Buying from a Distant Dealer

Muddygriff

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📛 Founding Member
Aug 29, 2024
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Chicago Suburbs
Vehicles
Lancruiser
Hello all. I currently have a hold on an incoming LC to a dealer a few hundred miles away. I’m in Chicago and no dealers here seem to be getting 18” wheels and I want to off road with it. Is purchasing from a dealer that far away going to cause problems if I have issues with the vehicle? I’ve assumed the warranty is the warranty regardless of dealer, but now that I’m actually doing the purchase this way I’m a bit worried I’ll have issues if there are issues :)
 
Any Toyota dealer will do warranty work regardless of where you bought it. As far as distance, you can have it shipped if you want to minimize the miles or you can fly over and drive it home. If you drive it, make sure you have AAA and follow the break-in rule "under 55mph for 500 miles".
 
Any idea how to and how much it would cost to transport the LC from Kentucky to Chicago? I don’t want to get off on to a bad start with the machine by driving it a long distance and for extended time. I could certainly suck it up and just do the drive stopping every hour and keep it at 55mph…but I’d like the Mrs to go with me for this :)
 
Talk to your dealer to see if they ship. They can make all the arrangements & roll the cost into your loan. Could be $800 to $1500.
 
The dealer has offered zero help. I can just suck it up and do a long drive home. I’m also thinking of other options. I’m not in a huge hurry. I can wait for what fits best to my needs.
 
The dealer has offered zero help. I can just suck it up and do a long drive home. I’m also thinking of other options. I’m not in a huge hurry. I can wait for what fits best to my needs.
There are 3 main car shippers - google it and request quotes from them.
 
Probably cheaper to fly and drive than ship. I bought mine from a dealer about 200 miles away, I rented a one way car and drove the LC home.
 
Based on the experience I had with a Lexus dealer, I suspect Toyota handles allocation volume credit differently when a dealer sells outside their “territory.” My Lexus guy wanted my zip code and that was why.

This is not at all the way BMW behaves in my experience, and might explain why your dealer is being non-cooperative.
 
I flew from NY to Boston and drove mine back. All NY dealers wanted a premium.

Took my dad. Was a nice little trip for us.
 
It’s just frustrating there are NO 18” wheels in the Chicago area. Not about 100 miles anyway, and those are few between. And the dealers won’t swap out the 20’s, either. The Schaumburg Toyota dealer had a pair of 18’s and would swap, but I was going to have to still pay the $1290 for the 20’s, and he had the balls to look at me like I was crazy for saying that was crazy.
 
Hello all. I currently have a hold on an incoming LC to a dealer a few hundred miles away. I’m in Chicago and no dealers here seem to be getting 18” wheels and I want to off road with it. Is purchasing from a dealer that far away going to cause problems if I have issues with the vehicle? I’ve assumed the warranty is the warranty regardless of dealer, but now that I’m actually doing the purchase this way I’m a bit worried I’ll have issues if there are issues :)
Hey how are you ? I work in a Dealer in Chicago I just got my LC last week, we have two first edition in transit and one 1958 both are blue and 1958 black let me know if I can help you with something you can tx me at 786–443-1412
 
The dealer has offered zero help. I can just suck it up and do a long drive home. I’m also thinking of other options. I’m not in a huge hurry. I can wait for what fits best to my needs.
I flew about 500 miles to pick up ours and drove it home. Not a bad option.
 
I drove about 4 hours/200 miles to pick mine up. FE of the color I wanted with no mark up. Enjoyed the drive home too. Took it easy and stopped a few times.
 
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