About to purchase - any last tips

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

Next week I am going in to sell my soul & hopefully buy either a VX or a Kakadu depending upon what I can get out of them for the $. Wifey wants the Kakadu.

Any last tips for what to ask for, expect or what has worked or gone against you? - Best prices

Also we are looking at either white or Crystal Pearl with the Silver Pearl as an outside chance. Love the simplicity of white with the ease of touching up small scratches etc & looking & keeping clean. I saw a crystal pearl on an overcast day & whilst it was a bit dirty, the paint looked a bit dull. Would that just be the lack of sun ?

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

Yeah the Kak & all those goodies does look good on paper & you obviously pay a premium for it. We are definitely not hardcore so I can't imagine we would add a heap anyway as you suggest. The spring upgrade is a very cheap mod.

I have to look into what a merit plug is as I have no idea. I remember reading somewhere about someone upgrading the inverter to handle more than just a battery charger etc - is this along the lines of what the merit plug would achieve?

I have had sheepskin in all our cars & wifey hates it - I prefer it but then I have had vinyl & or cloth seats in all our others & the vinyl can be hot & sticky on bare skin ie shorts/singlet attire but a breeze to clean & the cloth is a bugger to clean the kids eating spills.

I'd probably have to keep the steps as the kids are still small & struggle to get into a Jimny at present.

Wifey recently had a collision in our 2 door Sillycar 'family' car now written off, hence the need to get a real family car with more. I emptied the contents before they took it away to Celica heaven but ensured the spare roll of dunny paper came out as well ready to begin its new life in something else.

Wifey wanted a Volvo XC90 or a BMW X5 but is resigned to the Prado & "if it must be then get the damn Kakadu". We are looking froward to a new car

Vic
My

[Bawky Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bawky]

Hi Vichel, I don't think you will regret it, we love ours, had a GXL before and simply love the features. Radar cruise is awesome. I think the XC90 will be worth less than half in 3 years. That is a loss of about $45k from $90k, depending on model. A prado would only loose about $20k in 4 years (I just sold one at 3.5 years old) In four years time you will be $30k better off plus you have a durable vehicle for off road, parts availability in most places and you will sit much higher on the road. No regrets from me, 3rd Prado now!

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

I went for it on Friday with a heap of dealers on the East Coast - not real happy with the responses. One of the bigger dealers here in Melb went so far as to tell me its just not in their interest at this time to discount much as there is limited stock & as some type of 'new' model is due in Nov, Toyota aren't making as many of the Kaks & even the Altitudes have slowed down the Kak production. Go figure. I was unsure for a while which model to go for & had been tracking the prices on Car sales etc since March - back then they were as low as $82k drive away now they are higher.

Did any of you manage to get any extras thrown in?

[Bawky Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bawky]

I went for it on Friday with a heap of dealers on the East Coast - not real happy with the responses. One of the bigger dealers here in Melb went so far as to tell me its just not in their interest at this time to discount much as there is limited stock & as some type of 'new' model is due in Nov, Toyota aren't making as many of the Kaks & even the Altitudes have slowed down the Kak production. Go figure. I was unsure for a while which model to go for & had been tracking the prices on Car sales etc since March - back then they were as low as $82k drive away now they are higher.

Did any of you manage to get any extras thrown in?

No extras $82k drive away, 4 weeks ago. Avoid putting extras on as they attract stamp duty and luxury car tax, which I belive LCT is 30%.

I also called our local fleet car sales manager who I have an excellent releationship with. There have been no bulletins issued to them regarding changes to Prado in November. The last bulletin related to the SE (Altitude) model. They have not heard of any model change or facelifts to the current model. They don't expect any major change within the next 2 plus years as a minimum.

They said stock is hard to find for the GXL as many dealers ordered the Altitude and not the GXL. Toyota have since reduced the GXL pricing the GXL is hard to get as dealers didn't expect the price reduction and the increased demand for the GXL.

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

No extras $82k drive away, 4 weeks ago. Avoid putting extras on as they attract stamp duty and luxury car tax, which I belive LCT is 30%.

Well done Bawky. That's the ballpark I'm looking at. I told them I was ready to buy. I have had a couple of dealers came back with $95k - $105k albeit with $4200 worth of extras which means an extra $1500 - $2000 in taxes etc. Couldn't believe they were throwing those figures at me as their best price

I've been working on LCT at 33% & I threw up those extras to see what they would offer as inclusions.

[tonykarter15 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tonykarter15]

There will be a minor update later this year however I have been told that nothing significant is likely to occur. No new engine, transmission, body shape or electronics.
The altitude model has slowed down production and as a result, there is a wait for any prado except for altitudes.

I therefore ordered a current model one, a GXL diesel 4 weeks ago with another 3 week wait to come.

[Simon76 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Simon76]

Has anyone noticed that there are buggar all adds on carsales.com.au for new Prados. Apparently, dealers where advertising and undercutting each other to the bone, consumers getting good deals, dealership not so. Anyways, I was told that Toyota HQ told all dealers they are not to advertise new car price other that the RRP - meaning hard for us to haggle on price if you can't compare across dealers. Dealers will tell you the ACCC told them to stop this practice, but that's BS. I just received my diesel auto GXL for $57,500 with towbar, it was subject to delivery by 30 June - so much for their $60,990 nationwide sale. If you are struggling with arrogant sales folk my advice is go in the last week of the month, make sure the car is in stock either in their yard or on its way, and put the price on the table, if they need the sale, they'll talk, if not they'll ignore you, so you move onto the next one, there are plenty of dealerships to go through.

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

I just received my diesel auto GXL for $57,500 with towbar

Good effort @ that price with towbar even better. Did you have that figure in mind? I take it colour wasn't a big deal more that the car was in stock??

Vic

[cbm8880 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close cbm8880]

If you are struggling with arrogant sales folk my advice is go in the last week of the month, make sure the car is in stock either in their yard or on its way, and put the price on the table, if they need the sale, they'll talk, if not they'll ignore you, so you move onto the next one, there are plenty of dealerships to go through.

This is great advice and is true for everything from washing machines, to TVs, to cars. If you can walk in on the last Sunday of the month (preferably rainy), know exactly what you want, and what price you'll be happy to pay, you'll more often than not get a great deal! They use "dollar cost averaging" (for want of a better term) to ensure they make enough profit of the month, and if they can squeeze another "unit" into their sales figures, they will.

But if you walk in feeling any pressure to buy, they can smell it and you've already lost the game. ;-)

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

I tried that on the last day before the EOFY but maybe they had made enough for that month & year. Will try again though

[Guest Close Guest]

I tried that on the last day before the EOFY but maybe they had made enough for that month & year. Will try again though

Probably because they can't prepare the vehicle and deliver it by EOFY. Or just cocky stealerships

[Simon76 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Simon76]

Good effort @ that price with towbar even better. Did you have that figure in mind? I take it colour wasn't a big deal more that the car was in stock??

Vic

Vichel, I wanted Graphite and got it. It just happened that the dealer was getting one delivered 2 days before the EFOY and wanted too move it. Funnily enough I only went in for a sticky beak just to get my 5yr old out of the house and wife's hair, and got a good deal that I couldn't refuse.

[Simon76 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Simon76]

Btw, re price, I forgot to mention that I also had a trade in, I got a little less than I wanted, but in the end made up for it in the price of the Prado.