Toyota dealer says that SE model 5 speed manual not available in California??

[tooter]

I was told by a Toyota sales manager that only 1.5% of Yaris sold are 5 speed manuals because no one wants to bother with shifting. So it appears that the sticks are just being avidly sought after by a very small segment of the buying public...

...but you'd never know that from reading this forum!

[muffin_top]

Originally Posted by Yaris SE Runner

I had the same problem in Niagara Falls NY.
1st dealer I delt with, sure we can order you a 2012 SE White 5sp it will be 6-8 wks. Put down a deposit.After 8 wks sorry we keep putting in the order and Toyota rejects it, heres your deposit back.
2nd dealer same thing
3rd dealer same thing
after 6 months of trying to get my hands on a White SE 5sp got a line on one in Mass. called the dealer they gave me $500 off sticker price with out even asking. Wired the money down to the dealer, they fedexed the title back to me. Then had a friend with his Prius drive me 550 miles to pick it up and I drove it home.
Finally got my hands on a 2012 White Yaris SE 5sp.
now the fun begins.
The cars a blast to drive stock, seats are great. looks and handles sweet, and only going to get better.

I was getting ready to fly to Ca. for a 2012 White Yaris SE 5sd. before I got a line on the one in Mass.
I flew to Tacoma Washington for my 93 Toyota 4x4 pick up with 45000 miles on two yrs ago and drove it home.
Flew to Chicago to pick up my new 2005 Toyota Rav 4 limited white, sunroof
Had to threaten Toyota dealer reps from Ca. with a law suit to get my hands on my 2000 Tacoma 4x4 xtra cab limited, they said they didn't ship the Limited past Mississippi.
1992 Toyota Paseo just drove 100 mile to get that one.

Congrats on the white 5sp SE, we have the same car! Did your car come from Route 44 Toyota in Raynham Mass?? That would be crazy!

I had the same problem ordering mine and I work for Toyota! We tried changing an allocated unit to white SE 5sp and the order was cancelled. After a couple of calls to the regional office we were told a special order was needed and would take roughly 100-110 days. Umm, no. After doing a locate we discovered that a socal dealer had two inbound white SE's but they were sitting on a dock in Japan, headed to a different port and could not be flipped into our inventory because Calif has a different port that we midwest folks. Fail.

Literally there were 18 SE 5MT in any color available in 48 states during the two weeks we looked. Mine was at one dealer and traded to another when it flipped up in the locate screen. I had to truck it to Chicago area from Boston at a cost of $600 and the other dealer demanded an Avalon from our next allocation. Ouch!

Our rep figured by the model matrix that perhaps less than 250 will make it here as it is less than a percent of the total build of Yaris. Auto's are even somewhat rare. One of our drivers liked my car so much he bought a white automatic and the sales department is having a hell of a time getting one.

IIRC the locate for in stock units in early May looked like this for 5MT SE:

White 2 (one in MA and one in AZ)
Red 6
Silver 3
Black 4
Grey 1 (almost bought this one as it was close for trading, Missouri)
Teal 1
Blazing Blue 1
Wave Line 1

I kinda want to check the locator again and see what is where.. We were checking it twice a day for a month!

[12 yaris]

That was the reason I purchased an at.,just in case I decided to sell mine...

[DeathBeard]

[tooter]

Ok...



Is it a little less worthless now?

[muffin_top]

Originally Posted by DeathBeard

[Yaris SE Runner]

No I got mine from Falmouth Toyota, but they did have a second white SE 5sp that they Dealer traded at about the same time I bought mine.
sir ur twin pipes look sooooo sweet. Thats what I wanted and to do, till I got an SE. My original purchase was going to be a 3dr LE, till I seen, sat in and drove the SE, rear disc brakes was the big pusher. They even just look so cool. I already looked into swapping front bumpers, the suspension is a easy thing to do, but loved the tires and rims, the I call a sweet looking sport rear bumper some call fake air diffuser, front seats were the other main pusher, rear disc brakes make the thing stop so flat and nice, even with the drums in the rear it did , even the LE seats fit very nice. And it wasn't long till I fell for the SE 5 door as a total package, and not have to play with body parts, suspensions, tire and rims. YET.

[why?]

Originally Posted by Yaris SE Runner

No I got mine from Falmouth Toyota, but they did have a second white SE 5sp that they Dealer traded at about the same time I bought mine.
sir ur twin pipes look sooooo sweet. Thats what I wanted and to do, till I got an SE. My original purchase was going to be a 3dr LE, till I seen, sat in and drove the SE, rear disc brakes was the big pusher. They even just look so cool. I already looked into swapping front bumpers, the suspension is a easy thing to do, but loved the tires and rims, the I call a sweet looking sport rear bumper some call fake air diffuser, front seats were the other main pusher, rear disc brakes make the thing stop so flat and nice, even with the drums in the rear it did , even the LE seats fit very nice. And it wasn't long till I fell for the SE 5 door as a total package, and not have to play with body parts, suspensions, tire and rims. YET.

Too funny, that is right down the street from me. Not surprising they gave you $500 off to begin with, most people around here are far leftists and they love buying prius to spite the oil companies even though they are really spiting themselves.

So are you loving it so far?

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by shibasmith

Got mine in the Bay Area, San Rafael, and they continue to have 5-speed SEs in stock today (I glanced in a couple of new ones on the lot when was in there the other day). Didn't realize they were so hard to find, as that was the first dealership I went to when I started looking.

I think mostly you are just getting the runaround because many Toyota dealers will no longer stock manual-shift cars. Luckily, a few still do, so you just need to seek them out.

I got my oil changed once at that dealer (the place I went to a few other times on the other side of 101 was closed...I used to live in Tam Valley) and I also purchased a few accessories there. They seemed like 'Good Eggs', so to speak. I was also impressed by the high ratio of manual transmission cars to total cars when compared to other Toyota dealers. Just listening to how a traditional automatic transmission performs in many areas within Marin (compared to the same car in a flat area), I would guess that a PROPERLY DRIVEN manual transmission car on the same terrain would require less maintenance, and that this would be even more the case with a Yaris.

[NJ Drive]

Originally Posted by Yaris SE Runner

No I got mine from Falmouth Toyota, but they did have a second white SE 5sp that they Dealer traded at about the same time I bought mine.

I know this is a shot in the dark, but I saw another white SE last Friday in Mass.(20 minutes away from Gillette Stadium). Was it you?