Toyota ‘Estimated Delivery’ dates

Is Toyota pretty good at getting their cars and trucks delivered on time? I ordered a new Tacoma and have heard some bad stories about people waiting months past their ‘estimated’ delivery dates. Just trying to prepare myself. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

You didn't order a tacoma.
Salesman may have told you you did but you're waiting on an allocation.

Once you have a vin, estimated delivery date on the toyota site seems to move back and forth.
Mine finally settled on 1/18 and arrved 1/10.

hope yours shows up sooner than later.

 

He is correct. Toyota sells to distributors, which then sell to dealers. When you place an order with a dealer, it simply goes to the distributor who will then tell the dealer when whatever you want will be available to give the dealer. Depending on the uniqueness of your spec depends on when the distributor will have some available for the dealer.
You will never order a Toyota directly from the factory and neither will your dealer. They leave that part out

 

This. I intercepted an allocation in October and put my deposit on a temporary VIN October 21st. My build date was 11/7, eventually drifted to 11/23, after which I got a permanent VIN on 12/3. My delivery date was 12/29 - 1/6 which kept drifting with it coming in 2/8 and me taking delivery 2/10. You are not ordering. You are accepting an allocation that you have agreed to in terms of options, color, configuration, etc.

 

You heard correct, delivery is a challenge, to say the least.
It’s getting better, but nearly everything is behind.

 

Patience is a virtue. It comes when it comes. My dealer told me the day before my 2022 arrived.

 

I tend to "order" vehicles and rarely buy off the lot. Usually they given initial estimate which is pretty broad, "sometime in February" but when February came closer they narrowed down to the week. Cars have never shown up on the day that they say it will. Almost always get a call from the excited sales guy telling me to come in right now because they're unloading it from the truck.

 

Thank you all for the information. I understand, perhaps, that there is a side of me that is childishly excited, but there is also a side of me that’s thinking, ‘This is 2023 - I believe they could do a little better, Logistically, and also informing people so they know what’s going on’.
This ‘temporary’ Vin number they gave me isn’t a match to anything on their site. Literally says invalid. I guess it is what it is, and thank you again for your responses.

 

The temporary VIN number will not match anything, because the ones on their site are permanent VINs. The temporary VIN has a letter in the last 4 digits, which will go away and a permanent VIN will replace it when it is finished being built.

 

Thank you Barrister,

I guess what’s confusing me is, do I have to request the real VIN number from the dealership? I wasn’t given anything from them in terms of a Build Date, or anything like that - just an estimated delivery date - and fake VIN, lol.

 

If they gave you a bona fide temporary VIN, 2 of the last 4 digits indicate the build week (I forget the exact sequence). If you truly have the right to their allocation they can give you a temporary VIN. If they can’t give you a temporary VIN, you have no allocation and are essentially wishing on a star that they will eventually have what you want allocated to them “some day.”

 

Why not deal on a truck sitting on the lot and drive away today?

 

None of the lots have the premium Off Road that I was looking for. It’s crazy.

 

Well, if it really means that much to you… I guess. Good luck!

 

It's actually not a bad system Toyota has and the reason is their limited model and option offerings compared to a Ford. This way, the distributor can order basically every possible combination, the manufacturer can then schedule it and everyone is happy. However, this means that one customer might get what he wants in two weeks and the next customer might wait nine months!

 

There aren’t any new Tacomas on lots within 250 miles of me….and most of the allocations are already claimed as well. I had to search the Toyota inventory search and go all the way out to 500 miles to find an allocation similar to what I wanted. Then I had to reach out to each dealer and found one that didn’t have the allocation spoken for and put my deposit down. It was crazy for a model that has been around since 2016 in its current form. It was the same with Ford Rangers as well. None on lots. I think Ford Ranger was due to being built as same place as the Bronco and the production of an overpriced SUV was prioritized over the truck. For test drives to decide on the truck I wanted. I had to test drive used trucks and I had to be quick to call and test drive because they usually disappeared quickly as well. And for Tacomas the used price was only like 2k less than new and they typically had 40k+ miles. The only midsize truck I could find new vehicles on the lot was a Nissan Frontier.

 

Once you get a permanent Vin number, it's in final assembly or probably even built. Then comes rail shipping to the "port" for added accessories. Then truck shipping to the dealer.
Shipping can be quick or delayed.

 

then the dealer needs to PDI,,, but dealers are having labor and storage issues. When they had a manageable steady supply stream, dealers used to PDI vehicles right then and there to move them. But with shortages, often vehicles are coming in waves, so they go from none to a couple trucks loads. Now they have to store/stage these vehicles, PDI them,,,, all while every customer wants theirs before the other, because they have been waiting so long.

 

I’m going for a nap

 

Dealer estimated an allocation for me with a 7-9 month wait time, got one at 8 months. Once mine was built the delivery dates were on the money.