Southeast Toyota Distributors?

Why does Southeast Toyota Distributors and/or Gulf Coast Distributors exist? They seem to be an extraneous organization for Toyota that does nothing but increase the frustration and cost of Toyota vehicles for consumers with no real benefit to Toyota. They add many distributor add-ons that become part of the Sticker Price and in reality they have to do nothing like Toyoguard Platinum, etc. I guess someone in Toyota USA is getting some payoff from these distributors for Toyota not to eliminate them. In 1960 America maybe Toyota needed them; however in 2023 Toyota doesn’t need a distributor to sell cars, when Toyotas almost sell themselves.

 

I am sure they are profit center, so they remain. If they weren't generating revenue,,,, there would be change. In other words, the reason the mothership likes them, as the same reason you do not.

 

They are a distributor that was created many years ago when Toyota wanted to break into the US market.
And yeah, they suck.

 

I bought three Toyotas from southeast Toyota in Alabama and Florida, each time they had some type of bullshit port installed garbage that you couldn’t delete.

My 2001 4Runner came with the shitty liftgate spoiler and Reese hitch, my 2007 FJ cruiser came with Pirelli scorpion tires on BBS rims instead of the steel wheels that I assume they stole but still gave me the center caps for, and my 2013 4Runner had a mysterious button that said “security!” and turned red when you pushed it and all it did was cause the door locks to have seizures and the little electric car motors inside them to burn out.

 

^^This. Southeast Toyota Mafia was established in 1968 as a partnership with Toyota to help expand their US market presence. No doubt that it's another layer that adds on average $1-2k to the price of each truck for overpriced stuff you don't need and adds very little value. They will never go away, they are too entrenched in the supply chain and sales process.

 

I live in the Southeast region of Toyota, but I always travel up north as the pricing is always a bit cheaper (even with "forced" add-on accessories) for Central Atlantic dealers [image attached]. I want to say Southeast Toyota also has their accessories priced higher than any other region.

I've always had my best luck at smaller dealers in Pennsylvania with little add-ons and no markups. I bought my Supra from Fitzgerald Toyota Chambersburg, PA; it had ZERO accessories and MSRP!

The worst part of Southeast Region is nearly all those cars come with $699 Toyoguard Platinum option, which in my opinions, is such a waste of money if you'll be doing DIY maintenance. Now, per my experience, you can get lucky and find a dealer in Southeast Region that may have ordered a car bare bones (not even Toyoguard); usually these dealers are smaller and will have very limited allocations compared to bigger dealers.

 

Toyota southeast is garbage BUT when I purchased my 2021 the dealer removed all of the "port added" options including Toyota platinum care. If you are pre-ordering an allocation ask for the port options to be removed. I don't know why my dealer did this as it doesn't seem in their best interest but they did.

 

This may work with certain trims. Unfortunately, i've not been lucky to get stuff off after 30+ dealerships calls for a TRD Pro; everyone refused to remove any options even before the car was built! Some dealers even wanted a non-refundable deposit for a so called "pre-configured truck" even though they didn't have an allocation for one yet. I did have a dealer that tried to sell me an SR5 and they could remove all options from those...but that's about it.

 

There are 5 Toyota distributors in America vs 1 for honda/mazda/nissan.

Its just how they got everything organized in the 60s.

Southeast toyota is dramatically worse than Gulf States Toyota. Use your phone, you can get better deals.

 

https://www.forbes.com/profile/dan-friedkin/

 

I thought I read that Toyota manages delivery and distribution in all areas outside Southeast Toyota Distributors (J Moran) and Gulf States Distributors (Friedkin). That’s why DragonPro23 can’t track deliveries of these two distributors.

 

Even if you are letting the dealer do the maintenance, the couple of extra oil changes, tire rotations, and some Scotchguard aren't worth anywhere near the $700 they are charging for the Toyoguard Platinum.

 

I don't know all the details, but I had to go to a Lexus dealership to take care of my lease because southeast Toyota doesn't work with Toyota finance among other things. Southeast Toyota is a serious rip-off on most things for reasons I just don't understand.

I called up the dealership in my home town in MS and did everything over the phone and bought the taco sight unseen. Then they got in the truck and drove it to Florida.

Compare that with a stealership in Florida that tries to bully you every time you show up at the dealership, and the region packages are all overpriced with undesirable shit.

I've been to two local dealerships in CFL and both did terrible job and both told me my aftermarket stuff wasn't covered and refused to rotate the wheels as part of the service. Both claimed they washed the truck when I could write my name in the door grime, and I had to learn how to reset my service light myself because service was absolutely sub par.

Although I have had great mail order experiences with cobb Toyota in Georgia somewhere, I would avoid Southeast Toyota dealerships like the plague.

 

It sucks but from a manufacturers point of view it is a lot easier to deal with distributors than have to manage a gazillion independent dealers. They build each distributors bulk orders, ship em out and they are done, the distributor takes on the back and forth with all the individual dealers.

 

The worst. I was able to negotiate Toyoguard off my truck and the other bullsh*t options like the windshield key entry.

 

If you want a Tacoma in the Southeast you must first kiss the distributor’s ring, and they’ll gladly install three 10 cent LED interior bulbs for $209, conveniently added to the sticker. Toyota would be ashamed of this behavior if they weren’t making so much money.

 

Fortunately my truck is a 2021 and I only drive about 6-7,000 miles a year, so this truck is set up to keep for the long haul. If I ever have to do it again for some unforeseen circumstance though, I will be doing a fly and drive and use a dealer outside the Southeast Toyota Mafia area so I don't have to pay Tony his taste.

 

Southeast Toyota is known for ripoffs like the predator package, where they take a base model, put a TRD grill, some wheels, and “predator” aluminum steps, which they advertise as rock rails and then raise the price by $8000.

They have also invented other packages which mostly involves putting TRD grilles and wheels on SR5 4Runners and SR Tacomas, and then jacking up the price by a few thousand dollars.

I have also caught them trying to sell me a cabin air filter service for $60 by showing me a filthy cabin air filter that clearly wasn’t from my truck because I usually write the date when I changed it on it in sharpie and this filter wasn’t even the kind you put in the 4runner.

That’s not even counting their bullshit Fidelity warranty service, their bullshit financing plans, and how they are technically not Toyota but they are Toyota but if you have any complaints, you have to go through some shady ass mediation law firm instead of Toyota.

 

Exactly. Y'alls anger isn't with Toyota corporate, it's with this dbag right here that owns it...and subsequently, forces y'all in the SET region to buy his marked-up, add-on garbage.

 

That part there is a way around. I got a Toyota Platinum VSA from a dealer in MA at a great price. They have no problems selling to a Florida (or other SETD state) resident. They just can't finance it through TFS. So as long as your willing to pay the cost out of pocket no problem.