Year, Make, Model, and Trim: 2021 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport
MSRP: $44,553
Selling Price: $42,437
Monthly Payment: $366
Drive-Off Amount: $7,000
Months: 36
Annual Mileage: 12,000
MF: .00136
Residual: $33,860
Incentives: $500 Toyota Lease Cash, $500 College Graduate
Region: WA
Leasehackr Score: 10.7
Leasehackr Calculator Link:
My wife and I were looking for a 4x4 to have in addition to my Camaro that we brought with us to WA from SoCal where discovered Camaro’s don’t like snow. Every dealership was quoting MSRP less $500 Toyota Cash with a couple (I’m looking at you Toyota of Kirkland) marking all of their Tacomas up $3,000 with the Ford of Kirkland marking their F150s (and soon to follow Rangers) up $10k. We hit up TrueCar to see if there were any values to be had in this chip shortage and inflation fueled car buying environment and low and behold, Toyota of Olympia had every one of their Tacomas for 4-5% below MSRP, including the hard to find Cement models.
We made our way (90 minute drive) to Tumwater and test drove two of the three Tacomas they had in stock and knowing trucks of all kinds were selling before they hit the dock, we asked to pay the TrueCar price for a Cement TRD Off Road the site listed as in stock, but was, according to the dealership, not technically in their lot so they would not honor the deal, but would honor it for anything they had on hand.
Recognizing our negotiation disadvantage (we along with every other person in the dealership was looking at the barren selection of Tacomas) and after some haggling attempts to allocate the enroute Tacoma to us, I pulled up the offer that matched the VIN and watched their jaws drop at the 5.3% discount to MSRP TrueCar listed for the TRD Sport with Premium and Technology packages we had just driven.
After starting the paperwork, I noticed the money factor (thanks you Leasehackr!) was .00299 and showed them the money factor included in the TrueCar offer (.00209) and once that was set in stone to get the value to the $417 shown by TrueCar, I asked to do the max MSDs which took a manager or two to understand what they were (salesman was on the job for two weeks), the lease cost was $360 with a money factor of .00136, and for an extra $6 per month, I prepaid all the necessary maintenance through the end of the lease (which, if I’m told anything different I’ll be seeking words with the dealership).
Since the calculator only allows 9 max MSDs for a value of $3,375, and the dealer term sheet shows $4,500 in Refundable Security Deposit, which seems to be 12 MSDs, so I think the Leasehackr score may be bit better than shown. So, I think I did ok given the environment, how did I really do?
