Toyota Canada "Access" Pricing truth/myth?

[postul8or]

I've been considering a new car for about a year now and Toyota is one brand I'm considering. I've heard from a few people now that Toyota is not willing to bend from sticker price. Is this true? I've seen a few things that are contradictory to this concept of access pricing?

1. Take a look at the "testimonials" on http://www.carcostcanada.com where people frequently say "I saved $1000 on my Highlander, Avalon etc."

2. Took a peek at Phil Edmonston's Lemon Aid 2006 and under Toyota's new car prices he listed in brackets "(very negotiable)".

3. Logic - all the other car dealers shift their price to make sales, I find it hard to believe that Toyota would choose arrogance over $500 or $1000 and turn away sales of $25,000+ vehicles. All dealerships would rather have room for the latest models instead of a lot full of last year's stuff. I just don't buy these bleeding heart stories over car companies not making any money on their cars, they are making a 20% margin easily (I'm thinking GM, Ford here). Sure, they have huge fixed costs in terms of defined pension benefits and health care benefits but that has nothing to do with the variable cost to produce 1 car. If anything, turning away sales over $500 or $1000 haggling is hurting them by not selling enough of their vehicles. Anyway, I wouldn't buy an argument from Toyota saying that they don't want to be the next GM or Ford. They already avoided this by avoiding defined pension benefits, excessive health care benefits etc.

Any comments or experience in dealing with Toyota on price etc. would be appreciated.

[Brian R.]

If you're willing to walk out the door and come back another day, as well as price the competition, you will do better and better the longer you talk. Try around the end of the month in the dead of winter. To come close to a quota, they may be flexible on some models.

Here's some good reading:

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/

[postul8or]

If we are talking about a very common car (like a Camry) is this strategy more likely to work or less likely to work?

Would you say this is a general strategy for all car makers, or in particular this is what you need to do when dealing with Toyota?

[Brian R.]

Bargaining for a Camry is always more difficult than for a Sequoia or other hard to sell vehicle. There is always some room for negotiation when they see you walking out the door at the end of the day. Honda is serious competition.

This is a general strategy for most. Sending fax requests for pricing for a specific car to fleet salesmen of a number of dealers in your area may be productive. Edmunds.com had an article on this, but I can't find it currently.

[postul8or]

I was talking to somebody today and I think I found some clarity on the Access pricing issue and info on Lemon-Aid.

Access pricing was deemed to be illegal due to anti-competition laws in Ontario. However, this doesn't help if you are in another province in Canada. My guess is that Access pricing might well exist here (Alberta).

Lemon-Aid is written by Phil Edmonston who I believe is very Ontario-centric when he is writing. He does make honorable mentions of other parts of Canada (eg. makes note of the fact that trucks are popular in the west and westerns tend to hold on to their cars longer). Anyway, I believe the Ontario focus is why he believes prices on Toyota's are highly negotiable.