new car in some fashion -interest rate, after market accessory junk, pin stripes, etc. You are always going to pay the difference between the new car and the trade in and the difference is constant. If they pay you $5,000 for your trade and the new car is $30,000 the difference is $25,000. If they pay you $150,000 for your trade the new car price will be $175,000. Next time you buy a car leave the trade out of the deal until you get a firm price for the new car, then "decide" to trade in your car and watch them scurry around like cockroaches trying to figure out what they can offer you for your trade that will keep you from walking.

About the integrity of Toyota. That's why you need to 'Google' the following article: SUIT: DEFECT REPORTS ALTERED TOYOTA PLANT Toyota Corporation has no INTEGRITY! And to prove that defective parts are being put in Toyota vehicles, simply 'Google' the two words ENGINE SLUDGE and go to the site about complaints from Toyota owners. If you scroll down to the complaint on 6-16-2007 from Brittany of Angleton, TX, you can read that her SEAT BELT malfunctioned and her AIR-BAG did not deploy! This happened while she was going 45-50 MPH. To further prove that Toyota Corporation has no integrity, simply 'Google' the following and read them: ENGINE SLUDGE SEXUAL HARASSMENT TOYOTA BALTIMORE SETTLEMENT CALIFORNIA TOYOTA and go to www.9news.com and type in ORNELAS and search the story that made the Front Page of the Denver Post and watch the video that made the 10 O'Clock News on the #1 Most Watched News Station in Colorado, 9 News! It's time for another Toyota Christmas Song. Please sing to the tune of 'OH CHRISTMAS TREE' Oh engine sludge, oh engine sludge Toyota engines sludging Oh engine sludge, oh engine sludge My Tundra it's not budging. All filled with sludge What shall I do Do I give up Or should I sue? Oh engine sludge, oh engine sludge Toyota engine sludging! P.S. Alert EVERYONE you know about this website! Especially Toyota owners. Innocent people's lives are at stake because of the DEFECTIVE PARTS that are being put into Toyota vehicles, and a WOMAN who BLEW THE WHISTLE is being emotinally distressed because she STOOD UP FOR THE TRUTH!! Imagine the MILLIONS of Corollas that could have FAULTY, DEFECTIVE parts!! Someone you know could be in danger! But Toyota doesn't care because it's just BUSINESS IN AMERICA!