I finalized the deal for my Rav4 Prime SE
In the end, I paid slightly more than I had hoped, but I am still okay with the deal. I did not pay an exorbitant markup, though I did pay some fees which I thought could have ben lower, and paid a much higher price than may theoretically have been possible for the vehicle service plan that I bought. Here is the breakdown:
Base price: $39,800
Factory options/packages: $2,861 (includes weather/moonroof, all weather liner package, roof rack cross bars, rear bumper applique, protection package)
Delivery/processing/handling: $1,215
"Doc fee": $500
Taxes at 6.5%: around $3,000
title and license fees: $361
Vehicle service Plan (6 years, 75k miles): $2,995
OTD price: $50,811
If I had my choice, I would have skipped some of the options (protection package, rear bumper thing), and bought others later for slightly less (roof rack cross bars, all-weather liners), but I think I will eventually be glad to have the protection package, and would only have saved maybe $200-250 on the others. I call the options a wash.
The delivery/processing/handling fee appears to be consistent across every dealership and even between the R4P and R4Hybrid, so I pretty much consider that part of the base price.
The "Doc fee" is a little more nebulous. Thy said it's for out of state documents, but I'm not sure if it is technically required by law or what. It appeared to be consistent for most dealerships I shopped, except the in-state dealers had only $200 for their doc fee on the hybrids I looked at.
Tax is tax... don't like it? well... too bad.
Title and license fees seemed to be consistent between all dealers, and from what I understand those ARE pretty much fixed and required. I have no issues with it.
Now we get to the vehicle service plan... The dealership said "We are selling at MSRP but you have to either get a VSP or you have to get the paint protection VIP something-or-other..." I view this as basically the substitute for the markup, but I'm semi-okay with it because at least there is some value there.
I live 500 miles from the dealership so annual detailing and paint restoration at their shop has no real value to me. A longer warranty a least has some theoretical future value, and some very real peace-of-mind value for me. I "could" have paid less than half of what I did pay (or gotten longer coverage) and I pushed pretty hard, kept them on the phone for a long time, etc. but in the end, my sales guy leveled with me and said the demand for the R4P is so high that they are more or less unwilling to compromise on that point. As we all know, the demand is extremely high and I'm positive he could have sold the car in a heartbeat to the next buyer, likely with even more of a markup. I(In fact, the price on their website has already gone up).
After I did the paperwork online, my guy called me and said he felt bad that they couldn't do better on the VSP and he wanted to do something for me: "I'm going to get you a nice key chain, a hat, and see what other toyota accessories we have here that I can provide for no cost. I'm also going to get you a car service to pick you up at the airport and bring you here to pick up your new Rav4 Prime. No charge."
Maybe they pulled my leg, maybe not. They didn't have to provide a car service (and it's actually quite helpful for me), and although I have little interest in a toyota key chain or hat, that was at least a nice gesture.
