u/relrickman

Shake Shack gift cards are back at Costco - $80 for $100 in GCs. Haven’t seen them in a while so happy they’re back!

Just wanted to share my experience negotiating a Grand Highlander Hybrid XLE this week in the Chicagoland area in case it’s helpful for anyone else. I was looking for any color but silver/red and as little factory add ons as possible.

First I did a search on the Toyota website for all GHH XLEs that were allocated but not already reserved in a 250 mile radius. I reached out to a few dealerships and initially nobody would budge off MSRP. I found a dealer (St Charles Toyota) that was advertising $1500 off a Blueprint XLE with minimal add ons and got their OTD pricing. I used that to shop around to some other dealerships which is where things started opening up. I talked to every dealer in a 250 mile radius with an allocated GHH XLE that fit my criteria and ended up talking to probably 15 dealerships. Here are the best deals I found:

1. Elgin Toyota - gave a $3,054 discount once I mentioned the St Charles price. This specific car seemed to be the only one they’d do that deal on and I’m guessing it was to beat St Charles who is nearby and had the exact same model for $1500 off. They required a $1000 non refundable deposit that had to be done in person. Overall they were pretty easy to work with but didn’t end up going with them because we decided the bench seat wasn’t going to work for us.

2. Toyota Racine - initially wouldn’t budge on MSRP but once I brought the other offer they gave $1,818 off MSRP. Working with them was really straightforward and they didn’t add on any kind of fees. They also let me put my deposit down over the phone. Ended up going with them since this car had the captains chairs.

3. Advantage Toyota River Oaks - their website advertised $1100 off MSRP and I was able to negotiate them to $2100 off MSRP. When they sent their OTD pricing it had a bogus $900 fee added on that they wouldn’t remove.

4. Toyota St Charles - initially advertised the $1500 off. I don’t think this dealership typically negotiates their online advertised price - they were easy to work with. This one also had a bench seat and ended up not working for us.

Pretty much every other dealership maxed out at $1k off and most wouldn’t budge at all on MSRP.

Ultimately could have saved a good deal more had we been flexible on the 2nd row bench seat. Still fairly happy with the price we got. Final OTD was around $52,700 for a wind chill pearl XLE. Hopefully someone else was able to take advantage of that $3k off!