Toyota to get tough on scalpers

Toyota Australia has called on authorities to help it do more to protect consumers from the dramatic increase in scalpers attempting to cash in on the unprecedented demand for new cars amid the global supply chain crisis.

The Australian auto market leader’s sales and marketing chief Sean Hanley said Toyota and government both have a role to play in stamping out the practice of new-car buyers on-selling or ‘flipping’ their vehicles for large profits, pushing up transaction prices and potentially extending wait times for many.

The average delivery waiting times for many new models like the Toyota RAV4 remains about 12 months and Toyota Australia’s order book for the GR Yaris and LandCruiser 70 Series remains closed while demand outstrips supply for the foreseeable future.

A similar situation occurred with the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, wait times for which have reduced from over 12 months to about eight months, leading to extensive profiteering by owners of new and used examples.

There are several brand-new high-spec (Sahara ZX and GR Sport) LC300s currently listed on carsales for more than $150,000 – well above their sub-$138K list prices, for example.

Prices are even higher for used 300 Series vehicles, with dozens of near-new, low-mileage examples currently listed by both private sellers and dealers with $170K-plus price tags.

Now Toyota says it’s looking for ways to discourage opportunistic resellers who “short-cycle” their near-new vehicles to make a quick profit, even if many buyers are prepared to pay well over list price to avoid long waiting times.

“It's disturbing to think we have a few short-cycling our cars to make money. We need to protect our customers as best we can from those types of behaviours,” said Hanley.

“We want this situation changed. We want customers to pay a fair and reasonable price based on the manufacturer’s retail price.”

According to Hanley, Toyota Australia is investigating different mechanisms “within the legalities of Australian consumer and competition law” to ensure bone-fide customers pay fair prices for their new vehicles.

“We're looking at a whole load of processes now,” he said.

“Used cars are a different matter. But for a new car, we don’t want customers paying over the odds. We intend to investigate everything we can within the legalities of Australian consumer and competition law.

“I urge governments and authorities to please consider this proposition and what’s happening in the market now, because we’re all about protecting consumers. Yet we’re seeing this going on, so we’ve got to work together to say ‘hey, this has got to stop’.

“It's important we take a leadership on this now as we've spent decades building trust around our brand.

“That’s why it’s so deeply important we take that leadership position [to stamp out] any sort of price gouging, any sort of price scalping. We’ve got to stop that. Not only at Toyota, but as an industry.”

Hanley stopped short in discussing exactly what measures will be introduced and ruled out Toyota Australia itself verifying the intentions of individual customers.

And for those accusing dealers themselves of price gouging, Hanley said all Toyota Australia dealers are governed by legally-binding policies, industry standards and trading agreements and that they will continue to abide by the recommended retail price.

Some car dealerships in Japan and North America require customers to sign documents agreeing not to on-sell their vehicle within a certain timeframe for a quick profit, but similar arrangements are illegal in Australia.

“We are acutely aware of the legalities around these sorts of activities,” said Hanley.

“But it’s something that I think we’ve got to challenge, because we have governance around what we can and can’t do to protect consumers in terms of pricing and in terms of warranties.”