Add Another Houston 4R Owner

Hello from Houston. Another 4Runner on the streets.

Good to be a new member and this is the 1st Toyota I've ever owned.

First shot is straight off the truck and the other is post-delivery. Obviously a venture with only a few options, OEM trail rails being one of them. No plans for major mods... going to update the tires with KO2's and she is scheduled for a 1" Bilstein based lift/level with bags on the rear (for leveling when I haul/tow).

I'm probably going to remove the basket until I hit the road for points west.

 

Welcome from Wisconsin!

 

Welcome and congratulations!

 

Welcome from Humble/Kingwood mate! I see you also bought yours at Fred Haas!

Hopefully will see you around.

Cheers,

Sean

 

Welcome from Arizona!

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Same here - I live in the Kingwood area too! The world gets smaller every day, so I'm sure we'll run across one other eventually.

 

Congratulations!!
I’ve had mine for just a month, and love it!

 

Welcome!

 

That looks fantastic! Welcome aboard!

 

Welcome from The Woodlands

 

Thanks every for the resounding welcome.

I started my conservative mod journey today:

• Ordered BFG KO2's 275/70/R17 "shoes" from Discount Tire.
  
• Ordered a modest Bilstein shock based lift/level w/rear air bags; 3 week parts lead time.
  
• She's going to my tint master tomorrow for window treatment.
• Added a "ScanGauge" monitor that I already had on hand.

Those in my area, see you on the streets/trails and see you other good people in the forum!

 

Man that's a good looking 4runner. I swear that's black paint in the first pick, but then the second pic looks blue under the street light. Did you get a good deal on it at Fred Haas? I bought my tundra from there and they seemed decent to work with a few years ago

 

Thank you for the compliment. I'm still in excitement over-shock that I found one.

You are spot on about the blue tint look! I noticed the same thing under that parking lot light, so it must have been the cause for the deceptive coloring.

Yes, FHTW treated me extremely well on the deal even with the crazy "market pricing" going on right now and everything in their pipeline being pre-sold. The biggest thing that I appreciated was them not pushing dealer add-on's. I told them I wanted it plain-jane off the truck and that's exactly what I got. No pushing, no sales tactics, etc.

Haha, they did say "would you PLEASE, at least, let us wash it before you take it home?"

Trust me, I had that delaler add-on ploy pushed on me at another dealership in Houston while 4Runner shopping - i.e. "Sorry, we are required to add gps tracking, window tint, wheel locks, all-season blinker fluid, left-handed exhaust system smoke-shifters, blah blah to every new vehicle...". BUT we will only charge you "our cost" for them.

 

I can actually second this... When I was in the market for my '20 last June, they were starting to get a little scarce. I called around, and everyone had vehicles on their lots that had been 6-8 months old, but not the colour, or features I wanted. Called up Fred Haas, and Jordan, my salesperson jumped on his search. I think he felt badly that he missed on our '20 Tacoma purchase for being too lax with us, when we were serious about purchasing. Called him up, he said he's not going to let us slip from his fingers this time. Found the vehicle within an hour. It was so funny, because before I even said yes to it, he already had it on the flatbed to be delivered. LOL.

They gave us an EXCELLENT deal on the 4Runner, almost 7k off the sticker price out the door. Their Service Department is amazing. Jordan really took care of us and even followed up a few times to check on how it's going.

When we went in, the Fred Haas Finance guy (Carlos) was no pressure, no BS. We already had our cheque in hand, and he wasn't about selling us any BS. They're super professional and I like the way they work.

---

Now on the flip side, we bought our Tacoma from Mike Calvert, and boy was that a headache. The Finance Manager (Peyo Polarski) was a sleazy piece of shit, attempting to insult my partner and I a few times, calling us "cheap" for coming to buy outright rather than dealing with his financing and upcharging, and almost getting abusive until I had to put my foot down. The Sales Manager was trying to sell us some cheap shit version of Lojack, and ended up ARGUING with him to take the thing off the price, and was also trying to steal our Toyota rebate. We ended up also outsmarting them, but not without leaving with a migraine. They (Mike Calvert) were the scammers of the Toyota dealers we've dealt with in Houston, and highly advise against dealing with them. We don't even take the Tacoma there for the maintenance... We go to Fred Haas!! LOL!

Cheers,

Sean

 

Fred Haas knocked of $6k from sticker price on my tundra and didn't try to sneak in accessory charges like gullo toyota did back in 2017. $7k off sticker for a 4runner even before the shortage is a crazy good deal.

 

Absolutely, and it looks like now they've got customers for life! (that is until management changes and messes it all up)

Cheers,

Sean

 

If i can ever get back into a toyota it'll definitely be at Fred Haas.

 

Interesting. I left the dealership name out of my "less than stellar" experience (to prevent this thread from turning into a dealer bash-a-thon. I will, however, share that your experience with the "off-brand LoJack" dealer-add was from that very same dealership. Thankfully, they had no allocation or inbound to make a deal on. They *were* very willing to sell me a "manager demo" 4Runner 2WD SR5 with "only" 1000 miles on it (for 4K above MSRP).

I had the pleasure to work with Jordan too, but only as an alternate since my sales guy (Jimmy) was out of the office. Jordan was spot on and was able to help me nail down the date my 4R was going to be on the lot. He also helped with getting me info on the lift/level also.