So I guess we won't be driving a Yaris...

[Thirty-Nine]

It's quite frustrating, eh?

The way it was explained to me is that Toyota figures out what the most popular option packages are (possibly by region?), and decides it'll sell those in specific areas. Take rates on manual transmission cars are about 8% across the board; small cars are a bit higher.

As someone else mentioned earlier on in the thread, Toyota (and most other manufacturers) don't make much profit at all on small cars, so they don't prioritize them. To me, this is short-term thinking with regards to sales. A lot of people will return to a dealer (and or recommend family/friends to a dealer) or recommend a certain car brand because of a good experience. Maybe you've heard people say, "You have a good experience, you tell five people. You have a bad experience, you tell 500 people."

My guess is your dealer could probably have put out a locator on the car you wanted, even if it was outside of your area so they could get you what you wanted. You may have had to pay (or negotiate your way out of paying) a transportation fee to bring the car to your area. However, it doesn't sound like that option was even offered up.

[J_Lynn]

Originally Posted by Thirty-Nine

It's quite frustrating, eh?

The way it was explained to me is that Toyota figures out what the most popular option packages are (possibly by region?), and decides it'll sell those in specific areas. Take rates on manual transmission cars are about 8% across the board; small cars are a bit higher.

As someone else mentioned earlier on in the thread, Toyota (and most other manufacturers) don't make much profit at all on small cars, so they don't prioritize them. To me, this is short-term thinking with regards to sales. A lot of people will return to a dealer (and or recommend family/friends to a dealer) or recommend a certain car brand because of a good experience. Maybe you've heard people say, "You have a good experience, you tell five people. You have a bad experience, you tell 500 people."

My guess is your dealer could probably have put out a locator on the car you wanted, even if it was outside of your area so they could get you what you wanted. You may have had to pay (or negotiate your way out of paying) a transportation fee to bring the car to your area. However, it doesn't sound like that option was even offered up.

That is so true, the reason that I bought a 2nd Yaris was because I had such a great experience with the 1st - so figure that first $17,600 sale doubled because just 3 years later they made another $18,300 on me when they sold me my LB .... all because I had a great experience with the dealer and Toyota in general and I really see no reason to change once you have a good thing going with a brand/dealership. And because of my new dealership being as awesome as the fist one was, my next new car will be a Toyota also.

It's really too bad that OP had such a bad experience ... because they are such fun cars to own :)