The first few examples of the new 2020 Toyota Supra are starting to hit the car lots and, as with any hotly anticipated new car, that means one thing: the dealers are thirsty.
So far, what we’ve seen isn’t as egregious as the infamous markups on the Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Demon models, or the Honda Civic Type R when it first launched. But there are a few examples out there and we fully expect to see more. If you’re a prospective Supra buyer, you better bring your A-game to the negotiating table, or at least be prepared to travel for the best deal.
First, Motor1 reported that at least one dealership—Jerry’s Toyota in Baltimore—had a Launch Edition Supra listed at $100,000 last week. Though the listing has since been removed for unknown reasons, you can see the attached screenshot as proof.
I found at least one other super-marked up Supra so far too, a car at Jeff Wyler Toyota of Clarksville, Indiana listed for sale at $84,814. That’s about a $30,000 increase over your average Supra, which starts around $50,000. The car has few options and generally should max out around $60,000. But dealers want their slice of the pie too, so expect some big markups early on.
A quick search on Cars.com and AutoTrader reveals that most Supras for sale right now are in fact listed at fairly normal prices. But given how this always goes with in-demand sports cars, I’m confident more steep markups will be on their way.
As Autoblog also reports, the folks at the Supra MKV forum have been tracking U.S. dealers without markups, so that thread is a good resource if you’re shopping. But as our own Tom McParland has written, there’s not much you can do about these markups besides shop elsewhere:
The answer is simple—the automakers can’t control what their dealers sell the car for. A lot of people forget that within MSRP is the word “suggested,” meaning the automaker suggests that the dealer sell that car for the posted price. Where you have more demand than inventory, dealers are going to try to maximize their position use markups.
While I understand the frustration, what people need to keep in mind is that markups happen because there are some people that are willing to pay them. It doesn’t matter if the car is a Porsche 911 GT3 or something “normal” like a Hyundai Kona EV. However, if every potential buyer said “Screw that, I’m not paying a markup.” prices will come down.
Have you seen some crazy Supra markups? Drop them in the comments or send us a tip via email.