I Took My 2009 Toyota Corolla With 268K Miles To the Dealer, At First I Was Excited, But I Left Disappointed, I Didn’t Buy A 2025 Toyota RAV4 Or a Corolla Cross

Why new ? If you spend some time in the used car market, you might get lucky. Last year I found an 8-month old, loaded, Rav4 Limited Hybrid AWD that had been owned by a dealer. Metallic blue exterior, camel leatherette interior. Odometer: 18,000 kms; so, tons of Toyota warranty left, not a mark on it, inside or out, and the free Sirius XM trial had never even been activated.

She's been driving her current car for fifteen years, but she can't wait 3 months for the model and options she wants? If expedience of purchase is her driving force, it doesn't really matter what she buys. I'd personally wait the three months, as long as her current car is functional.

For financing, she should start with her own bank. Get refinancing first, for a set amount, and she has a built in bargaining chip. I financed through the dealership twice because it made more sense than the offer I got from a bank.

The Furure is friendly

I bought a 2025 Corolla Cross Nightshade edition which is their hybrid model, and while I did have to wait about 2 months - it was absolutely worth it. I’m so happy with it and it’s entirely black and I get so many compliments - plus, it’s so fun to drive. I get the impatience of not wanting to wait, I too was in a situation where my car needed about $9k in work, and I had to take the bus to/from work while I waited for my new car to be built, but I got a ton of reading done, and again..totally worth it imo.

I really like Toyotas and bought a new Sienna in 2016. It was a great vehicle but buying it was a nightmare. It was so bad that w/o us asking, Toyota sent us $500. The dealer could not answer a couple of basic questions (and Toyota HQ struggled w/ them, also). The dealer lost the order. The dealer lied about the availability of the model we wanted, insisting it wasn't sold in our area. It was; we prevailed.

Recently we bought a Subaru. It better fit our needs nine years on.

I received my RAV4 Hybrid Cruiser 9 months after I ordered it. It is a fantastic car, don’t listen to the knockers, they are probably selling the oppositions cars.
It is well worth the wait. You just have to be patient.

I ordered my corolla cross hybrid. It took a few months, but I got the trim I wanted. I financed through my bank. Never finance through a dealer, unless absolutely necessary.

My 2007 Corolla has 275K miles on it, and my daughters Elantra had 140K, the dealers offered $250 for each, I sold the Elantra for $1900 and decided to keep the Corolla as a second car since it's running great. But it was time to get new cars as sticker prices are going up, we test drove Mazda, Honda and Toyota SUV's. I really wanted the Toyota Stout LOL, or the upgraded 2026 Rav4, but with cost going up it was time now and timing was great, end of month and end of quarter, we hit dealers with existing inventories, and they were motivated to give a deal on two cars from their lots. We got two Honda CR V's for invoice price and low interest loans last week!

I went online and was able (at that time 10/'24) to access the dealers new car inventory with details. I found a new Carrola Cross LE awd/gas that had a white trimed interior and ended up buying it for 32k cash, the dealer pays tax, tags, title. They snatched up that offer. I had alot of buyers remorse and tried to reverse the purchase but no cigar. The sticker price was $29,848
so... I dunno. Anyway, I'm stuck with it.
They insulted me by offering me $1 for my trade, a 2006 Isuzu Ascender
with 152k on it. So, of course, I still have it. Gorgeous old car, all leather, sunroof, fake wood trim, you know, the works. Dealers don't want it but maybe I'll find a private buyer as I'm tired of this insurance rip-off.

The dealer cannot refuse your financing. None of this sounds right. Try different dealers. I bought one last fall. I waited two weeks for one in transit. Go to the Toyota website and search inventory. Go to EBay Motors. There are Toyota dealers with new ones. Get busy, know your rights.

I purchased a used 2020 RAV4 with 54K miles on it. Took 2 months to find the one but I absolutely love it.

I just bought a 2025 Toyota Camry XLE three days ago. I ordered it because they did not have it anything like it at any dealer in the north half of my state. I was told it would take 15 to 45 days to come in and received it in 9. I also financed part of it with Toyota at a rate of 4.99 which I thought was good. I was also able to deal on the price and saved $3,000. I'm totally satisfied!

I just bought a 2025 Toyota Camry XLE three days ago. I ordered it because they did not have it anything like it at any dealer in the north half of my state. I was told it would take 15 to 45 days to come in and received it in 9. I also financed part of it with Toyota at a rate of 4.99 which I thought was good. I was also able to deal on the price and saved $3,000. I'm totally satisfied!

We bought a Toyota Corolla cross in January and yes, we were told we had to wait for up to 7 months. We didn’t mind as we had a choice of colour and accessories to make it our personal car. We were pleased with our choice and understood that financially they couldn’t have stock sitting in the yard that didn’t cover the personal selection they were offering. However we only had a 2 month wait as they had a cancelled order which covered all the details we had asked for. We are very happy with our “ jungle Cross”.

Toyota is well known to slow roll production for perceived rarity. This way they can also jack up the prices to ridiculous amounts

I just bought a new car. I was looking for a hybrid and decided a Toyota Corolla hybrid was the best, but the interest rates were incredibly high (6.99%). I ended up buying a new Hyundai Elantra hybrid because not only was it fully loaded, but the interest rate was 2.99%, much better than what Toyota was offering.
It’s a shame because I have owned Toyotas before and loved them, but they lost me because of interest rates.
II absolutely love my Elantra. It’s a great car and I love all the extras Hyundai gives.

Bought a 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid last August (2024). Did not talk financing as I was going to pay cash. Car was on the lot, didn’t have all the “bells and whistles”, but dealer discounted price somewhat for those two reasons. I also got the dealer to take off an added charge for “dealer installed” options and “floor-plan”, i.e. “added dealer profit!”

Car gets good gas mileage—37 mpg overall so far. Odometer currently at 3500 miles. Generally satisfied with the vehicle but would prefer that be somewhat smaller and have fewer computerized electronics, e.g. lane maintaining, automatic braking, infotainment system (too complicated). Also, I am not at all fond of all-wheel drive—I don’t need it (live in FL), car cannot be towed—has to be transported on flatbed tow truck, and if one tire has a flat or is damaged and needs to be replaced, you have to replace all four tires because of the four wheel drive system design.

I do see a large number of RAV4’s on the road when out and about. Most of them are hybrids. I’m just glad I bought when I did since apparently the RAV4’s are currently in short supply and bound to go up in price.

I'd suggest she look at a Mazda CX 30.. INVENTORY is gre

We purchased a new Prius last summer and it took 5 months to get the car very low inventory and the asking price is it!!

Hit 2 deer in my 2021 RAV 4 in September. Was informed by my insurance company in October it was a complete write off. Test drove the Corolla Cross and just felt it was too small a vehicle. We were so fortunate that while sitting with our sales rep a 2023 RAV 4 came in off lease with 17,000 km on it. Had that car not come in I honestly don't know what we would have done. I thought we were lucky but the more I read about people's difficulty getting a RAV 4 I realize we were really lucky!