A disgruntled customer waiting for delivery of a new Toyota has complained about a dealer allegedly selling new Hybrid vehicles as used cars with asking prices inflated well beyond the manufacturers recommended drive away price.
Drive national motoring editor Josh Dowling says there is proof the practice is real – and Toyota Australia cannot stop the price-gouging because it says it is not against the law.
According to Dowling, a customer waiting for a Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid contacted Drive and shared examples of brand-new cars for sale with 6km and 33km on the odometer.
He says Drive found new Toyota RAV4 Hybrids with between 1km and 50km on the odometer, but advertised as used cars.
In the examples given to Drive by the customer, Dowling says both cars appeared to be for sale by the same Toyota dealer – and the number plates were only a few digits apart and the vehicles had only just been registered.
He says one car (6km) was advertised for $53,990, while the other (33km) was advertised for $53,888.
Dowling says the exact same model – Toyota Corolla Cross GXL Hybrid all-wheel-drive – is estimated to cost $47,541 drive-away (Sydney, metro) on the Toyota Australia website .
He says the price premium for the Toyota Corolla Cross advertised as ‘used cars’ is more than $6300 – or 13% – dearer than a new model.
Dowling says examples unearthed by Drive showed the premium on Toyota RAV4 Hybrids advertised as used cars is higher – between $8000 and $10,000 more than the recommended drive-away price.
When the customer who contacted Drive had alerted Toyota Australia to his particular examples Dowling says he received the following response which was copied to the publication:
“Thank you for your recent enquiry received by the Toyota Guest Experience Centre,” the response says.
“As a result of unprecedented global and local demand for Toyota vehicles, in addition to the continued impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic, our vehicle production has been impacted by continued parts shortages. Due to these challenges, Toyota is experiencing longer wait times for new vehicle deliveries across its range.
“Unfortunately, this has resulted in an increase of price to the second-hand market as these vehicles are readily available. As each Toyota dealership is independently owned and operated, pricing for second-hand vehicles is up to their discretion.”
Dowling says Toyota Australia dismissed the price-gouging by the unknown dealer as a market trend.
“Second-hand market prices are not set by the dealer. However, as the market is already inflated, dealerships price their second-hand vehicles to keep up with the second-hand market,” the response to the customer from Toyota Australia says.
“If a (customer) has ordered a new vehicle but they no longer want it and sell it back to the dealer, this would be considered a used vehicle,” the response says.
“There are other reasons why a vehicle may be considered second-hand, however we are not privy to these transactions and therefore cannot comment on why there would be second-hand vehicles with low kilometres.
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