Don't let paying 'bribes' to buy a car become a 'habit'

Step into a Toyota dealership, spend billions to buy a Land Cruiser or Prado, the dealer clearly lists the car price but customers who want to buy it will not have the product if... they lack the "bribe" of 500 - 800 million VND.

A car delivery fee calculation table with a "early car delivery brokerage fee" of 550 million VND - Photo: TTO

Tuoi Tre has had a series of investigative articles about the "Underground World" of selling Toyota luxury cars. It sounds like a joke but it's true, and is happening at many Toyota dealerships in Vietnam, especially with imported cars like the Land Cruiser 300.

Tuoi Tre reporters actually visited dealerships in Ho Chi Minh City and recorded many car models with selling prices different from the listed prices.

The phenomenon of "beer and peanuts" is no longer strange to "hot" car models. If you want your car to arrive early, you may have to buy additional accessories, from window film, floor mats to expensive body kits. This "beer and peanuts" cost is fully invoiced.

However, with the Toyota Land Cruiser, you have to pay cash, no receipts, no paperwork. Where that money goes and who gets it is a mystery.

Meanwhile, the answer from Toyota Vietnam is still simple, that the company always adheres to the principle of "first come, first served", there is no policy of forcing customers to pay more money. If there is a problem, just call the hotline, the company will "handle it promptly".

In a response to Tuoi Tre, Toyota Vietnam admitted that Land Cruiser and Prado are "hot" models globally, with high demand so supply is insufficient, but the company did not say specifically how, only promising to "try its best" to improve.

So, many people wonder if this scarcity is an excuse for dealers to raise prices, or is the manufacturer also "letting this situation rest"?

In the Vietnamese automobile market, it is not strange that prices fluctuate according to supply and demand. However, customers have to "bribe" hundreds of millions of dong, pay cash without receipts just to get a car early, that is no longer a normal market.

The press and social networks have been buzzing about customers having to "bribe" hundreds of millions of dong to buy this car line for years, yet the company is still waiting for customer feedback via... hotline.

Agents' staff asked customers not to transfer "bribe" money to the company but to transfer it to individuals, or receive cash, saying no to this hundred million bill. Is this a sign of tax evasion, avoiding the authorities' tracing?

Lawyer Tran Xoa (director of Minh Dang Quang Law Firm) calculated that with 750 million VND "bribe" for each car, the tax loss could be up to 225 million VND, enough to be prosecuted criminally.

Many auto experts say that in Japan or the US, it is rare to see the situation of "paying extra to receive the car early" with Toyota. So why is it different in Vietnam?

Is the car company taking advantage of the Vietnamese people's "Toyota car preference" mentality to ignore an unusual distribution model? The brand reputation, which Toyota has worked hard to build, is now being affected because of things like this.

Consumers need companies to take more specific actions in controlling prices, making distribution transparent, and strictly handling violating agents.

Otherwise, the price to pay is not only consumer frustration but also a scratch on the reputation of a big brand. Do not let the practice of paying hundreds of millions of dong in "bribes" when buying a car become a bad "custom" in the Vietnamese market.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dung-de-chi-tien-lot-tay-mua-xe-thanh-le-20250328074218494.htm