My salesman was the hybrid expert for the dealership, and he had just returned from Toyota training. So he was actually quite knowledgable about the car. There were only 1-2 minor things that he didn't know which I had only known about because of this forum. And even after all my research, he showed me a couple of things I didn't know about.

 

When we bought the first one last July I knew more about the car than our salesperson, but that was sort of expected because he was an internet sales guy. I think our dealer was up to speed on hybrids, though. When we bought our second TCH about 2 months ago I wasn't there for the pick-up. When I asked my wife if the sales person went over the car's features she said he did. He even took the time to pair her phone with the bluetooth.

 

We just purchased July 6th and our sales person was fairly good although in the end, I probably knew slightly more. Being the ****-retentive (yes with a hyphen) engineer I was well prepared. This was probably one of his easiest sales and actually said he didn't want us to rush into a purchase.

 

My 8 year old daughter knew more about the car than any saleshole did.

So did I.

When it came down to transacting the deal I pointed to the car, gave them the numbers, my trade value, my credit score and exactly 90 minutes to execute the paper work and get me out of there.

Was home in time for lunch.

 

Overall I think most of the salespeople are going to be less knowledgable on the particular vehicle you are about to buy. Partly due to the number of products they have to know at least something about and the fact that most of us on here no doubt spent many hours doing research. I even downloaded the owners manuals two month prior to taking deliverey!

Our salesman was well versed in the TCH but after having the car for a couple of weeks he called me to ask me a question about a conversation we had at the dealership because he needed to answer a question for a customer. I was actually flattered that he called to ask ME.

One year old today (7-7-06)

 

"Normal" people, not us, don't read forums about stuff every day. :-)

 

Both I and my husband make it a point to know as much about a product as we can, before we go into a store. My husband will toy with the sales people and make their lives miserable if they're not at least honest. I will a trust a sales person more if they can say "I don't know" rather than making something up.

That said, I took some of what my TCH salesperson said to heart, and have since found out I was lied to. I suppose that's expected.

 

I always thoroughly research the cars I'm interested in to narrow the list to those I want to test-drive. Once I'm down to the Best & Final I go to sites such as edmunds.com & kbb.com (Kelley Blue Book) to see Invoice Pricing & what other customers are paying as market price.

In visiting the Dealer for the test-drive I seek to confirm any features I've read but don't completely understand & if the salesman "says-so" I ask to see the feature demo'd &/or in the Owner's Manual description. My TCH purchase was done in 45 minutes, though after whatever time I spent on my own & a previous test-drive visit which may have lasted 1.5 hours at another Dealer (who didn't have the loaded TCH in the color I wanted). I realy appreciate the ability to check Dealer inventory on-line - at least you know they show the model in-stock though always good to call to confirm. I asked for an on-line quote on the TCH I purchases & brought that quote to the Dealership in closing the deal. Good thing as the salesperson mis-quoted NJ Registration for a Hybrid & tried to get me to pay $100 more to which I pointed to the on-line quote I received from him - his sales manager honored the quote.

To close the deal I do build a spreadsheet of what the Car lists for & at Invoice to determine the spread, plus known Dealer Hold-back which they never want to negotiate on but sets up that I know there is more to play with on their side. I even show the spreadsheet to drive home I know what the spread is between where they can be & where I want to be in final price. I also priced Accessories which become part of the negotiation in-terms of discounted selling price & installation price to which they have room on as-well. Final note - I pressed for pin-stripe to be included & was told they only do that for "showroom" cars - to which I say, are you going to lose the sale over "pin-stripes"? Deal done... When it came time to discuss ToyotaCare I was armed with the Toyota of Greenfield price for the 0/7/1000,000 plan to leverage the Dealer - he couldn't match it so I went with Troy.

Always be more prepared than the salesperson or dealer staff (sales manager, finance manager).

 

Are you nuts? That would be asking WAAAAAAY too much!!
When I bought my 02 Tacoma back in 02 the salesman barely knew anything about it. With our 05 Corolla S 5-speed it was simple (not much to that little car). With the Camry though, I just took everything I was told with a grain of salt and then just educated myself with the manual. I didn't this forum until AFTER the purchase. Too bad for me

 

my salesperson was actually very nice and seemed somewhat knowledgeable on the details of the car. having come from a hybrid already, and a fully loaded one at that, i did not need much information regarding my new car. within 10 mins i had enabled my bluetooth, set my phone numbers, and set my home location in my nav. the dealer was impressed! even my hubby thinks it is funny that i know so much about my cars. i think the hycam with the nav is a trip because the screen flips down and the disks go in behind it! i love it!