Dealer "on a hold with Toyota." What does that mean?

Hey.

I ordered a 17 PRO last week and put down a deposit. He told me he would let me know when the order went through officially. I asked for an update today and he told me that he was still on a hold from Toyota. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone knows what that means.

Thanks.

 

When you place an "order" it really means the dealer expects to get allocation for the truck and can change options before it is built.

So what they really mean is that they are still waiting for their allocation for the Pro....AKA they actually don't have one coming in yet. Or if you ordered special options (color, packages, options, etc. that are different from the model they had allocated to them to be built), they may actually have one allocated but put in a request for your options and are waiting to hear from Toyota if they accept the build and will build it that way. However, that usually doesn't take a whole week, should take only a few business days at most.

 

When you order a vehicle from Toyota, the vehicle is not actually custom built to your order. The dealer may tell you this, but most likely they do not want to explain the vehicle allocation process that is used by Toyota.

With Toyota, the factory make a static number of vehicle, with the model/style already pre-determined, based on past sales and predicted market demands. Each region is given a certain amount of Tacoma (e.g. SR5, TRD, Pro, LB, SB, DC, AC, etc), then the regions distributes them among the dealerships in its region.

When the dealer make an order, it is actually a "preference request" for that dealer to request a vehicle matching your order in the pipeline/allocation. If a match is found this vehicle will now go to your dealership for them to sell to you. If a match is not found, they will have to wait for the next batch of allocation to come out (every 2 weeks) to see if any of these Tacoma matches your preference. This will continue until eventually a match is found. Also, if a Pro is in your region's allocation but not going to your dealer, that dealer has the option to release this vehicle to your dealership.

So when the dealership told you that its on hold, that means they did not find one in allocation readily available to sell to you. When they find a match, Toyota will then accept the order.

Hope this makes sense

 

Depends on the hold. If it's a cash hold you may want to get your deposit back and find another dealer. The dealer could be changing ownership so they will put a temporary hold on allocating them units until the ownership is finalized.

 

Okay thank you very much for the reply, that makes sense! Hmm. Well this is for a manual transmission. I wonder why he still doesn't know a full week after the fact? Any suspicions?

 

From what I understand it will be a minute before manual pros are built.

 

All of this makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the complete and thorough reply! So since I ordered a manual tranny, and they likely haven't built any manual tranny pros yet, is that why they don't have an allocation locked in? Like does the truck have to have been built first?

Thanks !

 

Toyota has to agree to build the truck first and agree to send it to your dealer.

The most likely scenario is that your dealer knows they are getting a Pro, have submitted their request to Toyota for your configuration, but Toyota has not agreed to build it yet.

 

Manual transmission are rare, so it may be a while before the factory makes this vehicle....maybe a couple months, if your lucky, they may make it next week. But again, you have to wait for the factory to decide when the MT will be built.

 

Makes sense! I wonder if there are any other MANUAL PRO orderees on here who have recorded a build date or an estimated delivery date? My 01 Dakota is on its last leg, so I hope it's not TOO long!

 

I think there is a 2017 Pro thread somewhere on here. I'm sure there are others that have ordered one with a manual. By the way, good job going manual, keep it alive! The manual transmission in this truck is really nice and really lets you exercise the peak torque/power band properly!

 

I'll bet 25% of the Pros will be MT, of that split into the color and options you want. Not to dash your hopes but it could be awhile before you get the specific truck you want depending on all those factors.

 

I concur, this is the reason why I said it may take couple months before his order is accepted.

 

Crap that will suck. Would it be that long before Toyota would even say yes or no? Or would they grant it, and I would just have to wait for a long time to get it?

 

I assume they build manual Pro's in batches, so they will say yes when they are going to run a batch of manuals and then when it is done you just have to wait the normal amount of time as if it were any other Tacoma being delivered to you.

 

Manual Pro's are landing at dealerships!

 

Depends on how specific the order is. If it's a Pro with manual in any color and option they get it may not be too long. If it's a specific color with additional tech and port installed options it could be longer, sometimes a lot longer depending on your market. If you live in a high demand area with lots of dealers that gets a lot of trucks your area might get a preference. If you live in WY or ND where you might have 1 dealer in 100 miles you could be waiting awhile.

 

You have one already? Did know they were touching down already. I haven't heard of anyone with one yet.

 

Put a deposit on an allocated one mths ago, just landed today! SE market.

 

CRAP REALLY? That's great news! Man I hope Midwest guy can find me one ASAP!