[pyroman2000]

I heard terrible news over the weekend. I went to my dealer and he told me toyota went in and shut down TRD from all sales to dealers or the public. He said they were selling parts to the public for cheaper than they would sell them to the dealers and toyco got pissed and went in a shut them down for a while. He said he tried to order a TRD part and his parts guy told him all of this. I know the parts guy really well and he wouldn't make stuff like this up. I havent got any contacts inside trd or toyco so i cant confirm anything but I'm sure ken from sparks would know. As far as I know this is just temporary. Hopefully it isnt true

 

[greg091]

that would suck! i just ordered my tc with the trd springs! i hope i can still get them! i really cant imagine it being true, that would only piss off the customers and make scion loose peoples business.

 

[tenxsixplus9]

I work for Lexus and we use TRD for performance Lexus parts. I'll check into it tomorrow and see whats up. Im waiting for the supercharger to be released.

 

[OliverThomas]

Originally posted by tenxsixplus9@May 30 2005, 09:29 AM
I work for Lexus and we use TRD for performance Lexus parts. I'll check into it tomorrow and see whats up. Im waiting for the supercharger to be released.

Lol. Arent we all waiting.

Saw a cobalt on the road today, kid was checkin out my tC. The Cobalt looks very generic to me. He tried to convince me he had the supercharger, but i knew he didn't.

My dealership told me that they didnt' know anything about TRD being frozen today when I asked.

 

[greg091]

well that sounds good

 

[LaVaism]

Okay I don't know why but to me that just sounds weird.

If Toyota owns TRD then they can control the prices and no need to shut them down just make them change the pricing

or

If TRD is a seperate company then they can not stop them from selling to regular customers.

Something just doesn't sound right to me. Plus no business in the world sells to its customers cheaper then what they sell to the dealers. Plus at the dealer I go to I am getting my TRD parts at dealer cost and trust me when I say its a lot cheaper than any online store or what the dealership would have charged me.

 

[pyroman2000]

I talked to ken and he told me what could have happened. TRD is moving to a new warehouse and they had a very large stock of suspension products that they sold at very low prices to whatever dealers wanted them. Well these and online companys sold them for lower than MSRP, which the dealers werent going to do. Most of the dealers didnt even keep a stock of suspension parts so they missed the deal and all of their customers were buying their parts from these other online companys. So the dealers reported this to toyco. So I dont know what happened after that but supposedly thats what caused whatever is going on.

 

[iGod]

Originally posted by LaVaism@May 31 2005, 09:04 AM
Okay I don't know why but to me that just sounds weird.

If Toyota owns TRD then they can control the prices and no need to shut them down just make them change the pricing

or

If TRD is a seperate company then they can not stop them from selling to regular customers.

Something just doesn't sound right to me. Plus no business in the world sells to its customers cheaper then what they sell to the dealers. Plus at the dealer I go to I am getting my TRD parts at dealer cost and trust me when I say its a lot cheaper than any online store or what the dealership would have charged me.

dealer cost certainly isnt cheaper than every outside vendor. even ken was selling trd stuff under my parts cost. and i am a dealer. i ordered parts from him because i couldnt get them cheaper anywhere else, including my own dealership at parts dept cost.

rumor is toyota is taking over trd. and trd needs to be taken over. anyone with a history of toyco vehicles who has looked into trd parts has known this for years. their organization is to be laughed at, their development is always behind the power curve, and by the time the finally get around to releasing something, it usually goes on backorder and is discontinued a short time later. they have fallen short for years, and with any luck, toyota is tired of it. i know i am. four toyotas in a row now, and they cant get sh!t right in a timely fashion to save their lives for any of them.

 

[Eric]

From what I understand, it sounds like the dealers that complained don't like those that can afford to order in bulk at wholesale prices. I'm sure they have every opportunity to compete, but they chose not to & now complain when they can't sell at their higher prices...

 

[iGod]

no doubt that is a part of it. trd loves dealers who stock quantity. those who dont play ball have been known to get the shaft a bit from trd. for example, we dont bulk order trd stuff, as our parts dept just doesnt have the space. that has translated to trd not filling orders on high demand items for dealers like us. ie : when the 3.4L supercharger came out they were back ordered and back ordered. we couldnt get one for our customers to save our lives. but, the same customers were able to find them available within a few days at other dealers who trd sells in bulk to. is the fault all one or the other? no, just another example of how people choose not to work together for the greater good.

 

[wolo]

So this sounds like the prices that Ken and other places have been able to offer won't be around much longer, right?

 

[iGod]

different places are regulated by different bodies. ken's region is governed by SET, and those guys dont play by anyone's rules. if TRD is actually going to be run by toyota, i would imagine that they would set everything as close to the same as possible, which could lead to the end of super bargains. i am trying to find out more info on this whole thing.
ken - you got a beat on any of this?

 

[tenxsixplus9]

I spoke to Bob at TRD today. They are very well up and running and the rumor is bogus. The supercharger for the TC is still being tweaked and will be available in September. He also told me they have 2 tc's with the prototype superchargers on them that they drive around for test purposes. He says it will bump the tc up to 200hp, but nothing on price as of yet.

 

[onefunkyfreshdj]

Some of us on the East Coast will get the chance to see the SC tC in August!!

 

[iGod]

i wont hold my breath for charger. until i see it in my hands, or my parts manager says he has one on the way for me, i wont believe the hype. this thing has been pushed back for a year already. as for still tweaking, it shouldnt need a bit of that at all. it was in the hands of the CARB nazi's a month ago. there are 1200 prototype chargers out there, and i have seen more than one installed one more than one tC in the last year. doesnt mean sh!t. sorry. promises from trd arent worth the breath it takes to spew them.